Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Liability for business calls

No; at worst, some dumb-ass lawyer might name you as a co-defendant on a guess that you had something to do with his business, but that wouldn't go far in court. People make business calls from all sorts of telephones, including pay phones, stolen phones, phones at other customers' offices, and so on. I cannot think of any legal principle that allows (in a civil matter) an aspersion of liability to flow from use of a particular subscriber's phone.

Further, if sued, you would have abundant defenses.

On the other hand, you would not be off base by telling Mr. Boyfriend that any successful business oughta have its own phone line. After all, you might take off with his biggest competitor and move to Jamaica or Brazil any day, and where would that leave him?

Seriously, you should shame him into operating his PROFITABLE (???) business on an independent, stand-alone basis.

On the other hand, if the business is pimping, drugs, running numbers or something equally shady, I can't blame him for not wanting a phone line in his own name, and in such cases you should pull his plug at once.