Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Enforcement of Judgment

No. You cannot collect a judgment against a corporate parent from its subsidiary, or vice-versa. The law fully endorses the concept that corporate families can be created to isolate the entities from liabilities of the other. There are rare exceptions to this principle, generally involving fraud with respect to the actual matter that gave rise to the judgment, but pursuing this possibility is not going to be a cost-effective approach, even if it did work. See, for example, Bowoto v. Chevron Texaco Corp. (2004) reported at 312 F.Supp.2d 1229 for a very recent Federal case interpreting California law on this subject.

In my opinion, your best approach is to ask the Canadian parent to acknowledge the judgment against it and pay up voluntarily. To do so would be cheaper for them in the long run than to endure a foreign-jurisdiction collection effort through the Canadian courts, and it would also be subject to possible unfavorable publicity if, for example, you were to record liens against its Canadian assets and properties.

You should approach the parent company's law department or outside counsel and demand payment; if that fails, contact the Canadian trade attache at its San Francisco consular office for general advice on enforcement of U.S. judgments in Canada.