Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

Great question; one which stumps many lawyers. You CAN recover against the owner personally, however, it is extremely difficult to do. In order to, "pierce the corporate veil," you must prove the owner has abused the corporate form and has used his or her company as the medium for perpetuating a fraud. It must be proven by "clear and convincing" evidence, which is a more strict burden than the usual, "fair preponderance of the evidence." If the underlying judgment was for breach of contract, the veil cannot be pierced no matter how egregious the breach. You can also sue the owner personally if he or she has made a fraudulent conveyance in order to circumvent the debt. There are four types of fraudulent conveyance. I won't describe them at length but generally speaking, the judgment debtor cannot transfer a substantial asset to a relative as a birthday gift or sell it to a friend for an unreasonably low price or divest himself of real estate or a large sum of money in a manner which clearly indicates an attempt to avoid paying a debt. Guesswork is not permissible. In order to prove a fraudulent conveyance, the transfer must be fairly obvious. I hope this answer was helpful.