Tweet
Hi All,
I was hoping I might get a little advice on the forum; it has been exceedingly helpful already. I am busy drawing up a POC.
I have a dispute which entails a small remainder of a commercial invoice (most paid already) for my services rendered with the owner/director of a limited company (alter ego one man limited company) and a private deal with the same defendant for sale of a 50% share in a boat.
It was at the defendants insistence that payment of the invoice would result from the agreement on the sale of the 50% share in the boat. We then came to an agreement on the boat that the defendant would buy the 50% share.
The defendant then paid the bulk of the commercial invoice from his personal bank account but not for the boat. When queried via text he answered that he would pay the remainder of the invoice but would now need 30 days to pay for the boat. I threatened to end the deal if he did not pay it in a few days (as he has a history of non payment)
I did not end the deal but sent a message some days later saying my keys for the boat had been left for him. He did not reply. 30 days later I reminded him of payment. He messaged back to say I had ended the deal and the boat was still half mine. I have sent correspondence to suggest mediation which was ignored as well as a letter before action which was similarly ignored.
Since the company owes less than £100 and the personal deal of the boat share is well over £3000 I cannot sue both company and private individual due to the fact that the sum when jointly sueing must be the same for both defendants due to CPR.
However since the private individual made a private contract binding the company to a personal deal and paid the invoice from his personal bank account would he now be personally liable for the invoice remainder?
In all our communication via text and email there is no mention of the word Limited, no company name and details on correspondence in contravention of the Companies Act.
I don’t want to get bogged down in the minutiae of piercing the corporate veil so should I just forget about the invoice remainder and just go for the boat payment, or should I claim both as part of a personal contract?
I was hoping I might get a little advice on the forum; it has been exceedingly helpful already. I am busy drawing up a POC.
I have a dispute which entails a small remainder of a commercial invoice (most paid already) for my services rendered with the owner/director of a limited company (alter ego one man limited company) and a private deal with the same defendant for sale of a 50% share in a boat.
It was at the defendants insistence that payment of the invoice would result from the agreement on the sale of the 50% share in the boat. We then came to an agreement on the boat that the defendant would buy the 50% share.
The defendant then paid the bulk of the commercial invoice from his personal bank account but not for the boat. When queried via text he answered that he would pay the remainder of the invoice but would now need 30 days to pay for the boat. I threatened to end the deal if he did not pay it in a few days (as he has a history of non payment)
I did not end the deal but sent a message some days later saying my keys for the boat had been left for him. He did not reply. 30 days later I reminded him of payment. He messaged back to say I had ended the deal and the boat was still half mine. I have sent correspondence to suggest mediation which was ignored as well as a letter before action which was similarly ignored.
Since the company owes less than £100 and the personal deal of the boat share is well over £3000 I cannot sue both company and private individual due to the fact that the sum when jointly sueing must be the same for both defendants due to CPR.
However since the private individual made a private contract binding the company to a personal deal and paid the invoice from his personal bank account would he now be personally liable for the invoice remainder?
In all our communication via text and email there is no mention of the word Limited, no company name and details on correspondence in contravention of the Companies Act.
I don’t want to get bogged down in the minutiae of piercing the corporate veil so should I just forget about the invoice remainder and just go for the boat payment, or should I claim both as part of a personal contract?
