Anthony P. DeMichele successfully defended a real estate holding company and one of its members in the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County. The case was an offshoot of an underlying lawsuit wherein the plaintiff school district filed a lawsuit against several defendants due to alleged defects in the construction of a local high school. One of the defendants in that case was a subcontractor for the project. That subcontractor joined several additional defendants, including a real estate holding company and its members, claiming that the additional defendants were liable under theories of successor liability and fraudulent conveyance. Additionally, the subcontractor attempted to hold the individual members liable under a theory of piercing the corporate veil because it claimed the corporate successor entities were merely sham corporations and the alter egos of the individual members.
Following a seven day bench trial, the Judge entered an opinion and decision in favor of all defendants and against the subcontractor that joined the additional defendants to the underlying construction dispute. The Judge concluded that the subcontractor failed to prove any basis for successor liability, that the subcontractor failed to prove that a fraudulent conveyance occurred, and that the subcontractor failed to prove that any of the corporate entities were sham corporations thus prohibiting the piercing of the corporate veils and denying liability against the individual members.