Arizona Republic:  “Corporate officers can be held personally liable in some situations when their defunct firms don’t pay suppliers, the Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled.  The judges maintained that lawsuits against a corporation for failing to pay a debt are valid only against the corporate entity. And when the corporation goes away, the creditors generally cannot go after the individual shareholders  or directors.”  The case is Arizona Tile, LLC, vs. Howard Steven Berger, Cynthia Berger and John McCarthy.

The general rule of Arizona law is that the shareholders, officers and directors of an Arizona corporation and the members and managers of an Arizona limited liability company are not liable for the debts and obligations of the company.  There are, however, many exceptions to this general rule.  This case illustrates one of those exceptions.  Arizona Revised Statutes Section 33-1005 requires contractors who receive payments intended for subcontractors and materialmen to hold the money in trust for the intended payee.  This statute is the basis for imposing liability on the corporation’s officers and directors beca1use they had a duty to see that the money was paid to the proper payee, but instead they paid other corporate debts that the officers and directors had personally guaranteed.  In short they used money intended for Peter to pay the corporation’s debt to Paul because if Paul did not get paid, Paul could collect the debt owed by the officers and directors under their guaranties.