McClesky v. CWG Plastering, LLC

Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment in ERISA action by plaintiff-pension fund to recover unpaid pension payments required under collective bargaining agreement between union and company from which defendant had purchased its assets, where plaintiff asserted that defendant, which was owned by son of owner of company which had sold assets to defendant, was liable for said unpaid pension payments under successor liability and alter-ego theories of liability. Record showed that defendant took on some customers of father’s company, had hired employees of father’s company and completed jobs that had been started by father’s company. While Dist. Ct. found that son’s and father’s companies were too different to impose liability for unpaid pension payments under either successor or alter-ego theories, record contained triable issue with respect to either theory, where on day $196,940.73 judgment with respect to pension payments had been entered against father’s company, defendant-son’s company had registered as Missouri LLC and began work on jobs original given to father’s company, while using employees originally hired by father’s company, including father. As such, reasonable fact-finder could find both common ownership and control between both entities to support liability against defendant.