A-List

INTRODUCTION

A-List Inc. and another corporation A-List later acquired, H-List Inc. (collectively, A-List), owned a retail brand called Kitson. A-List and its founder, Fraser Ross, sued one of A-List’s lenders, Salus Partners LLC, alleging Salus took control of and mismanaged A-List’s business operations. The trial court granted Salus’s motion for summary judgment for one of the two reasons Salus argued it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The court ruled that, because Ross no longer owned shares in A-List, he did not have “standing” or “authority” to direct A-List to file the lawsuit and that therefore neither Ross nor A-List had standing to assert the causes of action in the complaint. A-List (but not Ross) appeals from the ensuing judgment in favor of Salus. We affirm the judgment, but for the other reason Salus moved for summary judgment, which the trial court did not reach: A-List lacked standing to bring its causes of action because it had assigned them to a third party.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. A-List Struggles Financially and Enters into an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors Ross founded the Kitson retail brand in 2000 and formed A-List…