Q: In the State of FL can a business owner designate himself as officer on the "Authorization of Corporate Officer" form?
The defendant in my lawsuit is "Jane Doe, (D/B/A Jane Doe Services, LLC)". After no agreement was come to in mediation the judge sent an order to the defendant stating they must hire counsel or file a designation of corporate officer. The defendant filled the form out, signed it and named himself as the corporate officer. Is that allowable or does it have to be someone else he's designating?
A:
If it's legitimately a limited liability company, it's unclear why you included "Jane Doe" as the defendant. Unless you have cause to believe that you can "pierce the corporate veil" (in other words get the court to hold "Jane Doe" individually liable), you should have only sued the LLC.
There should be an operating agreement for the LLC setting forth the officers of that company. A LLC is, strictly speaking, not a corporation but rather a different form of business organization. But if the defendant is named in the operating agreement as a person with authority to act for the company, yes, he (I'm assuming it's a male although you name him as "Jane Doe".) can name himself as an officer on the form. If there is no operating agreement, presumably the persons named in the articles of organization would be officers.
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