Legal Question in Business Law in Canada

If a company is no longer in business, is the contract signed with it still good

Hi

My brother (in China) hired a law firm (A) in New York to handle his Canadian permanent residency application. The fee is scheduled in three installments with the last one due upon approval of landing paper. It's been going on for two years, during this period, K is the only person in A that my brother contacted. About 15 month ago, K moved to Toronto and gave a new phone number but didn't say anything else. Last week K said that she got the landing paper and asked him to pay the final installment to another firm B which my brother never heard of.

K refused to give a written statement (or any legal document) about the relationship between A and B. My questions are:

1. How do we find out if A is still in business? The contract states ''full refund'' if my brother's application is rejected. Had this been the case, my brother probably won't be able to recover anything if A is not in business, right?

2. If A no longer exists (bankrupted or bought by another firm), is the contract still good? Does K need to give my brother some kind of proof of ''successor of interest''? Otherwise, does she have the legal right to detain my brother's landing paper?

Thanks!


Asked on 8/02/01, 11:48 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Lawrence Graves Coolidge & Graves PLLC

Re: If a company is no longer in business, is the contract signed with it still

Lawyer mobility is not an uncommon thing, but usually there is a letter from both the departing lawyer and his former firm that offers his clients the choice of whether to stay with the old firm or follow the lawyer to his new firm. Also, there should have been some instructions regarding payment.

If the lawyer says that the final installment payment is due to him, the easiest way to verify it is to contact the accounting department of the old firm and ensure that they agree that the payment should follow the lawyer to his new firm. The payment is clearly owed to someone if indeed the condition precedent to payment has been satisfied, so you only need to ascertain the proper payee.

Best wishes,

LDWG

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Answered on 8/02/01, 1:17 pm


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