Opinion ID: 1753864
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: On May 2, 1975, approximately a year and a half before Henley filed this action, Ratliff filed a statement of intent to dissolve with the Secretary of State of Kentucky. Ratliff argues that a dissolved foreign corporation is incapable of suing or being sued in Alabama. Section 10-2-212 (repealed by Acts 1980, No. 80-633, § 192 effective January 1, 1981) of the Code of 1975 provided that [c]orporations whose charters have expired or which have been dissolved otherwise than by judicial order continue to exist as bodies corporate for a period of five (5) years after such dissolution for the purpose of prosecuting or defending actions .... [1] In Ex parte Davis, 230 Ala. 668, 162 So. 306 (1935), we found that section to be inapplicable to foreign corporations. Absent proof to the contrary, however, the trial court could have reasonably assumed that a provision like § 10-2-212 exists in other states (including Kentucky, Ratliff's state of incorporation), George D. Witt Shoe Company v. Mills, 224 Ala. 500, 140 So. 578 (1932), and that Ratliff could be sued for some stated period of time after its dissolution. On public policy grounds, it would be unconscionable to allow a foreign corporation to do business in our state and then permit it upon its own volition and without any time limitation to leave those whom it has damaged with no recourse after its subsequent dissolution. Ratliff also asserts that service of process was never perfected upon it, thereby depriving the trial court of jurisdiction. However, the record reveals that service was made upon Ratliff by certified mail to Edwin L. Tomppert and Wilma B. Heimann, two of the three directors of the former corporation, whose names and addresses appeared on Ratliff's statement of intent to dissolve. In Railway Fuel Company v. Ackerman, 269 Ala. 460, 114 So.2d 142 (1959), we held that in a suit against a dissolved domestic corporation service of process, absent express provision for it in § 10-2-212 (repealed 1981), Code of 1975, [2] is properly had upon one of the directors-trustees. That rule is equally applicable to service upon dissolved foreign corporations. Henley, then, perfected service upon Ratliff when he served two of the directors of the former corporation.