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Lifestar Response of Alabama12/3/2004
uffer Riverview Plaza Hotel," which was not a legal entity. Rather, it was a tradename under which Riverview Plaza owned the hotel and Stouffer Hotel Management operated it. CTF Management Corporation was Stouffer Hotel Management's successor, and the opinion notes that there was "no issue as to CTF's liability for the torts of its predecessor." 719 So. 2d at 206 n.1. Several years after the judgment was entered, the plaintiff moved to have it amended so as to be against the entity that operated the business "'under that trade name.'" 719 So. 2d at 207. The trial court amended the judgment by substituting "CTF" for "Stouffer Riverview Plaza Hotel." On appeal, CTF argued that "the complaint was not sufficient to give its predecessor notice that it was an intended defendant." 719 So. 2d at 207. This Court concluded that the trial court had not erred in amending the default judgment, pointing out that in Hughes, supra, it had "noted that the Rules of Civil Procedure were designed to give fair notice of the claim against the defendant and that such notice is apparent on the record when the individual served with the complaint and the person doing business by the trade name under which the defendant was identified in the complaint are one and the same." 719 So. 2d at 208. Under such circumstances, however, there should be "no question as to the identity of the proper defendant." Id.
In Hughes, the Court had held that a judgment against "Hughes Realty of Clanton, Alabama," was enforceable against "Gearlene Hughes d/b/a Hughes Realty or Hughes Realty of Clanton, Alabama," because the complaint had been personally served on her, because she was the owner of Hughes Realty, and "because the complaint set forth the nature of the relief demanded, the circumstances was such as to give Hughes notice that she was the individual intended to be sued." Hughes, 601 So. 2d at 470. The Hughes Court held that " t was incumbent upon her to appear and answer that she had been incorrectly named in the complaint, if she believed that was the case." 601 So. 2d at 470.
Applying that reasoning to the circumstances before it, the Court in Ex parte CTF held:
"Based on the particular facts before us, we conclude that both Riverview Plaza, which was in the business of owning hotels, and Stouffer Hotel Management, which was in the business of managing hotels, did business under the trade name 'Stouffer Riverview Plaza Hotel.' We agree with CTF that Hughes did not specifically deal with a situation such as this one. However, even though Hughes dealt with perhaps a more common situation involving an action filed against a defendant named by the trade name of a sole proprietorship, certainly nothing in Hughes precludes us from holding that when two corporate entities mutually agree to conduct their respective businesses under one trade name, a default judgment entered against a defendant named by that trade name is a judgment against either entity, provided that the entity sought to be bound was properly served with the complaint.
"Contrary to CTF's assertions, we cannot agree that Riverview Plaza was the only entity closely enough identified with 'Stouffer Riverview Plaza Hotel' to be bound by the judgment. In this respect, we point out that the rationale for upholding the judgment in Hughes is equally applicable here. There was no question in Hughes as to the identity of the person intended to be sued; there was no way Gearlene Hughes could not have understood that she was the defendant named in the complaint. In the present case, [the plaintiff] alleged in his complaint that 'Stouffer Riverview Plaza Hotel' had on July 19, 1989, unlawfully arrested and imprisoned him and that that alleged wrongdoing had c
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