QUESTION: After a receiver is appointed to enforce a settlement, can the defendant, a California corporation, appeal the judgment and order appointing the receiver, or is the receiver the only party that has the right to appeal?
ANSWER: Your question is unclear as to whether the receiver was appointed for the corporation or its assets. Generally, if a receiver is appointed for a corporation, the receiver replaces the board of directors and, hence, is the only one with the power and right to govern and direct litigation the corporation is involved in. See, SEC v. Spence & Green, 612 F.2d 896, 903 (5th Cir. 1980); First Sav. & Loan Ass’n. v. First Federal Sav. & Loan, 531 F. Supp. 251, 255 (D. Hawaii 1981). See also, CFTC v. FITC, Inc., 52 B.R. (N.D. Cal. 1985 [Once receiver is appointed for corporation only the receiver has the power to put the corporation into bankruptcy].
If the receiver is appointed for the corporation’s assets, or to collect or enforce a judgment against the corporation, rather than for the corporation itself, then the old board of directors continues and it has the power to direct litigation the corporation is involved in and, hence, appeal. NOTE: C.C.P. §917.5 provides the perfecting of an appeal of an order or judgment appointing a receiver does not stay enforcement of the judgment or order unless an undertaking is filed in a sum fixed by the trial court to cover any damages that might result by reason of a stay of enforcement of the order or judgment.
