California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from City Nat'l Bank v. Wong, A145015 (Cal. App. 2016):
It is undisputed that defendants here did not execute the promissory notes or deeds of trust as individuals but as members of limited liability companies. The companies, not defendants, were the principal obligors and nothing in the operation of corporate law made defendants the principal obligors. Quite the opposite. A limited liability company shields its members from the "debts, obligations, or other liabilities" of the company. (Corp. Code, 17703.04, subd. (a)(1).) Talbott v. Hustwit (2008) 164 Cal.App.4th 148, is instructive. There, a married couple established a trust using a limited liability company as trustee, thus limiting their personal liability for the trust's obligations. (Id. at p. 153.) The court rejected the couple's claim that their guarantee of a loan to the trust was a
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