'No Joy' in company owners' attempt to avoid personal liability

In 2019, eight years after a travel tour company fired one of its employees, the employee was awarded over $480,000 in unpaid wages, attorneys' fees, and costs. The owners of the company, a husband and wife, sought to have the award enforced only against the company and not against them individually. That effort was unsuccessful, and you will see below how the owners' actions created an "alter ego" problem they couldn't overcome.

Facts

Joy Holiday is a travel tour company owned by a married couple, Jessy Lin and Harry Chen, that specializes in bus tours around the United States and in China, primarily for Chinese-speaking travelers. In early 2009, Ming-Hsiang Kao came to the United States from Taiwan after accepting a job offer from Joy Holiday. Lin and Chen offered to sponsor him for an H-1B work visa. Joy Holiday filed a visa application in October 2009 stating Kao was to be employed as a computer systems administrator working at least 20 hours per week at an hourly rate of $29.30.