If an employer dies unexpectedly, willan employee still get paid for work done?
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
If an employer dies unexpectedly, willan employee still get paid for work done?
My husband has been his employer’s right hand man. After an illness, his employer passed away yesterday. Will my husband still get paid? The business is incorporated. Will it be frozen? What happens next?
Asked on September 21, 2010 under Employment Labor Law, Oregon
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 14 years ago | Contributor
1) If the work has been done, your husband has a legal right to be paid for it.
2) If the business is incorporated, in theory it should survive the death of an individual, even the owner or a senior manager. At the least, since a corporation is it's own legal entity, your husband could, if necessary sue it for his pay--and to look to recover from corporate assets.
3) The above is the law. In practice, if it was a small business, running close to the wire economically or with no one else who had authority and knowldge other than the employer, there either might be no money to pay, or there might be no one who even knows what money the business has.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.