SAN FRANCISCO – A software company suing a small company over allegations of breach of contract for software development has received permission from a federal court to amend its suit to include another debtor.
U.S. District Judge Kandis Westmore, on the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, issued an eight-page ruling on Jan. 30 granting a motion to amend judgment in the lawsuit filed by Ennova Research SRL against BeeBell Inc. The court allowed BeeBell's CEO, Cosimo Spera, to be included as an additional judgment debtor in the case.
In her ruling, Westmore allowed Spera to be included as a debtor, stating that "as a practical matter, as defendant's only officer, Mr. Spera had control over defendant's actions during the litigation."
Ennova sued BeeBell claiming that it breached contract when the defendant did not pay for the contracted services.
"In December 2015, defendant and Mr. Spera solicited plaintiff's services, entering into a contract by which plaintiff provided software development services. The contract was signed by Mr. Spera, as defendant's CEO. Under the contract terms, defendant would pay $16,000 per month; defendant, however, did not pay any money due," the ruling states.
BeeBell issued checks in May 2016 to pay for the services, but those checks were rejected due to insufficient funds, the ruling states.
"On June 10, 2016, plaintiff informed defendant that it would no longer provide services due to defendant's breach of contract. That same day, Mr. Spera sent an email promising to pay $32,000 and any bank fees incurred by plaintiff due to the rejected checks," the ruling states. "On June 11, 2016, Mr. Spera apologized for the checks and again promised to pay the amounts due. No payments were made, and the instant suit was filed in September 2016."
After not appearing in court, BeeBell was considered in default. A settlement agreement was entered into on June 21, 2017. The motion to add Spero was filed by the plaintiff in October 2018.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 4:16-cv-05114-KAW