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# Questions of corporate law enter courtroom
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/questions-of-corporate-law-enter-courtroom/
- Published: 2003-04-29T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:06:19.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

Santa Monica graphic designer Brian Goodman finds himself likely impaled by corporate law as he tries to collect $400 owed to him for designing a logo for a troubled raw foods company.

Instead of collecting from the two people Goodman says hired him to do the design work, Goodman stood in Santa Monica Small Claims Court on Monday as the judge indicated the duet were probably “victims” of the same corporation after they said they were owed money as well.

Goodman sued Arnel Lindgren and Virginia Rodriguez over promises he said they made to pay him $600 to produce a logo for an outfit called Amba, based in New York. After Goodman produced a few test designs, he collected $200 for the work, but was rebuffed for the remaining $400 over a split between Lindgren and the out-of-state company.

Commissioner Roberta Kyman said it was likely she would rule that Goodman has no case against the local pair individually, but can press the corporation — if he can find it. The word came after Rodriguez, who said she once served as interim CEO of the operation, said she no longer works with it and doesn’t know what’s become of it. And, she asserted, the company owes her money as well.

Rodriguez and Lindgren defended themselves by saying higher-ups in the New York outfit rejected Goodman’s designs after paying $200 for him to start work. They claimed that Goodman knew he was dealing with a corporation when he signed a contract with “Lindgren/Amba.” Lindgren had served as acting president of the company for a period of time.

Further, they said, Goodman accepted corporate checks for $200 for his design work and another $390 for a separate design package.

Goodman said when he asked for evidence that the company was hiding behind its “corporate shield,” he received papers from a company calling itself Luscious Moving Edibles in New York. There were suggestions in court that Luscious was moving to change its name to Amba.

When Commissioner Kyman heard that the corporation was from New York, she remarked “we get that on occasion,” suggesting that the company had hired local residents to front for desired operations in California.

After both Rodriguez and Lindgren asserted they also were stood up by Luscious/Amba, Kyman concluded all three residents standing in her courtroom were victims of the outfit’s machinations.

Kyman didn’t issue a ruling Monday, saying she wanted to research the corporate issue. But she hinted her probable ruling would hold that Lindgren and Rodriguez didn’t owe anything personally, and that Goodman would have to go after the company for the $400 remaining on his logo work.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 29, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042903.pdf?ref=smdp.com)