Extrajudicial Subsidiary Liability of Controlling Persons for the Obligations of an Inactive Legal Entity

Today, classical legal mechanisms for the compulsory collection of debts, liquidation, and bankruptcy (insolvency) are often inapplicable or ineffective in situations where a debtor legal entity is deliberately brought to a state of actual inability to meet its obligations by its controllers. Subsequently, it is administratively excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) as inactive, leaving creditors with unsatisfied claims. The legislator’s adequate response to this challenge was the formation and development of an independent and powerful legal institution of extrajudicial subsidiary liability of controlling persons in the Russian legal system.
The purpose of this article is to form a holistic understanding of the institution of extrajudicial subsidiary liability of controlling persons in its entirety: from doctrinal foundations to the intricacies of law enforcement. To achieve this goal, the paper addresses several scientific and practical tasks: to analyze the genesis and evolution of the institution of subsidiary liability of controlling persons in the Russian legal system; to examine the current legal grounds and conditions for bringing to extrajudicial subsidiary liability; to study the legal positions and conclusions presented in the Review of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 2025; to identify problems and conflicts remaining in the law enforcement activities of arbitration courts.
The practical value of the work lies in the comprehensive and systematic study of the latest trends in judicial practice, which found their concentrated reflection in the Review of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated November 19, 2025, which is a policy document aimed at ensuring the унификация of judicial approaches throughout the country. The article formulates a set of proposals aimed at improving the current legislation and optimizing judicial procedures.
In the course of the work, methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, systemic and structural-functional approaches were widely used, allowing to consider the institution of extrajudicial subsidiary liability as a complex, dynamic system.

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