A reminder to corporations, General Business Law §130 mandates corporations to file a certificate of doing business under an assumed name with the secretary of state. The failure to to comply with this filing requirement prevents an entity from maintaining an action except in its own name. The named plaintiff in this case, American Express Travel Related Services Co., was not a legal derivative of American Express, Inc.
The observed difference between the account statements' difference against the purported credit card agreement warranted the court to render the proposed agreement as inapplicable.