Action to recover money due under a contract made by plaintiff with defendant Blanche Trembley, who used the name of a nonexistent corporation. Order of the Appellate Term affirming a judgment of the Municipal Court of the City of New York, in favor of the defendant, and the judgment of the Municipal Court, reversed on the law and the facts, with costs, and judgment directed in favor of the plaintiff for $216.65, with interest and costs. When defendant made the contract with the plaintiff in the name of Trembley, Inc., no de facto or de jure corporate entity existed with that name; hence defendant individually became obligated under the contract entered into in the name of a fictitious or nonexistent principal. ( Stevens v. Episcopal Church History Co., 140 App. Div. 570; Fuller v. Rowe, 57 N.Y. 23, 26; Fulton v. Sewall, 116 App. Div. 744; Bradley Fertilizer Co. v. South Publishing Co., 4 Misc. 172; Matter of Munter v. Ideal Peerless Laundry, 229 App. Div. 56; Perrine v. Levin, 68 Misc. 327; Schenkberg v. Treadwell, 94 N.Y.S. 418 [not officially reported]; 8 Fletcher, Cyclopedia Corporations, §§ 3761, 3820; 1 White on New York Corporations, p. 50.) The undisputed facts furnish no basis for a holding that the plaintiff was estopped to deny the corporate existence of Trembley, Inc. The doctrine of estoppel may not be invoked unless the corporation has at least de facto existence. ( Whitford v. Laidler, 94 N.Y. 145, 151; 8 Fletcher, Cyclopedia Corporations, § 3902.) Instituting a suit against a supposed corporation does not work an estoppel when such an action is abandoned on learning that the supposed entity has no corporate existence. (8 Fletcher, Cyclopedia Corporations, § 3945.) No estoppel was involved in the receipt by plaintiff of a check on account made by Chester Sportwear, Inc., to the order of Trembley, Inc., and endorsed by the latter in blank and cashed by plaintiff at a time when it did not know that Trembley, Inc., had no existence. There may be an equitable estoppel only when the one against whom it is claimed, acts with knowledge or under circumstances that charge knowledge. Such was not the situation herein. Close, P.J., Hagarty, Carswell, Johnston and Taylor, JJ., concur.