Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 00:34:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Can they DO that?!
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

As many of you know, I've been unemployed for the past two or three
years.  Why is that number so fuzzy?  Because of the way my last job
ended.

My last employer was the least Dilbertish place I've ever worked.
Unfortunately, it turned out it was too un-Dilbertish.  Since there
was no marketing department, our list of clients (hospitals) steadily
shrank starting the day the company was founded.  (The boss founded
the company by purchasing the software product and client list from
his previous employer.)  I was the last remaining employee.  We still
had obligations to the remaining clients, but not enough income to
keep an office open, *or* to pay me, much less both.  So I worked
from home, with part of my salary paid as money, and part as office
furniture and computer hardware, including a brace of VAXen, three
VT420s, several modems, routers, hubs, DELNIs, servers, and an Alpha.

(The VAXen and Alpha are all running VMS and MUMPS.  My home remains a
Microsoft-free zone.  I've networked everything together.  Many of you
have seen it during the two Fifth Fridays I've hosted.)

Eventually, he just *gave* me the business, and I worked directly with
the hospitals.  But they had less and less work for me to do.  I sold
them some of the hardware.  Eventually, there was only one hospital
left.  Then that one declared bankruptcy.  Fortunately they didn't owe
me any money at that point.  After that, I did no work for them, and
sold them nothing.

Today I got a disturbing letter.  It demands that I return all the
money that they paid me within 90 days of their declaring bankruptcy,
on the grounds that it was a "preferential transfer," whatever that
means.  Curiously the letter is neither from the hospital nor a law
firm, but from "a specialized independent consulting firm providing
litigation, financial, restructuring, strategic and operational
consulting services to government agencies, legal counsel and large
companies facing the challenges of uncertainty, risk, distress and
significant change" according to their web page.

Can they DO that, or are they just trolling for gullible creditors?

Some of the hospital's payments to me were late.  Does it matter
whether the work was done more than 90 days before bankruptcy, or does
it only matter when they finally paid me?  And is it 90 days from when
they declared bankruptcy, or from when they informed me that they had
done so?  And in any case, how can they wait nearly two years to ask
for the money back?  Isn't there a one year time limit on this sort
of thing?

Since my financial situation is marginal at best, I would rather not
hire a lawyer if I can get rid of them with one properly worded letter
and a 37 cent stamp.  Or, alternatively, if I have no leg to stand on,
and should just pay them the money.

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.