Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 00:41:40 -0400
From: Jim Kling <jkling at nasw.org>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Can they DO that?!
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Hmm... sounds like showing the letter to a lawyer would be a good idea.
Surely there are lawyers that do this sort of thing pro bono? Does
anyone know of one? Probably a no-brainer for someone who knows about
bankruptcy law.

Keith F. Lynch wrote:

>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.
>

--
Jim Kling
science writer
Rockville, MD
http://nasw.org/users/jkling