Our Debtors Claimed They Were Filing Bankruptcy, But Didn’t
We won a small claims case against a landscaping company almost two years ago. Judgment was for almost $4,000. After the window to pay had come and gone, the landscape company said they were declaring bankruptcy and they had no assets to distribute. Not a huge surprise given how disorganized and mismanaged they clearly were. Throughout the whole process of the job and the court case they had one sob story after another about why they couldn’t do the work or get to court or pay the debt.
I have checked in with the bankruptcy court several times over the past two years and there is no record of them having declared. I haven’t been able to determine if they are actually still operating as a company, but fwiw their website is still up.
As I understand it, we can’t get in line as creditors until they actually declare and there is a bankruptcy case file. I’m thinking about sending them an email asking for the bankruptcy case information (which I know doesn’t exist) so that we can move forward on our end. If that doesn’t nudge them along, i have been told I can file supplementary process, though of course that fee comes out of our pocket with no guarantee of return.
My question is basically this: am I the asshole for continuing to hound this company that is in financial ruins, or is it fair for me to try to get in line as a creditor in case there are any assets disbursed that we can get back any of what they owe us. Or to at least ensure that they do in fact file bankruptcy and didn’t just lie to get out of paying us.
We are in Massachusetts if that matters for questions of bankruptcy/business law.
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