Today was an interesting day at the US Bankruptcy Court in Austin, Texas!
I received notice a few days ago about a "Notice of Docket Call" and decided to attend to preserve my interests in the IMS bankruptcy case, 98-10782FM. At the appointed time, a few other ex-IMS employees also appeared to hear the disposition of our situation. In short, nothing happened in the courtroom except a lot of suits (some from Kmart, a few Armani and Hickey-Freeman) submitting various dockets.
The group of ex-IMS'ers traveled en-mass to the Bankruptcy Clerk's Office next door to inquire as to the status of the case. We had the opportunity to borrow and review the entire folder of materials, notices, claims, and so forth that was filed regarding the IMS case, 98-10782FM. It appears that an entire class of ex-employees was some how omitted from the "matrix", the "service list", and/or the "subscriber list". What this meant to us was that those people who have filed a claim via a proof-of-claim with the bankruptcy clerk WAS NOT ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE DEBTOR IMS AS BEING A CREDITOR. Thus being kept in the dark, and possibly out of claim. While we were browsing over the 73 submitted documents (with Eric Taube's notice of a court hearing date being the most recent), we discovered some interesting comments from Lee, Phil, and the attorneys representing IMS and IPIQ:
- from a Marketing and Consulting agreement signed between IPIQ and IMS on 28 April 98 and filed with the bankruptcy court by Eric Taube on 29 April 98, in Exhibit A, it states something to the effect that IPIQ corporation was formed for the purpose of acquiring certain assets of IMS in order to continue the principal business of IMS back on 12 Feb 98.
I couldn't believe reading this acknowledgement of premeditation to defraud the IMS shareholders by IMS and IPIQ's general counsel!
- from the stenographer's transcriptions of deposition given by Lee, Phil, and their respective counsel gave in the two previous hearings that Phil Neches was a board member that never was a stockholder nor officer of IMS.
Why did Lee bring him aboard in the first place and what was his incentive/motivation to perform in the best interest of IMS without any "skin in the game"? With the IPIQ maneuver, Phil gave himself plenty of "skin".
There were some inconsistencies with the numbers and information being presented in some of the claims, but we didn't have enough time/quarters to feed the copier to go through everything.
In trying to rectify our exclusion from the matrix, service list, and subscriber list, we had to file a "NOTICE OF APPEARANCE AND REQUEST FOR SERVICE AND NOTICE" with the bankruptcy court. A short chat in person with Frank Laphen, the US Trustee in the DOJ handling this case, showed that in my particular case, IMS claims that they owed me nothing (according to the creditor's list that Taube has filed with the trustee)! IMS' position is contrary to the State of Texas Workforce Commission (the state employment commission) ruling that supported my initial wage claim against IMS but was unable to proceed after IMS gave a very late notice to the state about the Chapter 11 filing.
In further conversation with the US trustee, it appears to be the case that none of the ex-IMS employees that we knew about were listed as creditors, even those that have recently left the last few months, by IMS and its counsel. As trustee explains, IMS and Eric Taube are responsible for generating and maintaining a creditor's list. The trustee thought this to be highly unusual for the ex-employees to be blindly omitted in this case since the employer should know who and what their liabilities are. Also interesting for the trustee to hear was the manner of IMS handing out proof-of-claim sheets to those employees leaving so that they can obtain their remaining last wages from the bankruptcy procedure and then NOT LIST THEM AS CREDITORS with their counsel and the respective members of the court. In all, the omittance of one or two ex-employees can be explained, but the trustee could only wonder why so many ex-employees were conveniently excluded.
This entire out pouring of information was spawned by a group of ex-IMS employees trying to find out when the final court hearing date is for IMS' bankruptcy since we were pretty much excluded by IMS and their general counsel about information as to the disposition of the case. The answer to our Monday adventure/question is:
16 June 98 at 2 PM in Courtroom 1.
My 4-year old daughter and I met a lot of nice federal government workers as we followed the various threads of information and filed the necessary documents to get "back in the game".
For those ex-IMS employees and current IMS employees that are about to leave, make sure you get Lee and Eric Taube to put you on the Creditor's List which should imply inclusion to the "matrix", the "service list", and the "subscriber list". Those that left before you were told one thing and actually nothing was done as it should have been since it is the debtor's counsel responsibility for inclusion.
See you all on 16 June 98 at 2 PM in Judge Monroe's courtroom!
Larry
p.s. I wish I had more time to sit in the Bankruptcy Clerk's Office and thoroughly read the various documents (the 74th is my NOTICE :) and piece together the story that IMS/IPIQ is presenting. Some excerpts of the deposition that I've seen provide for some humorous reading, like some of those from the previous SEC filings. |
