The Wardman Wire

Dave Walker Cartoons and Reporting

 

Cartoon: Gaping Void

[caption id="attachment_1070" align="alignright" width="120" caption="Stand Up SPCK Up"][/caption]

Randy W Williams, the Trustee in Bankruptcy for the Application for the Bankruptcy of the Society of Saint Stephen the Great by J. Mark Brewer and Brewer and Pritchard PC, filed a motion requesting sanctions against J Mark Brewer and Brewer and Pritchard PC on September 4th 2008, following on from the dismissal with prejudice of the application.

The motion accuses Mark Brewer and the Brewer and Pritchard law firm of bad faith, non disclosure of information, conflicts of interest, perpetrating a “fraud on the court”, violation of disciplinary rules and possibly US Law, suggests financial sanctions, and asks that Mr J Mark Brewer be sent back to Law School for Training in Legal Ethics.

In other words, the kitchen sink.

This may be the biggest development since it all started – the dam *may* be about to start to break. Hang on to your hat.

My thanks to the Dean of Durham, the Very Revd Michael Sadgrove, from whom I have now received a response to the petition. He in fact sent that response on 27th August but unfortunately it never found its way to my inbox.

The Dean assures me that the Cathedral Chapter are working tirelessly to do what is possible within the legal constraints of a business franchise to ensure that the service provided by the shop returns to its former standards. He further expresses his gratitude for the support for the Durham shop that has been shown by those who have signed the petition.

Fairly brief this week, but with a couple of important reports.

Press: SSG Bankruptcy Application was in Bad Faith

A report from The Bookseller states that the application for Bankruptcy in the Southern Division of the Texas Court in Houston. They have been in contact with Randy Williams, the Trustee in Bankruptcy :

“The Chapter 7 bankruptcy filed by Christian bookseller St Stephen the Great was dismissed because the case was filed “in bad faith”, according to a court official.

Courtroom minutes show that the case was dismissed “with prejudice” during a hearing at Houston Bankruptcy Court last Thursday.

The ruling has a number of restrictions on it, including a set period when Mark and Phil Brewer, who run the chain, cannot submit another bankruptcy filing in the US. Randy W Williams, trustee for the Chapter 7 case, told The Bookseller that “the motion to dismiss was granted with prejud-ice and the judge found that the filing of the case was in bad faith”.

“Bad faith means in this case that it was done for a wrong or improper purpose,” he said.
In June, Williams filed a motion to dismiss it, claiming “on its face, there is nothing to liquidate and nothing available to fund an in-vestigation in the UK”.

The brothers told suppliers in June that SSG had filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. The court later converted this to Chapter 7, leaving the retailer in liquidation.

Mark Brewer told The Bookseller last week that he did not have enough money to file for bankruptcy in the United Kingdom.

He was unavailable for comment this week.”

This is one step further than I reported last week, when it was only clear that the application had been “dismissed with prejudice” .

As I documented last week, this has a lot of implications.