You have probably not had the misfortune of getting ensnarled with a crooked contractor who happens to also be in personal bankruptcy. That precise situation is what we faced when we hired Brian Darnell of Prodigy Restoration Group to perform work on our house. After winning a court judgement against Prodigy Restoration Group for breach of contract we were awarded over $16,000 in damages that the owner, Brian Darnell, told us he was not going to pay.
Because Brian Darnell is in Chapter 13 bankruptcy it is going to be challenging to get paid the $16,000 that he owes us. One challenge comes from the fact that there is a long line of creditors to whom Brian Darnell owes money, lots of money. How long is that line? Here’s an idea:
First there are those creditors who have an interest in an asset.
Unsecured priority claims look to belong to the IRS and Missouri Department of Revenue, one can speculate these are Federal and State Taxes that are owed. We probably won’t get paid before the Feds and State do.
Among the creditors holding unsecured nonpriority claims is a familiar name, Robert Cook, the other consumer who probably regrets ever doing business with Brian Darnell, the owner of Darnell-Group at that time. Mr. Cook’s court awarded judgement in excess of $30,000 is still waiting to be paid. We might end up on this list.
Here are some more creditors to whom Brian Darnell is owing money. Affinity Law Group is another familiar name from the Robert Cook case. Affinity was the counsel for the defendant, Brian Darnell, but requested to withdraw as counsel for Darnell-Group only a few weeks before the final judgement was entered. Here they are on the list of creditors waiting to be paid by Brian Darnell.
Finally, we reach the end of the list of creditors holding unsecured nonpriority claims against Brian Darnell.
As you can see, with a total of over $80,000 in claims to only the unsecured nonpriority claimants, for us to join the list we’d be in a crowded group waiting to get money from Brian Darnell.