Interesting, but the petition filed this week was for involuntary bankruptcy. In order to win that petition, the creditors will need to, in addition to many other things, prove a debt actually exists. They were unable to do so in the case you're referencing. Look at some of the debt claims they made and the opinion handed down by the court:
"Second, the plaintiffs claim they suffered a loss because they received stock in Phoenix Oil & Gas instead of in Phoenix Associates. They later converted this stock to TECO stock. The testimony showed that TECO stock at the time of the trial was trading at around 3.5 cents per share — and that a few weeks before the trial it was trading at around 9 cents per share — so it has some value. The purchase agreement states that the purchase price to be paid was for preferred stock that would accumulate dividends of more preferred stock in Phoenix Associates. Phoenix Associates is now in a Chapter 7 liquidation, with liabilities far in excess of its assets, so any preferred stock the plaintiffs would have received and held onto in Phoenix Associates would now be worth nothing. Shares in stock in TECO, even though worth only a few cents per share, particularly when you hold several million shares as the plaintiffs do, is worth far more than nothing. Thus, as far as the stock the plaintiffs received for the sale, no loss has been shown.
Third, the plaintiffs contend that they suffered loss in that the W.W. Owens leasehold was lost due to Blackburn's refusal to finance operations on the lease. The testimony at trial showed, however, that even prior to the sale of Treaty Petroleum, the lease was not producing much oil and Treaty Petroleum was in danger of losing the lease because Treaty Petroleum lacked the capital to fix the problems with the wells and pay for needed equipment. Although the plaintiffs claim that the lease was potentially worth $25 million dollars, the court finds that this is a speculative value at best. Further, given Treaty Petroleum's dire financial circumstances in the months leading up to the sale, the court finds it more likely than not that the lease would have been lost regardless of the actions of Blackburn.
As to the second and third categories of damages alleged by the plaintiffs, they have not shown a loss. They currently hold shares in TECO, which are worth some small amount per share. They do not hold shares in Phoenix Associates, which is worth nothing. Thus, looking at the value of the stock they should have received and comparing to the value of the stock they did receive, they are ahead in the game.
Although the plaintiffs claim that they suffered damages through the loss of the W.W. Owens leasehold, no evidence was presented as to the value of the W.W. Owens leasehold other than the testimony of Ms. Hyatt, a plaintiff in this proceeding, that there was oil worth $25 million dollars in the lease. No expert testified as to value, no documents showing the value of the lease were introduced. The plaintiffs have simply not given the court any basis to find that they have suffered any damages other than the unpaid promissory notes as a result of Blackburn and Carolyn Alonzo's actions."
AI
