Defendant Filed for Bankruptcy Mid-Lawsuit

[MCollins]

My question involves bankruptcy in the state of: Pennsylvania

Long story short, my girlfriends parent's got ripped off by a contractor. They have been in litigation for 1.5-2 years now. We just got word from her parents that the contractor filed for bankruptcy and is no longer responsible for his debt. I don't know what chapter, I'll try to find out.

Is there anything they can do about this? Her parents have no money now, they are out around $80k. They are old and the mother is handicapped. They were having a handicap accessible addition put on to the house so the mom can live a better life.

The worst part is that the contractor lives across the street from us, and we can't stand looking at him anymore. He seems to be living it up over there on their (and I'm sure others) money.


Thanks, I'm not the most legal savvy person so let me know if you need more info.

-MC

[jk]

bankruptcy generally doesn't release debts due to illegal activity. If they were "ripped off" I would take that you are inferring there was illegal activity. They need to continue the lawsuit (because without winning there is no debt anyway) and they need to file in the BK court a claim against the contractor.

and a debt is not discharged until the BK court says it is. If he just filed, no debts have been discharged yet.

[KeyWestDan]

Generally intentional torts are NOT dischargable in bankruptcy. As creditors they will get a notice of the bankruptcy and they need to make a legal appearance and object to discharge of the debt. The bankruptcy will actually do him no good for any judgments based on intentional torts, much less fraud or other criminal acts. If he files, I'd want to know how he is paying for an attorney, etc.

[despritfreya]

The filing of the bk stops the State Court civil suit in its tracks. If the Plaintiff's wish to attempt to get the debt held to be non-dischargeable they must file a "523 Complaint" in the bk. The Complaint deadline is 60 days after the 341 First Meeting of Creditors in the bk.

My suggestion is that they sit down with a qualified bk attny who handles creditor issues.

Question: Is there a State "recovery fund" or bond that they can claim against? If so, that may be their best remedy. However, since the suit has been going on for more than a year, I assume they already looked at this avenue if it was available.

Des.