Promissory Note Gone Bad

[firm]

10/23/2007 I sold my medical practice for 95k after reducing it from125k and after turning down a cash payment for 105k. The promisary note was to be paid in monthly payments over 24 months begining in Jan 2008 and was interest free. The grace period and interest free was a courtesy as well as the price reduction all to get the note signed. Last month(4 months after the closing/signing) the new owner is telling me he made some decisions to let staff go and make expensive renovations. In the middle of the renovations the city permitting office shut his business down due to lack of proper construction permits. The business has been closed for 9 weeks and many patients have left he is telling me. He is also telling me he can only offer me 25k for the computers,medical equipment and office furnishings that were valued at 43k. He is asking me to accept this as a payment in total and nothing more to follow. He states that otherwise getting the note paid will be "a long haul" for me. Should I sue, negotiated compromise of 65k total? Can I sell the note to a collection company or debt buyers? Thanks.

Firm

[seniorjudge]

Does bad doc have any money or assets?

[usedbranflakes]

Well, it sounds like you are going to either have to help out the bad doctor and counsel him on business practices. Too often these docs don't learn about business for more than a few classes. ...and then they want to take something that is working and make expensive changes, inconveniencing patients, and eventually lose the momentum that the previous doc built up.
...and he probably hired "a few guys" to make the changes instead of the proper company.

My guess is that he (and you) are likely Chiropractors. I know of few other practices that go for that low of a sum.

For him, what goes around comes around.

You have some hard choices ahead and only you can make them.
If you hit him with a judgement then he is going to have the option of declaring bankruptcy. If you don't hit him with a judgement he will have time to re-build the practice and start paying you back without a large damage to his credit.

You may be able to write in (as much as you would hate to) oversight of the business or a percentage of the business.

When I sold an airplane I made the mistake of not taking the $72k for the bird (I wanted $75k and they wanted to pay $72k cash). Some lessons are hard learned.

[firm]

Does bad doc have any money or assets?

Yes. Bad doc has bank accounts, other businesses and other assets.

[firm]

My business was sold and I was depending on the promisary note mentioned above to pay off business credit card debt. I was wondering if I file for corporate bankruptsy can I give the banks this promisary note as payment which if they could collect it should more than pay off the balance my corporation owes on these cards? In other words I would give the banks this promisary note and they would go after him and my corp would go through bankruptsy? ANy suggestions on whether or not this is feasable and how to go about it? Thanks