WHITE CO.—A federal judgment against a nursing home in Carmi has been entered into the record in White County Circuit Court.
The federal judgment, in the amount of $305,944.49, was obtained by default on January 17 of this year, in favor of Badger Acquisition of Kentucky LLC.
Badger is a supplier of hospitals, nursing home and home health care supplies in Henderson, Kentucky.
Badger provided goods and services, to Phoenix including pharmaceutical and over-the-counter drugs, pharmacy consulting services, and IV therapy needed by residents of the facility, commencing January 2, 2008 and by agreement was to continue to January 31 of this year.
However, court documents on file in Benton at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois show that prior to December 31, 2012, Phoenix fell behind in invoice payments for the goods provided by Badger.
A settlement agreement was made wherein Phoenix agreed to pay Badger $245,780.71 to fulfill the unpaid debt for services prior to the above-mentioned date, and Phoenix executed a promissory note to Badger on March 3, 2013, with an interest rate of 5.5 percent annually; payments were to be made in monthly installments.
If Phoenix missed a payment, the agreement stated, the interest rate would bump up to 9 percent. And court documents show that, as it happened, Phoenix missed payments for the months of April and May, 2013. At that time, Badger noticed them up to make payment in full, still attempting to work out arrangements to continue to provide drugs and services to Phoenix, about which they stated “none worked.”
Bank answers interrogatories
This ran the bill in 2013 from January 1 through the end of August to $53,410 alone, and prompted Badger to file in federal court to have the full judgment assessed against Phoenix, this on September 18, 2013.
With the default judgment (meaning no one showed up to represent Phoenix; court documents on file in Benton show that no attorney even entered an appearance on their behalf in the federal case) entered Jan. 17, in March of this year, in an attempt to collect a debt, Badger submitted interrogatories (a questionnaire) to First National Bank of Carmi, where Cathy Mitchell answered that the bank was in possession of no assets as they belonged to Phoenix.
Unable to collect, Badger then filed the Registration of Federal Judgment in White County, this on April 3.
The amount by this time had risen from the originally agreed-upon amount of $245,780.71 to the $305,944.49 as stated earlier in the article.
This time, Grayville attorney Jay Walden entered an appearance for Phoenix.
A Citation to Discover Assets hearing was set for May 5 in the case; this kind of hearing commanded Lil Fortner, the authorized agent at Phoenix, to bring with her evidence of any assets for the facility so that the judgment could once again get on the road to settlement. Those assets were including but not limited to checking and savings accounts, CDs, money market accounts, stocks or bonds certificates, deeds to real estate, keys to safety deposit boxes, documents on accounts payable or receivable, documents showing transfer of assets, a complete inventory and list of all personal property, certificates of title and keys to all motor vehicles, records of weapons owed, records of debts owed, and payroll and tax information, all of it dating back to January 1, 2011.
Second suit
That hearing in May was continued to June 20; no information on any of the possible assets had been placed on file prior to press time.
However, something else was: another complaint against Phoenix.
This one came from a company called Select Rehabilitation, Inc., located in Northfield, Illinois.
Select Rehabilitation took over for EnduraCare Therapy Management, who had entered into a therapy services agreement with Phoenix in December of 2007.
However, Select charged in court documents, they noticed Phoenix that they were terminating the agreement they were operating under with them after Phoenix’ “failure to pay Select” according to a previous agreement made, unless Phoenix began making payments to them per a similar agreement to what Phoenix had entered into with Badger, this notice occurring on July 18, 2013.
In their filing in White County court, Select alleges that Phoenix failed to pay them $188,897.27, and they are asking the court to enter that amount, plus interest and attorney fees, as a judgment against Phoenix.
Select’s filing has been set for a case management conference for November of this year.
But that’s still not all.
Tax liens
A brief search through White County Clerk tax liens show that there are several unsettled with Phoenix.
Federal tax liens from the Internal Revenue Service were placed against Phoenix in the amount of $123,539.38 on November 12, 2013; $71,746.90 on February 7, 2014; and $19,000 on April 10, 2014. One was placed against Fortner herself of $32,510.75 on December 16, 2013.
Where all the money is going is unknown.
The next court hearing for Badger has been set for June 20, and is a Citation to Discover Assets hearing, same as for that of Select Rehabilitation.