Law Firms
Judge Allows Bankruptcy Trustee’s Claims Against N.Y. Law Firm
Posted Jan 30, 2008, 07:31 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A New York bankruptcy judge has refused to dismiss a trustee’s claims that a law firm and two of its lawyers participated in a scheme to hide the identity of two bidders for the assets of a bankrupt company.
Judge Martin Glenn ruled that the trustee had presented sufficient facts to proceed with her claims against the Westchester County law firm, Rattet, Pasternak & Gordon Oliver, and its lawyers, Robert Rattet and Jonathan Pasternak, the New York Law Journal reports.
The law firm had represented a debtor company that managed 24 Dunkin Donuts franchises. Bankruptcy trustee Janice Grubin claims the law firm, its lawyers and others "colluded to effect a fraudulent sale of [bankruptcy] estate assets to and for the benefit of” two officers of the management company “without disclosing such to the court."
She alleges fraudulent concealment, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and fraud.
John Collen, who represents the lawyers, told the legal publication his clients deny liability. "The decision merely requires us to answer a complaint,” he said. “It does not contain any findings of liability or wrongdoing."