For FlyingRon, et al.

[latigo]

Dear Ron:

I'm hopeful that you and perhaps others knowledgeable might have some professional insight and comments on this episode involving a personal friend, his Ch. 7 bankruptcy, a hospital lien and a lawsuit for medical practice pending out of state.

It appears that a hospital may have perfected a statutory lien upon his cause of action against a tort-feasor for personal injuries for which he was treated (The treatment being associated with an amputation due to the infection of necrotizing facitiis. The cause of action for malpractice against another medical care facility being its failure to timely diagnose and treat the flesh eating infection. Treated with pain killers!)

What affect, if any, would his Ch. 7 discharge of the hospital's creditor's claim ($350K) have upon the lien? Again assuming that the grounds for the debtor's medical malpractice claim was unknown during the bankruptcy process as the defendant's alleged negligence was only discovered and lawsuit filed months following the discharge.

 

[tranquility]

Of course this is not real information, just something to think about. There is a current advertisement for a local attorney on an AM radio station I listen to. He has many spots, each one where his super-brain solved a client's issue for less cost and for a better outcome than any mortal attorney could have done.

One of the spots has his client being sued for some fact and circumstances which arose before the bankruptcy but for which the suit was not filed until much later. In his research, the attorney found out about the bankruptcy and contacted the trustee and bought the claim from him "for pennies on the dollar" thus eliminating the lawsuit for next to nothing. The theory was the claim was part of the BK estate even though it had not been filed. While I understand you are talking about a lien that could be discharged in the BK, it seems the claim itself might be a part of the estate. How the lien affects things, I don't know. But, it seems the likely result is the estate gets the money to be divided among the creditors or to the lien holder specifically.

I hate to post something about which I know little based on a radio advertisement, it just seems a relevant issue is so closely related to your situation I felt the need.