Reagor Dykes companies that are currently not in bankruptcy “may be filing chapter 11 petitions” according to documents filed Thursday in federal district court.
Reagor Auto Mall I, Reagor-Dykes II, Reagor-Dykes III, Bart Reagor and Rick Dykes requested permission to extend their deadline to respond to a lawsuit filed on July 31 by Ford Motor Credit Company.
The request was a 30-day extension, but on Friday the district court judge granted only two weeks.
Reagor Auto Mall I, Reagor-Dykes II, Reagor-Dykes III, Bart Reagor and Rick Dykes have until September 14 to respond to Ford’s lawsuit.
Some, but not all, Reagor Dykes (RD) companies filed for bankruptcy right after the Ford lawsuit started. Ford accused RD of defaulting on $40 million.
Ford also said, “This may be one of the largest floor-plan-financing frauds in the history of the United States.”
The RD companies in bankruptcy are protected from the Ford lawsuit. But the non-bankrupt companies are still subject to Ford’s claims.
“The circumstances giving rise to [Ford’s lawsuit] are unusual and necessitate further investigation before the Defendants can draft an adequate answer and response,” RD said in the lawsuit.
In the bankruptcy case, a Chief Restructuring Officer (BlackBriar Advisors, LLC) was appointed. The non-bankrupt Reagor Dykes companies indicated that they have lost control which has been given to the CRO.
“In effect, the Defendants are in the position of not having access to much of their own information, as they cannot distract the CRO,” RD said in the lawsuit.
“BlackBriar has effectively taken over day-to-day management,” of both the bankrupt and non-bankrupt RD companies.
In the meantime, the Texas Comptroller filed a notice of appearance in the bankruptcy case on Friday. The comptroller’s office did not say how much money RD owes the state of Texas.
A portion of the request to push back the deadline said:
Additional time for the Defendants to file an answer is required. The Defendants
are (i) entities that may be filing chapter 11 petitions and have been involved in the chapter 11 cases of the Debtors, and (ii) are individual owners integrally involved in the reorganization efforts of the Debtors and have been able to spend insufficient time aggregating information to accomplish a full-fledged answer with affirmative defenses and if available counterclaims. Because of the focus on reorganization efforts, the Defendants, who have been working in consult with the Debtors’ Chief Restructuring Officers have been unable to obtain sufficient information to deal with this litigation.
CLICK HERE to read the entire request for extension.
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