Getting a final non-appealable money judgment can be time consuming and costly. So what happens when you finally get a judgment but can’t collect on it? The Answer: you have to keep digging and pushing, and digging and pushing.
Our client hired us in 2019 to enforce a money judgment they won in 2010. Judgments in New York state are valid for 20 years. In our experience the longer the judgment is not satisfied, the harder it is to collect. In this case the judgment debtor absconded to China and the debtor corporations were left with no assets and ceased conducting operation years ago.
In 2023, a Federal District Court Judge awarded our Hong Kong based client summary judgment in the amount of $989,426.13 against the judgment debtor’s spouse and several other New York corporations. We commenced action in 2019 against the judgment debtor’s spouse and other corporations alleging that they had fraudulently received and conveyed assets of the debtor and that other New York corporations were the debtor’s successors in interest. After numerous subpoenas, depositions, and thousands of pages of bank records from multiple institutions, we presented the Court with an air-tight case for summary judgment on many of our causes of action.
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You can read The Court’s decision at Koon Chun Hing Kee Soy & Sauce Factory, Ltd. v. Yang, et al. 19-cv-02026 EDNY. If Frankenstein was a complaint, perhaps, we drafted it in Koon Chung. When you are suing nine (9) different companies and two (2) individuals on fact specific transactions from ten years ago to the present, and then weave those facts into causes of action with numerous elements, your complaint may be 69 pages. Maybe someone else could have made this complicated case in a more concise and paper friendly manner- but we did our best, and we got what we wanted. |
Goes to show that grit, know-how, and steadfast determination can get you closer to your desired result. While the story does not end here, the client is much closer to getting satisfaction then they were when we started in 2019.