10 May 2017 Lincoln County News: Despite Bankruptcy, Clary Lake Dam Situation ‘Status Quo’

Lincoln County News staff writer Abigail Adams attended the May 1st bankruptcy meeting of creditors and has written an article about it appearing in this week’s Lincoln County News. It’s a good, factual article but like the recent article in the Central Maine Papers, it incorrectly states that “Medius L3C foreclosed on the dam and held an auction for it in January 2016.” It would be more accurate to say that Medius L3C tried to foreclose on the dam, but failed. Had the foreclosure been successful, someone other than Pleasant Pond Mill would own the property now.

This confusion over foreclosure does nothing to detract from an otherwise accurate and well written article, and I am grateful that the Lincoln County News and the Central Maine Papers are helping keep this slow-motion train wreck in the news:

Despite Bankruptcy, Clary Lake Dam Situation ‘Status Quo’

For the record, a ‘Power of Sale Foreclosure/Auction’ is really a process consisting of a series of steps, not a single event. For a foreclosure to be successful, all the steps in the process need to be completed. The foreclosure attempted by Kelley back in January 2016 never completed all the required steps so the attempt to foreclose did not succeed.

As Ms. Adams correctly concludes, Paul Kelley is indeed back where he was before filing for bankruptcy back on March 20th with nothing to show for the wasted effort. It has had no appreciable effect on the Rubin/Ayer lawsuit and it just cost Paul Kelley money: according to the Bankruptcy Filing he did waste a good deal of money on filing fees ($335) and legal services ($2,465). Good job.

So the bankruptcy dog and pony show really is over. From the District of Maine Bankruptcy Court PACER site:

05/09/2017

Meeting of Creditors Held and Concluded. Chapter 7 Trustee’s Report of No Distribution: I, P. J. Perrino, Jr., having been appointed trustee of the estate of the above-named debtor(s), report that I have neither received any property nor paid any money on account of this estate; that I have made a diligent inquiry into the financial affairs of the debtor(s) and the location of the property belonging to the estate; and that there is no property available for distribution from the estate over and above that exempted by law. Pursuant to Fed R Bank P 5009, I hereby certify that the estate of the above-named debtor(s) has been fully administered. I request that I be discharged from any further duties as trustee. Key information about this case as reported in schedules filed by the debtor(s) or otherwise found in the case record: This case was pending for 2 months. Assets Abandoned (without deducting any secured claims): $ 0.00, Assets Exempt: $ 0.00, Claims Scheduled: $ 0.00, Claims Asserted: Not Applicable, Claims scheduled to be discharged without payment (without deducting the value of collateral or debts excerpted from discharge): $ 0.00. (Perrino, P.) (Entered: 05/09/2017)