Tittle Advisory Group, Inc. Assists in Win for Defendant in Multi-Million Dollar Preference Case

Online, August 13, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Tittle Advisory Group, Inc. (TAG) announced today that John Tittle, as a financial expert witness and testifier during a several-day-trial, assisted a defendant in obtaining a favorable ruling in a multi-million dollar preference action. Mr. Tittle testified over several days during a protracted, and sometimes contentious, trial for a preference matter.

The case involved Tusa Office Solutions, Inc. (Tusa), which was at the time of its filing for Chapter 11, a full service furniture dealer and one of the nation's largest dealerships of furniture manufactured by one of the country's largest designers, manufacturers, and sellers of workplace furnishings. According to its bankruptcy filings, the company filed for Chapter 11 in order to sell Tusa as a going concern. Ultimately, the sale as a going concern did not occur and, without sufficient financing to continue operations, the company closed its doors.

Once a significant amount of the assets were liquidated on a piece-meal basis, the Chapter 11 case was converted to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case and a Chapter 7 Trustee was appointed. As part of her duties, the Chapter 7 Trustee pursued preference actions against former Tusa suppliers including the defendant in the case at hand. As set out in the Bankruptcy Code, the purpose of the investigation and recovery of so-called preference payments for the bankruptcy estate is to ensure that all similarly situated unsecured creditors receive the same treatment. The focus for preference payments is generally those payments made by a company within the 90 days prior to the filing of a bankruptcy case when the entity is presumed to be insolvent. Preference actions are normally settled by the parties involved prior to trial. That was not the case in this instance.

The defendant in this case was Tusa's largest supplier by far and was sued by the Chapter 7 Trustee on seven different counts totaling approximately $7.4 million for allegedly preferential payments and potentially voidable transfers. Transfers are voidable in the sense that, if they are found to be voidable by a Bankruptcy Judge, the recipient would have to repay the money back into the bankruptcy estate of its former customer. The trial on the seven counts was bifurcated. The first part of the bifurcated trial dealt with approximately $6.6 million in claims, all of which were deemed to not be recoverable/voidable by the Bankruptcy Judge (with the exception of a $105,000 liability, an amount stipulated by the parties during trial). At this time, it is unclear if the Chapter 7 Trustee will pursue additional litigation on the remaining counts or appeal the Judge's ruling. In discussing the trial, his role as an expert witness, and the ruling, Mr. Tittle explained, "The lawyers for both sides seemed to work very hard on this case. The attorneys with whom I worked were excellent and I conducted this work at their direction, while coming to my own independent findings and conclusions." John continued, "In his opinion, the Bankruptcy Judge agreed with the great lawyers with whom I worked and seemed to adopt my valuation approach as related to my liquidation analysis and costs of liquidation. The analysis itself and the costs of liquidation came from my years of experience as a bankruptcy advisor including winding-down companies and acting as keeper/receiver or trustee."

John Tittle, Jr., CPA/CFF/CGMA, CTP, CIRA, CDBV established TAG in early 2011, having over 30 years of accounting, financial, and consulting experience including service as an executive with a publicly-traded consumer goods company as well as serving as a Partner and Director with Big Four/Six Firms and Partner/Principal with various financial advisory boutiques. Having testified as an expert witness over 100 times in various jurisdictions across the country, Mr. Tittle has been retained over the years in numerous cases in which he had to opine and render testimony relative to tracing projects on behalf of various constituents, recharacterization issues, accounting and financial matters, damage calculation projects, valuation and solvency issues, and other adversary proceedings in a bankruptcy context. In addition to numerous matters in bankruptcy court as alluded to previously, John has been retained and/or testified in criminal law, employment law, lost profits, breach of contract, intellectual property, accounting, and domestic-relations/divorce matters.