I received a call from a potential new client, whom I will refer to here as “Alfred”, who explained to me that he was once the business with a friend named “Lucius”. Alfred was essentially a silent partner in developing the “Batman Batarang”. He provided over a quarter of a million dollars to Lucius for the development. When the relationship went sour, Lucius violated the terms of the partnership agreement, cut Alfred out. Lucius never gave him Alfred any business profits, much less an accounting statement. Alfred hired some fancy-schmancy law firm, “The Gotham City Shark Law Firm”, to the tune of $750.00 per hour. Three years and a hundred grand later, Alfred had a piece of paper granting judgment against Lucius. Gotham City Sharks advised Alfred that Lucius had no assets, and he was out of luck.
Alfred, unwilling to accept that, began to research alternatives, and found me. When Alfred called, he was exasperated, and complained that all he did was lose money. He was unwilling to incur more losses. He never fathomed the idea that any lawyer would take his matter on a contingent fee. After I educated him on the process, he was excited. He started to explain to me his plight. Lucius had no current place of employment. Alfred conducted an extensive bank search, and Lucius had no accounts under his name. Lucius owned no home, he rents. He lives in that part of Gotham where one can take public transportation, so he had no car. I asked Alfred a bit more about the Batarang, and then Alfred said something that sparked a thought in me: The Batarang was available for mail order on WonderWoman.com.
One of the interesting things about WonderWoman.com is that not everything is sold by the website itself. While they maintain their own inventory and warehouse, a vast selection of products are fulfilled by third-party suppliers. So, I went to the website, and much to my joy, it was not merely one third-party supplier. In fact, there were seventeen. Seventeen suppliers! They clearly ranged from Gotham City Depot, to The Bullseye, to Goth-Mart, to the Nanda Parbat Trading company. So, I assured Alfred that he was not out of luck.
After a little bit of digging, I served subpoenas on all the third-party suppliers that had a domestic presence in Gotham City. Lo and behold, they were all holding funds scheduled to be payable to Lucius. We brought motions on them, and to our joy, funds started coming in. What is still curious is, the Batarangs are still being sold, Lucius never once contacted our office, and now, we have court orders, directing several of the suppliers to pay us, instead of him. Count another victory for justice.
Timothy Wan is the principal attorney of the firm Smith Carroad Levy & Wan, in Commack, New York, and can be reached at twan@smithcarroad.com. Tim is particularly proud of the WonderWoman.com pseudonym, and wonders what you faithful readers think of that thinly veiled pretense.
