Nekton (Bad News)

[DaveScuba]

With the small claims court chain of thought. They own the boats right? So if (and when) you win your settlement in court, couldn't you get an attorney to put a lien on one of their boats? Eventually they'll sell the boats (i think another thread had the Pilot for sale), if only for scrap, and you'd be able to recoup your money that way. Am I on a solid path, or is my legal eyes bigger than my legal stomach?

 

[uncleavi]

I worked for them and I can't belive they have not gone out of business yet.

 

[DiveMaven]

With the small claims court chain of thought. They own the boats right? So if (and when) you win your settlement in court, couldn't you get an attorney to put a lien on one of their boats? Eventually they'll sell the boats (i think another thread had the Pilot for sale), if only for scrap, and you'd be able to recoup your money that way. Am I on a solid path, or is my legal eyes bigger than my legal stomach?

I can't imagine it would be that hard to put a lien against them if you won a judgement. Considering that contractors put liens against property all the time when they don't get paid, it can't be rocket science.

Even if I were simply among a bunch of creditors trying to get my money and got pennies on the dollar, at least I'd feel a lot of satisfaction knowing I didn't simply roll over and give up.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

It would be easy to place a lien.

The problem is you would be an unsecured creditor, you would be in line after all the secured creditors are payed off first. Bums like this typically leave a huge collection of debts and the little guys get screwed. Its not right, but it is reality. Sorry.

 

[Pam_In_Paradise]

With the small claims court chain of thought. They own the boats right? So if (and when) you win your settlement in court, couldn't you get an attorney to put a lien on one of their boats? Eventually they'll sell the boats (i think another thread had the Pilot for sale), if only for scrap, and you'd be able to recoup your money that way. Am I on a solid path, or is my legal eyes bigger than my legal stomach?

Dave, you're assuming that the company that people paid their money to go on their trips is the same company that owns the boats. You're assuming that even if you could get a lien against one of the boats, there would be anything left after the secured creditors get their money. One advantage of having many different companies owning different "assets" is that they are protected from liens from the other companies unless you pierce the corporate veil and I can't imagine it would be cheap to have an attorney try and do that especially since most people's damages would probably be $2000.00 or less. Who is going to pay an attorney $5000.00 to get back $2000.00 assuming you could. The only hope I see would be the credit card companies to go after that money but since most people I am guessing took advantage of the small "cash" discount, they don't have their credit card company to fall back on for anything other than the deposit on the trip.

Just my personal and non legal guesses here. I'm not an attorney nor have I played one on TV but I think I'm right on this situation and sadly so.

 

[robint]

yes, and even with a lien, you would be standing in a long line with all the other creditors and employees demanding money. I would guess the employees and creditors would get paid before customers... Plus, all Nekton needs to do is declare bankruptcy and you are SOL. I would still ask for a refund, but don't hold your breath. If you put it on a credit card, try and see if the CC company can give you a refund and let them go after Nekton.

robin

 

[wsben]

Hi all... FYI, Nekton called this morning and they have cancelled our trip for May 22 -29, 2010. There are 14 of us , this is rebooking trip from last year, and some of us rebooking trip from years ago. So, this our second cancellation. We have asked for refund and they flatlly told us "NO" .

WSBEN

 

[rigdiver]

They might also owe the yard on the refit and can't get it out...it would really be interesting to go over the real finances involved in a liveaboard to see what the cost is and what it would take to make it truly profitable.

The Pilot has sat untouched since it got to Port St. Joe in September. I was lucky and had a great last trip on that boat.

 

[scubafanatic]

Hi all... FYI, Nekton called this morning and they have cancelled our trip for May 22 -29, 2010. There are 14 of us , this is rebooking trip from last year, and some of us rebooking trip from years ago. So, this our second cancellation. We have asked for refund and they flatlly told us "NO" .

WSBEN

won't be too long before diver's won't be diving OFF their boats, but ON their boats as 'wreck' dives after they're scrapped as artificial reefs. I never had an interest in their boats, they're famous for having a very long standing reputation for maintainance/operational issues....don't even get me started on their eternal joke of a NITROX system! Don't get me wrong, I don't like to see the scuba industry weakened in any fashion, if nothing else, the fewer boats that are running, the less price competition there will be, so the surviving liveabaords will boost prices...not good! ...and now, recently, we've got the bad press discouraging dive business in the Gulf/Florida regions due to the BP-oil spill, and a new round of panic in the stock market, which may lead to renewed pullback in discretionary consumer spending, which isn't going to help the scuba industry one bit!

 

[DaveScuba]

Hi all... FYI, Nekton called this morning and they have cancelled our trip for May 22 -29, 2010. There are 14 of us , this is rebooking trip from last year, and some of us rebooking trip from years ago. So, this our second cancellation. We have asked for refund and they flatlly told us "NO" .

WSBEN

Sorry WSB, that sucks. I was on the canceled 5/15 trip. I can't believe (we, I can, but you know what I mean) that they won't give you a refund after TWO canceled trips.

I'd say lets sabotage the boats, but they seem to be doing a good enough job of that all on their own.