John King legal battle spills over to bankruptcy court

Paul J. Nyden

Nov. 7, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- John King, the osteopathic surgeon who generated 124 lawsuits while he was a staff physician at Putnam General Hospital from December 2002 to June 2003, is still fighting legal battles in Birmingham, Ala., where he filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 21, 2007.

A new legal battle centers on a "legal malpractice" suit King filed on that same day against Richard Glynn Poff Jr., a Birmingham lawyer.

King hired Poff to file lawsuits alleging "legal malpractice" by some of his previous lawyers, including three Charleston law firms: Steptoe and Johnson, Giatris and Webb and McQueen and Murphy. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages.

"Poff failed to prosecute the cases and claims in which he has undertaken to represent [King]," wrote Keith W. Veigas Jr., a Birmingham lawyer who filed the suit in Jefferson County Circuit Court in Birmingham.

On December 23, 2008, a trustee for the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama held an auction in Birmingham to sell the potential value of the suit against Poff.

Lois Tanner, King's sister, was the highest bidder. She paid $32,500 for the rights to claims made in the lawsuit against Poff.

After the auction, the Jefferson County Circuit Court, where the case against Poff is pending, ruled the claim against Poff was "personal" and could not be auctioned off.

Mark B. Ellis, another Birmingham lawyer who represents King, wants the bankruptcy court to throw out the Jefferson County Circuit Court order.

The county court, Ellis writes, ruled "the claim [against Poff] is personal in matter, between attorney and client, and cannot be prosecuted by a third party purchaser or transferee."

Ellis wants the Alabama bankruptcy court to "set aside" the auction and give $32,500 back to Tanner.

In an order issued on Oct. 9, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas B. Bennett refused Ellis's request.

The auction held by the bankruptcy court trustee, Bennett wrote, did "not include any warranty and that there is no basis to set aside the sale. ... The debtor's [King's] motion to set aside auction and hold [the sale] for naught in denied."

Later last month, Ellis filed a motion asking Bennett to "reconsider" his ruling.

"As a matter of equitable treatment to the purchaser [Tanner], the auction should be set aside and the funds returned to said purchaser," Ellis stated.

Bennett has not yet ruled on the latest petition.

King's efforts in declare Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy proceedings also have been controversial.

When he filed for bankruptcy in 2007, King reported only $500 in assets, later adding $300 in "normal clothing."

On Sept. 19, 2008, King filed an amended personal property schedule in bankruptcy court listing listed $52,547 in assets that included $49,747 in pension benefits and $2,000 in a trust fund as well as the $500 Volvo.

Earlier this year, on March 5, Bennett ruled King was hiding at least $670,000 in assets from the bankruptcy court, including assets in the Bone Maker Trust, one of several trust funds King created.

Bennett ruled King could no longer use his bankruptcy filing to eliminate debts or protect himself from financial claims and lawsuits.

King is still a defendant in medical malpractice suits filed in West Virginia.

The Hospital Corporation of America, which owned Putnam General while King was a staff physician there, has already paid more than $100 million to settle 124 lawsuits filed against them.

Renee Blackman and Misty D. Shepherd, who allege King injured them as patients at American Family Care clinics near Birmingham in the fall of 2006, also have suits pending against King.

A July 6 brief filed on behalf of Blackman and Shepherd states King also failed to report more than $140,000 in recent personal "income from four major employers."

Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjnyden@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0226-39543030