Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Cody Metheny Parents: Hands Tied, Cannot Pay $2.1M Judgment

2 min read

Kenny and Pamela Metheny of Mabelvale said their hands are tied so they can’t pay a $2.1 million judgment in connection with an unpaid medical bill for their son at a rehabilitation center in Virginia. 

Last week, we told you that U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. handed down the judgment in favor of the Neurological Rehabilitation Living Center of Virginia Beach, Virginia, which provided care to Cody Metheny between 2008 and 2013 without being paid.

Cody ended up in the center as a result of a surgeon operating on the wrong side of his brain in 2004, when he was 15. 

The proceeds of the $12 million generated from the lawsuits tied to the botched surgery went directly into a trust established for Cody, according to court records in the case.

The center said it should have been paid with the proceeds but wasn’t, so it sued in federal court.

We couldn’t reach Joel Hargis of Jonesboro, the attorney representing the Methenys, at press time for the Dec. 8 Whisper, but he called back last week. He pointed out that the judgment is not against either Kenny or Pamela Metheny personally but in their capacity as conservators. 

“It’s a title that has no authority on this trust,” Hargis said, so the parents can’t force the trustee to pay the bill, even though Pamela Metheny said in another court proceeding that she thought the rehab center should be paid.

“It’s not the case that they are refusing to pay,” Hargis said. “They don’t have $2.1 million to pay.”

Kevin Keech of North Little Rock, the attorney for the Argent Trust Co., as trustee of the Cody R. Metheny Special Needs Trust, didn’t return calls for comment.

But in court filings in the case Keech had argued that “The only contract in this case is between [the center] and the Methenys. Argent is neither a party to, nor guarantor of, that contract.”

This case, it’s fair to say, is a mess. 

Send this to a friend