Judge James M. Moody Jr. is involved in another case of note besides the Turner Grain bankruptcy.
Last week, he ordered the parents of a boy who was the victim of a surgical mistake to pay $2.1 million for his care.
Moody ordered Kenny and Pamela Metheny of Mabelvale and their adult son, Cody, to pay the amount for stiffing the Neurological Rehabilitation Living Center of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
If you recall, the Methenys were awarded $12 million after a surgeon at Arkansas Children’s Hospital operated on the wrong side of Cody’s head in 2004.
The money was supposed to go to care for Cody, who received treatment at the Virginia Beach facility between 2008 and 2013 at a price of $950 a day, but it didn’t.
Instead, the center alleged in its court filings that Kenny and Pamela Metheny quietly routed the millions they received in damages into a special needs trust to keep it out of the reach of the center, which had submitted a bill of $1.7 million.
The center sued the couple in June 2013 to collect the outstanding bill. “Rather than file an answer or a motion to dismiss, Kenny and Pamela Metheny filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on the day their answer was due,” according to Moody’s order.
The rehabilitation center successfully fought to get the bill out of the Methenys’ bankruptcy case.
The center was close to receiving a judgment against the Methenys and Cody in July, because neither one of them bothered to file an answer in the case. It was only then that Kenny and Pamela filed a motion to set aside the probable coming default order and dismiss the case.
By then it was too late.
“It is clear … that the Methenys’ failure to file an answer in this case until almost a year after it was due was a deliberate decision and not a marginal delay,” Moody wrote.
And he said he wasn’t going to make the center wait any longer, and awarded it the money, plus $570.51 a day starting from June 1, until the bill is paid.
The trust that was established for Cody is expected to have the money to pay the judgment.
Joel Hargis of Jonesboro, the attorney for Kenny and Pamela Metheny, didn’t immediately return a call for comment.
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