Received a legal email basically saying Sears Holdings wants to reclassify severance not paid because of the BK into a lower classification (general unsecured) instead of admin. My understanding is to contest we have to file another document with the court and possibly appear in NY later. Some of this legal jargon is a bit hard to understand... I would probably have to hire an attorney to look through all of this but for the amount they owe me it sounds like I am going to just punt and give up. It's not worth any more effort. They screwed us over (along with other vendors) and that's that. Any comments? Interested in what some of you who also received the email think about this. (since severance is not legally required by the company I feel we will probably lose any rebuttal)
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I received this email also and wrote three hand written objections to Sears wanting to reclassify our claims to general unsecured. One went to Judge Drain, one went to Debtors attorneys and one to the attorneys representing the creditors. Sears withdrew their objection to reclassify for four people myself, and three companies. I am still a priority claim.
I'm glad you received most of the severance. It annoys me greatly that people are lining their pockets on this and I guess most other corporate bankruptcies but they people that lose their jobs are usually out of luck. I realize the Sears situation is different in some ways but the overall practice is very wrong.
To the person in the same situation, contact the court.
Hmmm…. Didn’t get that email….in the same position as you…
Ok thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate your input. And you are right... the millions in legal fees are just ridiculous. I was able to get 80 percent of my severance, it's the last 20 percent they didn't pay after the Oct 15 , 2018 BK. I always knew getting the rest would be a very low probability, luckily I don't need the money it's just the principal of the thing I guess.
This applies only to those employees still employed by Sears Holdings. Store employees are employed by Transformco, a totally separate corporation.
If there's a way to contact ne, I will help you. I don't see an avenue for it on here. If you knew what the lawyers and other associated people were making to manage this "bankruptcy" you'd want your money too. Altho not legally required, the company promised severance right?
I disagree. Yes it's from SHC because they're still sorting the bankruptcy out. May go on for years but -- if that email says you have by such & such date to file an objection, do it. You don't want to become part of the unsecured creditors cuz they won't get anything.
You can -- check the date and if there is time reach out to nearby law school or if local court has lawyer for a day, get an attorney reading for free.
If not available you can file your own objection. I dont think you'd have to go to NY to file especially with Covid, filing methods have changed. Google the format but it doesn't have to be a big deal.
There is no negative in doing this except loss of your free time. Strike one for the little guy. You may get some $$ or not but I encourage you to advocate because this is how folks get steamrolled.
If this weren't an anon board, I'd help you myself.
Hey guys it's Sears Holdings in the legal email not Transformco. When I received my severance when our Sears store closed it was through Transformco not Sears Holdings. Sears Holdings is just a shell.
I was lucky to receive a severance base on my tenure with the company during the plandemic. I told a friend who is still there not to expect a severance package as fair as I got when it's his turn. This company is a goner.
I’m not sure what you expected from a bankrupt company that never cared about customers or associates. Looks like you learned a valuable lesson, businesses don’t care about the little people, its all about the money no matter where you go. File it under “life sucks” and move on, it’s honestly not worth the aggravation to continue to be upset about it.
Screwing vendors, landlords, retirees, employees, customers, etc. Really surprised at the people who are still in prayer for Sears to live on.
Move on.