Enron Mail |
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL: ATTORNEY-CLIENT COMMUNICATION, ATTORNEY WORK
PRODUCT Nicole and Bob: This will confirm our telephone conference today regarding the issue whether Enron Metals should be sending out 180-day notice of contest letters to the various carriers who have tried to collect unpaid freight from Enron Metals as a result of the reported insolvency of ICTS, Enron Metals' former shipping agent. Bob advised that the carrier's claims he has received in the New York office total in the neighborhood of $30,000-$35,000. Of those, three carriers apparently have claims of $5,400, $16,000 and $13,210. With respect to those three carriers, Bob's office has sent some type of letter indicating that Enron Metals already paid ICTS for this shipment and that those carriers should look to ICTS for payment. The remaining claims are reportedly relatively small (and Bob will be sending me his file containing those claims shortly). Nicole advised that the claims she has received in the Montreal office total in the neighborhood of $40,000. Close to 90% of those reportedly involve shipments that were completed prior to the end of April. It is Nicole's understanding that she and her office were still a part of Barclay's until the end of April. She is not, however, aware of how responsibility would have been apportioned between Barclay's and MG Metals at the time for claims such as these. Nicole will shortly send me an e-mail which sets forth what bills concern shipments that occurred after the end of April. No notice of contest letter of any kind has been sent to these carriers. Both of you indicated that the telephone calls you had been receiving from the carriers has tapered off. Based on the foregoing, I recommended to you, and you agreed, that the best strategy was to "let sleeping dogs lie"--i.e., not to attract attention to Enron Metals by sending out 180-day notice of contest letters to the various carriers. The risk here is that if one or more of these carriers does file suit, you may not be able to assert any defense on behalf of MG Metals, such as a late or inaccurate bill (and I have not researched your bills to determine whether such defenses exist). Should a carrier file suit, you would probably be liable for the principle and interest, along with attorneys' fees. However, given our preliminary impression that MG Metals is secondarily liable on these bills if ICTS defaults, and the relevatively small size of most of these bills, I think a "reactive" rather than "proactive" defensive strategy makes sense. Nicole and I agreed that I would run down exactly how Barclay's and MG Metals decided to apportion liability for charges such as these at the time of that transaction. By copy of this e-mail, I am asking Marcus if he knows the right person to advise me on this (or if he has access to the relevant documents). I will continue to keep you advised. Britt
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