Chapter 11
“So….if I understand you correctly….if these six claims weren’t in the way, I’d have simply taken over from my father ?”
“Well, it wouldn’t have been quite as easy as that,” said Grenville looking around him for support. “Anyway, until all of these losses are proved to be genuine, you will continue to have the controlling interest in the company as its largest shareholder and we as your board, will remain responsible to you and act in your best interests.”
“You’ll be responsible to me ?”
“Yes – to you and all other shareholders.”
Grenville and Black had anticipated this and had decided to use the same strategy which had disposed of Ashby’s father.
“But before anything else, we have to verify our exposure to these claims – from the information I have, Plantation would be unable to pay them if they are valid and enforceable. Therefore, we are trying to find out all we can about how exactly your father was dealing with them. I worked with your father and I knew how careful and methodical he was. He founded the company and built it up in a career of forty years. And obviously, at the time of his death, he realized that any one of these losses could have destroyed it. What was he doing about them ? What was going on in each of them ? Did he know they had already doomed the company ? Or was he trying to hold off paying until he could find the money from somewhere ? Did he genuinely think that we were only partly liable for them ? And is Plantation already insolvent ? That is what needs to be uncovered. We’ve arranged to go through each of the claims with our claims manager and our solicitors in another half an hour. You’re welcome to join us if you would like to hear the latest update on the situation.”
The bait had been laid on the trap. Robert Ashby imagined picking up where his father had left off and either knocking out each of the claims, one by one or somehow buying time and finding money from somewhere, if there was no other way out. And this was precisely what Grenville wanted him to think.
“Yes, I’d like that. But is it correct that at the moment, each of the claims is unresolved and in some or all of them, the claimants haven’t yet shown why we should pay. Is that right ?”
“I really cannot say but apparently one of them is very close to being concluded.”
“How close ?”
Nigel Black held up his hand to interrupt the Chairman.
“Uncomfortably close. I’ve heard there’s a trial commencing next week in the High Court. Our claims man has gone through the papers – and he tells me it doesn’t look good – not good at all.”
“Hm. But, why should my father have let everything go off the rails ?”
“For some reason, he was desperately holding out against paying anything – or even negotiating with the claimants.”
“Surely he had good reasons for doing that ? For one thing, we don’t have the money to pay them, do we ?”
“No, we don’t. Even so, it’s difficult to understand your father’s motives. There’s no use flogging a dead horse. Ordinarily, he would have had a good reason for refusing payment but you must keep in mind too that he may have been ill during the past year when you’ve been away. He might have felt that he’d had enough of it all and let everything slide. In the week before his death, he looked worn out.”
“And what do the auditors say ?”
“Westbridge are advising us on a precautionary basis. If just one of these claims is fully proved, Plantation will immediately shut up shop. As a board, we have to be cognisant of the interests of all creditors including the Inland Revenue.”
It seemed to Ashby that there was nothing to lose and everything to play for, at least as far as he was concerned. His father probably viewed it the same way. Texas Fire & Guaranty had given him extended leave of absence, the funeral hadn’t even been organised and if Plantation was already beyond saving, he would make it his business to find out precisely what had gone on in his father’s investigations and what had been turned up. There was also the worry of the employees’ jobs going, if Plantation collapsed.
He stood up and looked at everyone seated around the table.
“If I’m the major shareholder, I want full directors powers, like my father had and I want to find out everything I can about these claims and whether they’re really genuine or not.”
No-one objected.
Plantation A Legal Thriller Page 11