See if you can make sense of this gem:
“Thelen’s performance was made impracticable without fault of Thelen by the occurrence of an event the nonoccurrence of which was a basic assumption on which the contract was made.”
That’s the core of Thelen’s answer to a class-action suit filed against it for nonpayment of accrued vacation. In English, it seems Thelen is trying to claim that, despite its failure to comply with the WARN Act and other laws, the firm shouldn’t have to pay the earned benefit because if Thelen had given the required notice it wouldn’t have been able to borrow even more money (which it ultimately never got anyway). Worse, Thelen claims Citibank, which was secured to the tune of $60 million, is really at fault because it seized the firm’s accounts and wouldn’t allow the payments to be made.
Steve Blum, who represents one class of plaintiffs, says that not only is that a load of hooey, but he’s going after potential successors-in-interest, like Nixon Peabody, which picked up 66 Thelen attorneys. That’s going to raise some thorny issues about successor liability.
Thelen is represented by Wayne Flick (Cornell BS ‘85, BU JD ‘90) of Latham. He’s probably not related to Tracy Flick (pictured), but based on that answer, he’s got a similar way with words.
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Thelen was a disgrace….the way they treated their staff, it is no surprise they went down. And the merge was unethical to begin with, it's a thing called karma