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AOS to cease operations
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The American Optometric Society announced in a press release that it will be forced to liquidate its assets and cease operations as a result of a judgment by a U.S. bankruptcy court to convert its chapter 11 bankruptcy case to chapter 7.
In 2012 a federal court judge ruled in favor of the American Board of Optometry (ABO) in the false advertising lawsuit filed by the American Optometric Society (AOS) over board certification. Then a district court ruled that the ABO was entitled to an award of its attorneys’ fees of $462,508.
In a July 16, 2013, hearing, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Central District of California granted the ABO’s motion to convert the AOS chapter 11 bankruptcy case to chapter 7 “for cause, including substantial or continuing loss to or diminution of the estate and the absence of a reasonable likelihood of rehabilitation,” according to the court ruling.
The judgment read: “There is bad faith in filing the petition herein and filing of the debtor’s plan.”
The AOS said in its press release that the ruling was made despite the AOS “submitting a plan that paid the judgment in full, including all fees."
“The majority of ODs will continue to make their opposition to board certification known,” AOS Board President Pamela Miller, OD, JD, said in the AOS press release. “Individually, we are not going away.”
ABO Chairman of the Board Paul Ajamian, OD, said in an ABO press release: “The hostile and acrimonious rhetoric generated by a handful of individuals set on slowing the progress of our profession has failed.”