Bank asks judge to appoint trustee to oversee LesCare Kitchens Inc.

By David A. Smith, Waterbury Republican-American, Conn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Mar. 1--A North Carolina-based bank wants a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to appoint an interim trustee to oversee LesCare Kitchens Inc.'s Connecticut operations and to close the sale of the cash-strapped company's former southern plant.

Additionally, Wachovia Bank wants the trustee to find personal property removed from LesCare's Statesville, N.C., plant, and to monitor and collect the company's accounts receivable, according to papers filed at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Haven. A hearing on the proposal has been scheduled for this morning in New Haven, weather permitting.

The filing comes as part of an involuntary Chapter 7, or liquidation, petition pending against LesCare, which little more than a year ago ranked among the country's largest private manufacturers of kitchen cabinets, boasting more than $100 million in annual sales. But four suppliers to the 60-year-old cabinetry company filed papers Feb. 16 seeking possible liquidation to recover nearly $1.5 million owed to them.

The company has not yet filed an answer to the petition, according to bankruptcy court records. James C. Lestorti, LesCare's chairman and chief executive officer, did not return calls Monday for comment.

Unlike a voluntary Chapter 7 petition, which a debtor files in an effort to settle its debts, an involuntary petition is filed without the debtor's consent. And unlike Chapter 11, which offers protection from creditors while a firm reorganizes and continues to run, under Chapter 7 an entity's assets are collected and sold to repay debts.

LesCare can challenge the filing and seek its dismissal, or the company could accept the filing and seek a conversion to Chapter 11, among other options.