Closed chain points brides to trustee

Bankrupt bridal retailer Alfred Angelo is telling jilted brides that they will have to deal with a bankruptcy trustee if they want to get their dresses.

Alfred Angelo, which has headquarters in Delray Beach, Florida, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last week in Florida, indicating that it owes creditors between $50 million and $100 million. It lists assets of between $10 million and $50 million.

All of the bridal retailer’s 60 stores — including a location on West DublinGranville Road — closed

permanently at 8 p.m. Thursday. In addition to the Alfred Angelo Bridal Signature Stores in the United States, the company’s designs are sold at 1,400 retailers worldwide.

Alfred Angelo said in a posting on its website that customers who had ordered dresses and want to know the status of their order should contact the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee, Margaret Smith, by sending an email to alfredangelo@ mjstrustee.com.

The effort by the bankruptcy trustee to accommodate consumers “is quite frankly remarkable,” said Myron Terlecky, a partner at Columbus law firm Strip Hoppers Leithart McGrath & Terlecky.

“It’s my understanding there are not a lot of assets in the company, so for the bankruptcy trustee to try to accommodate consumers to get dresses they paid off either in full or part — my hat’s off to the trustee for taking those steps,” he said.

But another local bankruptcy expert was much more pessimistic.

“At this point, it looks like a very bad situation,” said Creola Johnson, a professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law. “The company has to play this game — we’re going down in flames, who do we pay?”

Under bankruptcy law, employees have a higher priority to be paid back than consumers. If employees weren’t paid after last week’s closing, “then this is not looking good,” she said.

However, the company could bring in more money if it fills the orders and gets paid for the dresses, Terlecky said.

“As a bankruptcy trustee myself, I can empathize with what that trustee must be going through in this situation. The trustee may be looking at it on a caseby-case basis.”

Alfred Angelo said it will post additional information regarding the status of dresses on its website, www. alfredangelo.com, as it becomes available.

“We apologize for the inconvenience and hardship resulting from this event,” the company said in the posting. “We appreciate your patience. Thank you.”

Brides should be wary, Johnson said.

“It’s probably not looking good,” she said. “Brides who need dresses right away need to jump on other offers.”

— Myron Terlecky, a partner at Columbus law firm Strip Hoppers Leithart McGrath & Terlecky