I didn't see much point in hauling Stripp into court again to tell the same story. So, I wrote a letter to the judge with the result of the title search, and asked for direction from the court on what to do next. The letter resulted in a phone call from a court employee, who said, in so many words, “no, you can't do this”. The rules are, you can't present evidence to a judge unless it's done in court.
So, I contacted a local lawyer, Terry Hewitt, and spent some time with him. He had on-line access to corporate records, and learned that Empery Software had not filed any annual reports since the original registration in 2003. He took this to mean that Empery Software probably doesn't have any assets. If I want to collect anything, the best course of action is to try and locate assets, such as a bank account with money left in it.
At about the same time, I got a phone call from Stripp. I told him that he wouldn't have to show up in court on Sept. 26 if he could fax whatever documentation he had about the transfer of ownership to Hewitt's office. He said he would do this right away. I waited a couple of days, and no fax arrived. (It arrived about a week later.) So, I went to Dye & Durham, and arranged summonses to both Stripp and Martin.
When Sept. 26 arrived, Stripp showed up in court, and Martin didn't. Stripp was asked by Judge Alexander to testify under oath this time, and he entered as evidence some documents that showed that 4.5 million shares were transferred from him to Martin in August 2004, for a price of $1. After being given an affidavit of service from Dye & Durham proving that Martin had received the summons, Judge Alexander issued a warrant for Martin.
