We were forced to move EPD to a temporary building since ours had been condemned, and have struggled to rebuild our dreams for over TWO YEARS; I rewrote our source-code files and made over 700 long-distance calls to Oasis and Chubb Insurance, all the time believing their company officials and corporate lawyers, each of whom stated that, "they were investigating" and would soon "get back to me" or "It isn't our fault." I have had to borrow on my home and personal name to be able to keep my few co-workers here.

Finally, on December 17th, after 323 of those 700+ long-distance calls, when each and every one of the insurance agents, investigators, lawyers and company officials, who would take our calls, explained in turn how sorry they were, that they were going on vacation, and if we'd just continue to "be patient" the company would deal with the situation, I reached the point where I simply no longer had the resources to continue borrowing money, waiting and hoping that those companies would take care of their obligations.

Unfortunately, since I couldn't very well give my co-workers "be patient" instead of a paycheck, that also meant going through the painful process of laying them off eight days before Christmas.    I now have one co-worker left, a disabled Vo-Tech/Rehab student who was widowed in May of 1998 with three young children.    He refuses to leave me to fight this battle alone, since this is his first "high-tech" job and he feels a great deal of loyalty to this tiny company.    This in spite on KNOWING that EPD can't pay him now, and may never be able to do so.

The obvious solution is to "sue their pants off," but we simply cannot afford to fight a lengthy legal battle with Oasis and Chubb.    I also had the naïve notion that this could be resolved without tying up the judicial system with one more lawsuit. In fact, EPD declined to join one such suit, as one of the stated goals was 'punitive damages', while our only intention is the recovery of what was destroyed by Oasis Manufacturing Corp's water cooler.

Oasis Manufacturing Corporation
   265 N Hamilton Rd
   Columbus, OH 43213
1-800-950-3226

"It's not our fault. It was the way the machine was installed by Love Bottling's delivery person." Interesting.    The installation of the same water cooler at EPD amounted to simply setting the unit on the floor and plugging it in.    When that excuse was exhausted, this became the reason:

"It's not our fault.    The users laid the cord on a nail to get it off the floor." Anybody who has ever picked up any electrical cord can figure out that this one's hogwash.

"Someone drove a nail through the cord." I'm not a lawyer, just an engineer, but it still seems strange to me that the cord has no nail holes in it now. The thing that also irritates me, is that this is NOT an isolated incident:

After almost two years of lies and stonewalling, Oasis finally admitted in MaYES County District Court that their water cooler did, in fact, start the fire. Almost as shamelessly, they are trying to shift the blame to the actual cord itself.

In the meantime, on February 7^th, 2000, one day after Oasis' attorneys believed the statute to have run out, Oasis sued me for Seven Hundred and Three MILLION Dollars!   As if that was not the height of arrogance and pulchritude, they are actually using the fact that since I allowed our files to burn rather than those cats, I have no right to demand payment from them or Chubb Insurance.

By the way, one of the One Hundred and Twenty-Three counts in the suit refers to the fact that the word 'a--hole' is contained in the Meta-tags for searches. I am convinced the word is applicable to anyone who would state that, "Defendant Judd purportedly visited the premises during the fire, to remove a cat, and kittens, therefrom. However, Defendant Judd was unable to save the assets of EPD, and EPD is alleged to have suffered a loss."

As of January 6th, 1999, I had never received any correspondence whatsoever from Oasis OR Chubb Insurance.    NOTHING.    All of these people whom I have tried to contact were enjoying their vacations.    My co-workers are STILL on vacation, and STILL not enjoying it.

However, when I finally decided to set up this and other web sites and ask for your help, they have ALL been quick to spring into action with threats, intimidation, delaying tactics and lies. The latest, of course, being the largest lawsuit ever filed in the United States. What amazes me is that NONE of these companies seem to have even considered the possibility of simply paying their debt to EPD.

There is nothing wrong with making a profit, but to deny responsibility when that profit-maker damages someone else is wrong.    In fact, it could potentially be fatally wrong. In this case, it very nearly was. The frustration for us comes from being forced to close our doors and lose our jobs while lawyers and officials of Oasis Manufacturing and Chubb Insurance spend time stonewalling, lying and trying to prove that someone else, and not they, are responsible for destroying EPD.

Since the landlord and the utility companies also won't accept "be patient" in lieu of payment, EPD will be forced to close it's doors and layoff its remaining employee soon.    It is amazing to me that the irresponsible officials of these huge corporations actually expect me to "be patient" while I'm preparing to lock the door for the last time.    At some point in the future this case may be settled, but EPD will be closed if these companies are not convinced to do 'the real thing'.

I have also been asked why I didn't try to get our data backup tapes out of here as well, essentially saving the company.    I guess my only answer is, "Because I couldn't get both.    I had no choice BUT to do it the way I did.    Had I rescued our company's computer backup tapes instead, those kittens would have surely died.    I've got a 16 year old cat living with me, and I know how I'd feel if he were trapped in a burning building with no one to help him get out."
Yes, I'd still take the risk to get those kittens out of the building if it caught fire today, even if I knew what was going to happen to our business.    After all that has happened, I am still glad I wouldn't "be patient" while the fire was burning.
After these giant corporations have completely destroyed EPD, I'll still be proud that all that was lost in the blaze was my hat and my company, rather than that cat and her kittens.

The truly remarkable fact is that, after lawyers for Oasis and Chubb Insurance got involved, the only winners out of the four years EPD has been in business are the cat and her babies. Oasis is still making water coolers and Chubb is still insuring them, but everything here is gone. The phrase, "We're sorry. We'll make it right" just does not seem to be a part of Oasis' OR Chubb's vocabulary. We've got two unemployed co-workers who're counting on us to get their jobs back, and it's awfully hard fighting three huge corporations with just two people, two computers, two modems and one cat. Anybody got any ideas?