CHARLESTON — Prayworks is suing several accountants and their firms for failing in their duty of care.
David Pulver Pray, Laura Jones Pray and Prayworks filed the lawsuit against Anthony Rager, Brown Edwards & Co, Gibbons & Kawash, Al Minor & Associates, Albert R. Minor Jr. and Michelle Scholes alleging professional malpractice.
The plaintiffs claim they are longstanding clients of Gibbons & Kawash, Brown Edwards and Rager and one or more of those accounting advisors were retained to provide numerous accounting and tax advisory services, according to a complaint filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.
David Pray is the sole member and employee of PrayWorks and is taxed as a sole proprietorship. He is the sole trustee and participant in the two tax-qualified retirement plans.
In 2019, Pray filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 7 Title 11 of the U.S. Code and Schedule B filed in the bankruptcy case identified his retirement plans and the schedule C set forth that he claims his interests in each of the retirement plans were exempt from administration by the Chapter 7 trustee, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs claim the two primary creditors objected to the exemption claims and the trustee retained special counsel to assist in pursuing the objections.
In December 2019, the trustee asserted that David Pray had unlawfully made excessive contributions to the retirement plan and took excessive deductions on the Prays' jointly-filed tax returns between 2010 and 2016 and that the retirement plans were not being operated in compliance with the IRC and should be disqualified.
David Pray then took steps with the IRS to fix the errors. He claims the defendants each owned a duty of care in the performance of services and he had relied upon them and they had failed to maintain accurate documentation in the performance of their professional services, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs claim they sustained damages and costs due to the defendants' failures.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages with pre- and post-judgment interest. They are represented by Sharon Z. Hall of Zimmer Kunz in Weirton.
The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 22-C-586