The Ad Hoc Committee of Consignors has filed a motion asking the bankruptcy court in charge of the Diamond Comic Distributors bankruptcy to force Sparkle Pop LLC, the Ad Populum company that acquired assets of Diamond Comic Distributors and Diamond Select, to decide whether it wants to assume or reject the consignment agreements that were in force between Diamond and the publishers when bankruptcy was filed.

The motion also lays out amounts of money owed to the 12 companies in the Ad Hoc Committee for product sold between filing and the sale to Sparkle Pop, and after the sale.  The amounts owed for sales between filing and the sale of the company were to have been paid by Diamond as administrative claims.  Unpaid amounts total $163,368, according to the filing.

The Committee also asserts that at least $347,791 is owed for product sold after May 15, when Sparkle Pop bought the Diamond comic assets.  The motion notes that Diamond Comic Distributors has informed Sparkle Pop that it did not sell the inventory, and argues that Sparkle Pop did not have the right to sell it because it did not assume the contracts.

In addition to asking the court to force Sparkle Pop to assume or reject the contracts, the Committee also asked that if Sparkle Pop rejects the contracts they be deemed terminated.

In addition to the consignment vendors represented by the Ad Hoc Committee of Consigners, a second group of 12 companies and numerous individual consignment vendors have objected to Diamond's plan to seize and sell the inventory (see "New Filings in Consignment Dispute").

This latest filing by the Ad Hoc Committee takes a different tack in the dispute, by asking the court to force a resolution to the status of the consignment contracts at the heart of the dispute.  The Ad Hoc Committee also filed a motion to stay Diamond's motion to seize the consignment inventory.