Employee Communication and Education: Employee Stock Option Questio

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I have a really confusing dilemna and hoping someone can offer some sort of answer to my question. Here goes............
I
worked for 20 years as a warranty administrator for a Dodge dealership.
I have been gone from there since 2006. During my time there the
dealership was "owned" by a family who also had 4 other dealerships.
The GM and Office manager of my dealership(let's call it X) were also
part owners of X and X only. The primary owner gave all employees who
had 5+ years of service employee stock. My stock started out as $25,000
more or less. We got a certificate each year. The employees did not
monetarily participate, so it was not like a 401k plan, I always felt as
if there was an underlying motive for it, such as a tax write off, etc.
since the company had never given us anything except a free turkey at
Thanksgiving. BUT, in order to collect on our stock we had to be
disabled or gone from the company for 5 years. During my last year
there, the primary owner of all 5 dealerships died. Also, during this
time we got a letter saying they were discontinueing the stock plan and
as of 01/25/2006 we would be 100% vested. I quit there in November of
2006 after being hurt on the job. I did get a workers comp settlement,
but went on to another employer to work. After my health continued to
deteriorate due to my injury I left employment completely and filed for
my disability.

Now, this is kind of where it gets tricky. I was
deemed 100% disabled about 6 months ago after 3 years of fighting for
it. I contacted my former employer and informed them that I was found
to be completely disabled, I was told I would be contacted to come in
and sign paperwork to collect my money from my stock. After I left the
company the GM and OM became complete owners of X. All employees who
were part of the original ESOP continued to get our certificates through
the years, my value had shrunk to 3500.00 by this time. (I never, ever
even remotely thought anything would come of this, because I knew what
kind of people I worked for, but was in a catch 22 situation, was
severely injured, so basically was stuck in a job that I had to have and
never received a raise for over 10 years because I had been injured)
Some employees were able to collect "their" money, others ran into a
wall at every turn. The GM and OM changed the name of X right before
the first of the year since they had become complete owners and had
purchased X from the estate of the primary owner.

Two months ago I got the following letter.

"The
purpose of this letter is to notify you of the termination of X's ESOP.
The ESOP (or Employee Stock Ownership Plan) was terminated effective
12/01/2009. As a participant in the ESOP, you generally have certain
rights regarding the distribution of your vested account balance. As
you know, your account balance in the ESOP if any is comprised solely of
stock in X purchased by employer contributions. The ESOP document
provides that you may elect to receive the vested value of your ESOP
account in cash (equal to fair market value of the stock in your
account) or in the form of corporate stock certificates.
Due to
recent economic conditions, however, the value of the stock in X held in
your account has a current fair market value of zero. Therefore, there
is no cash distribution available. Additionally, the corporate by laws
of X and the ESOP document provide that only CURRENT employees may be
shareholders in the corporation. Because you are no longer a current
employee of the corporation as a result of the Company's cessation of
business, no additional corporate stock may be issued to you. As a
result, there will be no distributions in any form from the ESOP to
participants.
The assets of X were sold and the corporation is in the
process of being dissolved. The proceeds of the asset sale have been
used to pay secured creditors, including state and federal tax
obligatins. There are no funds remaining with which to pay other
obligations. Please understand that no distribution will be made to any
owners of X."

Some of the people who have left employment are up
in arms, they want their money, I have been contacted about going with a
group of them to see an attorney. Like I said, I knew in the back of
my mind that I would never receive anything, I never expected it, I knew
I was being used as a "tax write off" from the get-go on this or that
there was something fishy about the whole thing. My question is.....is
it worth even fooling with. I am not out any money since I never
contributed. It seems that the others who want their money only want to
push this because of the crookedness of the company in general. Sort
of a vengeance thing. My nerves and health are in no condition to fight
with these people, meaning the current owners. I would love to have
the money, yes I do need it, but I feel as if the only thing it will
bring is more heartache. I complained of an injury and was put in a
corner of the service dept with no heat or a/c. Worked from home after
numerous surgeries and was not paid, my loyalty to the company was much
more than their loyalty to me. As you can tell, yes I am bitter.

Any
advice????? Let it go?? Is it worth fighting for? Is it worth fighting
for and hoping it is broken off in them the way it was so many of their
employees? I am sure the owners were smart when they came up with this
ESOP and the wording of it. If nothing else, I have some small sense of
relief just by venting to this forum. Thanks for listening and
hopefully I am not wrong in feeling as if I need to just let it go.
Karma is a bitch and what comes around, goes around, am I right or
wrong?

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