The owners of Horizon Furniture Inc., which closed earlier this year, each have filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court here.

Douglas Johnson, who owned Horizon Furniture with his brother, Paul, says economic conditions forced the closure and liquidation of that business, which had been in operation since 1997. He says the personal bankruptcies by him and his brother are a direct result of that business failure.

"We did it because of Horizon," he says.

Sales at the longtime furniture store had dropped to $1 million in 2008 from $4 million in 2007, Johnson says. Horizon had occupied a 60,000-square-foot space at the Spokane Industrial & Business Park, and had employed 10 people.

Johnson says the two brothers have started a new furniture company called Warehouse Furniture, which sells mostly rockers, recliners, and mattresses, in the same location, but with just 12,000 square feet of floor space, and that the two brothers now are the only employees of the business. The filings also identify business names Horizon Sales, which began operation in March this year, and Mattress Warehouse.

In Douglas Johnson's filing, he claims about $594,000 in assets and $1.6 million in liabilities, which the filing says are primarily business-related.

The largest secured claim in his filing is for $293,000 owed to Wells Fargo Bank, of Los Angeles, for a mortgage on his residence.

Paul Johnson lists assets of about $161,000 and liabilities of about $1.3 million in his separate Chapter 7 filing. The only secured claims in his filing are related to his residence, which the filing says is worth $153,000.

Some business debts listed in each filing are the same. The largest unsecured claim in each case is for $293,000 owed to Wells Fargo for business debt incurred between 2007 and 2009. Each filing also says $160,353 is owed to Furniture Brands International, of St. Louis, for debt incurred between 2007 and 2009.