hi,

i am in San Francisco, and worked for an employer for years who was fighting cancer. he paid me every month or two with paystubs, but died owing me $3k (i have pictures of each time clock). his brother took over the cafe, introduced his new payroll software, and we ran it for a couple months 'til he randomly shut down the business. though his brother paid me for wages worked after the original owners death, i never received the $3k that i was told he would pay back. on top of this, i filed for unemployment and they are showing 0 wages.

the new owner tells me the unpaid wages become claims against the deceased owner's (insolvent) estate, but i'm skeptical of this.

what's my best course of action here?