356 Registry Lawsuit is Concluded

[Jeffrey Leeds]

Jim, a Court of Law has heard the arguments and determined that the Plaintif's position is bogus and abusive and assed damages against him AND his Counsel. Assessing damages against counsel is highly unusual and serves to reinforce the Judge's position.

The Plaintift continues to spite the Court. There is absolutely no reason for the Club to walk away from our position that we have been wronged and are due restitution.

Principle Matters.

Jeff

[Sebastian Gaeta]

I understand where Jim is coming from if he has not been following it from the beginning.

BUT..."we" should absolutely not cave in to being bullied, which is what the judge's opinion said was happening in his opinion.

If you are being harrassed by litigation, should you just say to the plaintiff "okay, okay, whatever you want just so we can make this go away"?

That precedent would only encourage legal harrasment and bullying by other over zealous, litigation minded egomaniacs.

[C J Murray]

Geez Sebastian, you almost made me cry I loved your post so much!

[Brian R Adams]

Would Steve just walk away from this all?

By "walk away" do you mean:

a) Comply with the court order and return all our club's documents he possesses illegally, and pay the $50k restitution, then "walk away".

or

b) Walk away with all our club's documents, and $50k he now owes the club.

"Now ask yourself: Do I feel lucky today?"

[Ron LaDow]

First, anyone advising a course of action ought certainly to acquaint himself with the process to date. Specifically, the club would have happily 'walked away' from the entire mess, but the action was brought by the other party. The club governance could hardly have simply thrown in the towel then; pretty sure they are duty bound to protect the privacy of the membership and by fiduciary duty to defend against false claims on the club's finances.
Similarly now, the court has found in favor of the club in what looks like a pretty sweeping condemnation of the other party; if those elected by the members were to bail now, I'd bet the court and the membership might well find reason to dispute that action.
As an aside, this has obviously been a MAJOR headache to those elected to the club's board. In their role' as representatives, it seems the board has managed to make the entire process a peripheral issue for the rest or us, unless we choose to get or stay involved. As a member, I see no reason to object to the continuation at this point, so long as the board is convinced they should continue.
And I'm offering a standing O to those who have stood fast over the last years to bring this to what looks like a successful conclusion.
In short, I can see where the plaintiff would certainly prefer the club to 'walk away' at this point, but can see no other reason to do so. Certainly not any sort of 'stress' on any member who has to search to find information which might cause that stress.

[Brian R Adams]

Jim; the plaintiff has forced all this crap on the Registry. We would certainly like it to end, but SH won't let it die, because his ego won't let him.

Maybe his pocketbook will. $50k fine - "Tha's a lotta money, mang!"

[David Lawrence]

Maybe his pocketbook will. $50k fine - "Tha's a lotta money, mang!"

What may not be known to some posters here is that the plaintiff is quite wealthy and from what I have read on the other forums he is also suffering from cancer.

For some unknown reason there is a condition in cancer patients where they develop a personality that is either very combative or very submissive. It appears to me that the plaintiff may have developed the combative condition.

If the plaintiff is terminal he has nothing to loose by fighting the ruling against him and at the same time continuing to harass the 356 Registry.

David
Not an MD but an experienced cancer survivor.

[Wil Mittelbach]

What this is all about:
1. Member has questions, reads bylaws and laws, requests information that reasonably speaking (whether ultimately speaking it is perfectly correct or not) he is entitled to
KTF,

As I understand it, he also requested the names and addresses of all Registry members (such as mine and yours) for the purpose of direct contact to solicit his book, versus a classified posting in the Registry publicizing his book.
I applaud the Registry's efforts in keeping members' particulars within the Registry, versus making them available for commercial sources.

[Jim Neil]

OK, I admit I have not followed this all in detail and thankfully I have better things to do. I do acknowledge that if you want to fight me, and if I genuinely think that you're not reasonable, I am very capable of fighting to the death, hence my Scottish clan motto, "Buaidh No Bas" ["Conquer or Die"], which does seem to run through my blood. Fortunately, nobody here has really pissed me off so I'm just staying my normal mellow self.

I'm going to avoid this and crawl back under my dash and concentrate on fixing my damn wiring. Thanks to all who make this a great place. Hope this deal winds up soon. Cheers!

[Sebastian Gaeta]

As I understand it, he also requested the names and addresses of all Registry members (such as mine and yours) for the purpose of direct contact to solicit his book, versus a classified posting in the Registry publicizing his book.

That may be but I doubt it was the real purpose. He wanted the info so he could send the Registry members some information that he gathered regarding the club.

He did end up doing that (I received my copy a few weeks ago) using the list he was prohibited to use by the court, but it didn't cause much of a reaction within the membership. In fact, none at all.

I liken it to Evel Knevel's Snake River Canyon jump in a rocket ship or H. Ross Perot's request during a campaign speech that all his supporters drive to work with their headlights turned on the next day as a sign of support for him.

In other words, a whole lotta nothin' that barely got noticed...

EDIT: I cannot belive I forgot Al Capone's underground bunker. It was kinda like that too.

[Brian R Adams]

He did end up doing that (I received my copy a few weeks ago) using the list he was prohibited to use by the court, but it didn't cause much of a reaction within the membership. In fact, none at all.

There was quite a reaction, on this very forum, along the lines of "What's this crap I just got from Plaintiff? And how can he be allowed to use the mailing list which he was ordered to return and not make use of?"

[Craig Richter]

I thought there was a pretty distinct reaction too, considering how difficult it is to get written comment from the general membership. Many of us are very interested in where the judge goes with this...

[C J Murray]

I am pleased that the Judge has so clearly come down on the side of the Trustees. They were really just doing what they thought was right in the face of the obnoxious tenacity(then) that is so obviously exhibited(now) by the plaintiff in response to the Judge's independent evaluation of the whole situation. Before there was a hint of a law suit, while SH was making demands to the Trustees that his ideas about 4-cam focus would be implemented, the Trustees were simply pushed too far. If the cars were more important than personal ego then the plaintiff would have worked harder through the Trustee election process and by lobbying members to convince them that his ideas had merit. Never, ever, is there an excuse for behavior like suing volunteer officers in a social club. The legal action is just what the Judge says, an unwarranted personal attack on the Trustees, the club, and the 356 community.

[Sebastian Gaeta]

In other words, a whole lotta nothin' that barely got noticed...

I hear ya' guys. I guess what I was getting at was the reaction to it was probably nowhere near the one he hoped for. I imagine he dreamed of a mob with pitchforks and torches banging on the trustee's doors, which obviously did not happen. What happened was a stronger showing of support for our volunteers.

[Brian R Adams]

In other words, a whole lotta nothin' that barely got noticed...

I imagine he dreamed of a mob with pitchforks and torches banging on the trustee's doors

Ah, ok, a scene from "Young Frankenstein", eh? Got it.

"To the lumberyard!"