By Joe Dowden, May 16, 2020
HSVPOA v. PCBS Part 3
As most everyone already knows, HSVPOA filed a lawsuit against PCBS on March 25, 2019.
The reason the POA cited for filing this case was for breach of contract for nonpayment of past due assessment fees. HSVPOA also requested to be awarded fees and interest.
Originally the amount of money requested by the POA was $21,000. This amount dramatically increased to $86,389.30 in a subsequent court filing in addition to $8,803.93 in attorneys’ fees.
***
Click here for Part 2, which is a summary of the case as of April 27, 2020.
***
On May 13, 2020, Hot Springs Village Property Owners Association attorney, Christopher A. McNulty of Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard, P.L.L.C. asked for the Saline County court to dismiss the POA case against PCBS, LLC.
Click here to view the Plaintiff’s Motion to Dismiss HSVPOA v. PCBS Complaint With Prejudice.
The reasons given in the dismissal request were that, “the parties have resolved the matter and prosecution of this case is no longer necessary.”
This latest court filing asks for the motion to be dismissed with prejudice and states that both parties will pay their own attorney fees and costs.
Questions
- Was the filing of this lawsuit just one more waste of Property Owners assessments?
- How much are the total POA attorney fees associated with this lawsuit? As already stated, the amount of $8,803.93 for attorneys’ fees is mentioned in the court documents. Of course, there may possibly be additional fees accrued in the filing of this most recent motion and the subsequent tying up of loose ends. While the sum of approximately $9,000 may not seem like much in the big scheme of things, these smaller sums do add up.
- How much HSVPOA staff time was wasted on this case? Could the time have been used in more productive pursuits?
- How long before increased assessments will be needed due to waste?
Engagement of Rose Law Firm
The engagement of Rose Law Firm by the new Board of Directors was a positive move in order to get a handle on all HSVPOA legal matters.
By Joe Dowden, May 16, 2020
***
Editor’s note: Thank you for reading. Click here to go to the home page to bookmark this website so you don’t miss any updates.
***
Click here to visit our Private Facebook Group.
Dan
05/16/2020 — 3:54 pm
How much did we settle for? Any amount plus legal fees is better then nothing.
HSVP J
05/16/2020 — 4:07 pm
Dan, no mention of a settlement. The filing said “the parties have resolved the matter and prosecution of this case is no longer necessary.”
This latest court filing asks for the motion to be dismissed with prejudice and states that both parties will pay their own attorney fees and costs.
Dan
05/16/2020 — 4:45 pm
Thanks Joe
Anonymous
05/17/2020 — 11:52 am
This is much to do about nothing. Lesley has been telling us for years she was legally pursuing lot owners for past due assessments. she has said this particular situation was very difficult because the lots in question had changed ownership so many times. She never tried to hide a thing. Apparently, she and the previous lawyers have decided not to pursue this any longer. Could it be the previous law firm is washing their hands of the nonsense in the Village.
Anonymous
05/16/2020 — 4:22 pm
This new Board with their promise of transparency should have no difficulty giving us all the details. Maybe we will get them next week. We’ll be watching.
Andy Kramek
05/16/2020 — 4:40 pm
This motion was made by the attorneys handling the case prior to the appointment of the Rose Law Firm. Shouldn’t this have gone through the new attorneys – or is this just a tactic by the LN&Co to prevent the new board from investigating this action (which should probably never have been brought anyway)?
Valerie Phillis
05/16/2020 — 4:56 pm
Andrew Kramek, as I am sure you would agree, this lawsuit NEVER should have been filed by the HSVPOA. The defendants did not owe the POA for the amount of uncollected maintenance fees.
Anyone who is not familiar with this bogus lawsuit just needs to open the links above and read for yourself. It will then become VERY clear what incompetence there is at the current senior managements desk (CEO).
I find it interesting that HSVPOA had this lawsuit “hidden” away and until a property owner uncovered the lawsuit, that none of us were aware of….this is deja vu of the ISN gate debacle and ongoing lawsuit. When does it end???
Minn Daly
05/16/2020 — 5:56 pm
Amazing to me that we still have NOT requested a forensic audit to seek out actions like this that have taken place without members knowledge. We had a legacy BOD who did not seek out information instead encouraged this action never questioning, WHY? Now we have a NEW BOD that wants transparency, let’s start with a forensic audit to see how much monetary waste on attorneys fees & other expenses that was spent on behalf of CEO & HSV POA business that was not needed. Realizing totally the ridiculous CONTRACT this CEO has, there are resolutions to correct it. (Gene Garner has stated an excellent way to do so. ) Please to all on this BOD let the ROSE LAW firm get us on sound ground. We have a bloated over paid staff, spending is out of control. Realizing that our NEW BOD must proceed with caution, please use the legal services you retained & stop with the compromises when dealing with CEO & staff. Remember CEO works for the BOD, salary with dues paid by membership! Minn Daly
Valerie Phillis
05/16/2020 — 9:08 pm
Minn, thank you very much for your words of wisdom. It is far past the time to make the change at the top. For me, this IS the final nail in the CEO’s coffin.
BTW – we should all thank Karen Lundberg for exposing the bogus PCBS lawsuit. Doing so pushed Nalley to rush to have dismissed – or we would continue to pay unnecessary legal fees.
anonymous
05/16/2020 — 10:23 pm
Let’s not forget all the money we had to pay during the Garner/Narug suit that went all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court and they lost on four counts.. Also, the second Garner suit he recently dropped after costing us more money. We also should look at Cooper’s suit to get access to LN’s contract. Was it really worth it to the Village to spend all the money. An awful lot of money has been wasted on lawsuits that the WTP group supported.
Lynda Narug
05/16/2020 — 7:09 pm
Does this law suit have anything to do with Twiggs dream of an UpScale Trailer Park near the east gate? It was started, then died when he tried to get the finances together. The company was from AZ that were involved in the style of the trailers with a home attached.
Anonymous
05/16/2020 — 10:15 pm
Mr. Twiggs did not solicit investors for the RV Park. I believe it was a major realtor in the Village. Remember, it was John Cooper who was trying to sell the land.
Carol
05/17/2020 — 5:34 am
A high end trailer park would have been a great addition to the Village. I hope this idea is brought back to life soon. There should be plenty of interest from developers. Plenty.
Helen Sanders
05/16/2020 — 7:34 pm
If you read all of the court pleadings, you will find that the defendants denied owning the property, among other things. Interesting reading.
Minn Daly
05/16/2020 — 10:22 pm
Valerie, thank you! Yes, we all should give Karen D. lundgren a BIG thank You, the Dowdens as well. HSV POA needs a FORENSIC AUDIT on all financial issues pertaining to HSV. That would certainly give us all info on attorneys hired an lawsuits filed for past 6 years. This would detail all expenses incurred, & where we are with debt. Our BOD also need to know these issues to get control of HSV financially, know where we stand & able to plan for the future. we are in a mess it needs correcting. To this BOD, we need a FORENSIC AUDIT! Minn a Daly
HSVP C
05/16/2020 — 10:33 pm
Karen Daigle Lundberg is a retired topnotch paralegal, who understands the legal system and has used her expertise to explain a number of court cases. We are very appreciative of this. Thank you, Minn, for stating the obvious. We would also like to see a FORENSIC AUDIT of HSV books.
Audie Murphy
05/17/2020 — 7:45 am
Maybe Karen can also tell us how often suits settle because one party has to pay but the terms are confidential. How about some more sleuth work to find out what that phrase in the dismissal really means, Karen? Anyone?
RAB
05/17/2020 — 12:33 pm
I too would like to see a deep dive audit of our books. This has been brought up several times in the last 5+ years. It always dies a slow death when folks investigate the cost of an audit like we would want. I have heard quoted the cost to be several hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have no idea, but if these quotes are even in the ball park, I believe most members would rather see our money spent on maintenance and updating our assets and infra-structure. Just MHO.
Tom Blakeman
05/17/2020 — 7:21 pm
I think most members would prefer to have the perpetrators of these bad Board decisions and foolish management actions held accountable and punished for their negligence and transgressions. Think of the waste. It’s in the millions.
Just think, if you worked for (or were on the board of) a firm in the “real” corporate America and did some of the things done in the last 10 years, wouldn’t you expect to be fired, sued, had compensation “clawed back” or be held personally liable? Of course you would.
But no, In our system, much like our Federal Government, they have lied, wasted, obfuscated, deceived, cheated, self served and squandered our monies and then continued the chant for “more FUNDING”. Tax and spend while feathering their own nests all at someone else’s expense.
We have a new Board. Let’s hope they not only fix the problems and prevent recurrence but also punish the current and past offenders. A forensic audit would be worth its weight in gold. We have a new Corporate Treasurer and he can’t even access the books. Duh!
Minn Daly
05/17/2020 — 8:59 pm
Tom Blakeman! thank You! you have a lot of support on Forensic audit, & your post, totally agree. Minn Daly
Anonymous
05/18/2020 — 1:57 pm
Are you sure we can afford a forensic audit. It will be very expensive.
Minn Daly
05/18/2020 — 3:17 pm
Anonymous, one thing all members know until the facts on finances are all listed we will never understand the financial shape HSV is in. Escalated dues will not cure any problem if we members do not know the facts on how we got into the situation we are in today. We all must move forward, but history of financial dealing will help that process, so events that have taken place in the past will not be repeated. Paying for a Forensic Audit will not cost as much as the attorney fees we have spent out in past 6 plus years. Minn Daly
Tom Blakeman
05/18/2020 — 7:08 pm
Totally agree Minn. The biggest problem we have is what we don’t know about our finances. The second biggest problem is we have no confidence in anything we hear, particularly from out current and over paid management staff.
We have one member group who’s mantra is we just need more assessments. We have another (and much larger) member group who believe in their hearts we have been getting stolen from for years.
Until we can get a Blue Ribbon, Gold Plated evaluation of where we are and where we’ve been financially we are going to go nowhere. Independent Comprehensive Financial Historical Audit – Going back at least 3 years. Call it Forensic or whatever you wish. We need it.
The only thing we need worse (first) is to get rid of the tyrant in charge who will not even let our newly appointed Treasurer have access the financial books.
Bob Mollerberg
05/18/2020 — 8:30 pm
After CCI won their lawsuit last year, I thought they conducted a “Forensic” Audit. Does anyone know what ever became of that? Was a report of their findings ever produced?
Tom Blakeman
05/19/2020 — 7:01 am
Bob: My memory says CCI did send in a team to examine records. They were given boxes of paper files but no access to electronic data so they couldn’t do much with it. Not sure what happened after that but perhaps they decided further cost and waste of time wasn’t worth it till administration was changed. I do know we never heard much more from CCI.
One could also postulate that they found issues which led to their more active attempts to sell out their holdings, hence the recent for sale signs, etc. Just a guess.
Someone chime in and correct me if my memory is faulty.
Personally, I’m of the opinion that if dug into deeply enough we would likely find proof of fraud, malfeasance, gross incompetence, (This PCBS lawsuit for example) etc. We’ll never know I’d we don’t try.
Minn Daly
05/19/2020 — 8:46 am
Tom Blakeman, you are so correct! COOPER people spent hours within HSV offices & was slow walked everything they asked for. Minn Daly
Gene Garner
05/22/2020 — 2:09 pm
Good Job, Joe
This appears to be another example of gross incompetence. It seems the POA sued PCBS for non payment of assessments on 169 properties and as Joe said owed $86,398.30 in back assessments. The POA also asked for $8803.93 in attorney fees.
But PCBS proved all those lots had been sold, over the internet, to new owners who assumed the unpaid taxes and assessments. Proof of these sales were available in the Saline and Garland County land records–that’s why AR is a “recording state” all documents that affect the title to real property (land) must be filed in the county where the property is located.
Because PCBS had to research and supply over 100 pages of documents to prove their case, it’s more than likely that the POA had to pay their legal costs.
There should have been an “waste of time” surcharge added to the bill.—Gene