Law Suites

Our board of directors desided to sue 3 lot owners for violating our residency by law .None of the 3 owners have used their lots for a primary residencs .Our bylaws have no restrictions on how long you may use your lot at a given time.The 3 lot owners all have homes and residence in other towns which are leagel. My problem does the board have the right to asess the owners for the leagle fees if the court rules in favor of the 3 owners.This is getting to be a very costly suite .Our bylaws do say the board of directors can be sued iof they commit misfeasance or malfeasance. If they can't prove their case should we all have to pay for their bad judgement ? This could wind up wards of 50 to 60 thousand dollars or more.The boards lawyer didn't sound to confident he had a good case . Thanks George

George:

If I am not mistaken usually the losing party in pays all legal expenses. If you and other homeowners feel this suit is unjust and going to cost thousands of dollars you need to take steps now to either talk your board out of it or worst case scenario have them removed. You are right, if you lose the whole association will pay.

We tried to put a stop to it at the annual meeting .The board refused .By taking the board out of office puts the onis on the new board .I was nominated for President .I refused due to advice i got .I was informed not to assept any office while litigations were pending . The problem is the board can''t prove their accuations .Their lawyer as much as said so at the meeting ..If personal law suites come of this it could cost the park thousands adn thousands of dollars.The board dosn't think they can be sued .They asked the court in their discovery to order the 3 defendants not to seek monetary damages and to not seek to recover legal fees .Can a judge order this i don't think so .It sounds as if the board has less than half a chance to win .Peopl can have 25 addresses but they need only one leagel address by law .This is your primary address . Our bylaws have no restrictions on how long a person can stay on their lot at a given time .To try and beat the law suites they tried to pass a 180 day's a year at the meeting in july .I put a stop to that through E mails to the owners .If that got passed the board would have a better than 75% chance to win . Dirty pool and sneeky .Besides our property values would drop dramaticly .It is a mess to say the lease . Any advice George

I think it is a power trip for the new president .She was told in Jan that there wasn't much the Attourney could do .The bylaws have no restrictions on the length of time you can stay at your lot .It does say you can't use your lot for a primary residence. None of the 3 defendents are using their lots as a primary residence they all have homes in other towns where they vote register their cars. and got to on a regular basis.The board tried to pass a bylaw to restrict the use to 180 days a year by sending proxy votes out 2 weeks before the july meeting hopingit would get passed .I put a stop to that in its tracks .You don't do things sneeky like that .We have 8 lot owners that stay in Florida 4 to 5 monthe a year and at the park 6 to 8 months a year where is their primary residence? This could cost the owners thousands of dollars a piece if the court rules if favor of the 3 owners being sued .Its a mess to say the lease. Any pointers George