Who owns it?

[Taxing Matters]

Well….we hope to get the attention of the DA. People have taken steps to ensure the documents we do have are under our control. We wonder what else we need to bring to the DA.

oh..one item that has popped up….in 1985 FM and the shareholder/president had a court case in Missouri. I cannot seem to get a copy of it…I tried to get it online, but the case is too old for the electronic system. How can I get it? If what the idle talks says about it…the case was about “who owns the corporation“ and thus who has control. We know the answer to the question…but it is proof the shareholders knew from even way back then that the begging for donation to the club was a scam. Any pointers to get this old case? Driving there isn’t possible, but perhaps there is somewhere I could write To get it?

Start by calling the court clerk for the court in which the case was heard. It may well be that the court no longer has the case at all, or if it does, it likely is stored off-site or recorded on microfilm. Storing records costs money, and case files that 39 years old are long past the time for any appeal or collateral attack and would be of little interest to the public, so courts often have a policy that after X years cases are moved out of the court house in some manner. The clerk can tell you if it's at all possible to get, and what the cost, if any would be. There is likely little or nothing in the case file that would help you now. One of the big problems with a fraud claim like this is that the public records as well as the actions of the corporation would have alerted the club members that they weren't owners had they bothered to check that. If they were owners, they should have received tax statements for reporting their share of the business income each year, they should given notice of board meetings and the opportunity to attend the meetings or vote by proxy, etc. I'm guessing they didn't get any of that, which should have long ago triggered questions among the club members about just what ownership stake, if any, they had.

 

[Againandagain]

Start by calling the court clerk for the court in which the case was heard. It may well be that the court no longer has the case at all, or if it does, it likely is stored off-site or recorded on microfilm. Storing records costs money, and case files that 39 years old are long past the time for any appeal or collateral attack and would be of little interest to the public, so courts often have a policy that after X years cases are moved out of the court house in some manner. The clerk can tell you if it's at all possible to get, and what the cost, if any would be. There is likely little or nothing in the case file that would help you now. One of the big problems with a fraud claim like this is that the public records as well as the actions of the corporation would have alerted the club members that they weren't owners had they bothered to check that. If they were owners, they should have received tax statements for reporting their share of the business income each year, they should given notice of board meetings and the opportunity to attend the meetings or vote by proxy, etc. I'm guessing they didn't get any of that, which should have long ago triggered questions among the club members about just what ownership stake, if any, they had.

yeah, all you say is true. This is an RV club filled with very senior people. they believed what they were told By the shareholders. They believed what the newsletters were telling them, which was in plain English that the members owned this place. Only this last couple weeks did we find that old store of newsletters and compare the truth to what the shareholders have been telling everyone Since 1986. We were concerned that we could not provide evidence that the shareholders knew all along and thus knew they were committing fraud on everyone. This case decision will prove that.

In 1996 the number of members nation wide was 3,000, today it has dropped to 300. They die. Average age in this place is 76. some deep memories in this group. But, we also have the original newsletters…so it isn’t just the memory. Everyone was shocked to learn the shareholders could do as they please…that they do actually own the place.