From the Desk of Teri Nigretto
Board President
Good afternoon Members,
Because the airwaves (and cyberspace) around Eastsound are so filled with misinformation, we need to step forward and state the truth – in this case, to clarify our current motion before the San Juan County Superior Court.
First, this is not a new lawsuit. Rather, we have filed a motion for “sanctions” on the Plaintiffs after their motion seeking a restraining order against the Association was denied by the Court last month.
Legal sanctions are findings of “financial or other penalties imposed by a judge on a party or attorney for violation of a court rule … or as a fine for contempt of court.”
With sanctions, we are seeking to recover over $20,000 of member money used to defend ourselves against board members Ron Claus, Jim Cook, Carol Ann Anderson in partnership with others who jointly acted to bring a suit which the Judge ruled had “no clear basis in law” or in the bylaws of the Association. We do not believe that the Plaintiffs had sufficient legal grounds to file this lawsuit.
In addition, we contend in our motion that their counselor lied to the court to cast the Association in a bad light.
Notably, on Friday, September 13, the Plaintiffs reached out with a settlement offer, which we considered and countered, but negotiations broke down over their refusal to state that they would not sue the Association again.
When the sanctions motion was heard on Tuesday, September 17, Anderson et al insisted on an opportunity to fully air their 200-odd pages of submissions, and the Judge rescheduled the hearing for October 2 – just days after the September 28 recall election will have taken place.
As a result of the new requirements for our lawyer’s time, we raised our petition for cost recovery to $34,000.
The October 2nd hearing will be here soon. Feel free to reach out to Eastsound Water with any questions.
Thanks for listening.
Teri Nigretto
Board President
Eastsound Water