Quote:
Originally Posted by cabo35
My recollection is that $6,700,000 of the settlement went to the lawyers, $300,000 went to Villages class representatives who filed the suit and the balance was to be paid over 13 years. That would seem to dilute the large numbers you use in your argument. Please feel free to correct any fuzzy math or assumptions I make. Sometimes I can't remember what I had for breakfast.
Notwithstanding your point to the contrary, my concern is that he may well have been "grinning" on the way to the bank. A haunting concern is what motivated the rather quick settlement by the plaintiffs and there attornies.....was it settled in the interest of The Villages or the prospect of a big pay day?
What incentive is there to holdout for a bigger award if the opposition put a $7,000,000 bone on the table for the litigants. If the potential in the discovery process was as great as you suggest.......why wouldn't you be suspicious of the "settlement" as well? A thirteen year payout seems to dilute the large settlement numbers you and others bandy about and suggest was a good deal for Villagers and a stigma to the developer. The 13 year spread factor never seems to be included in your equation. Perhaps because it dilutes the impact of the "big number" and just possibly......Villagers may have been shortchanged at the table. I guess we will never know. Just my opinion.
My apologies for hijacking the Morse/Moose thread.
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Cabo35,
(As you note in your apology, I guess we have swerved from the original topic of this thread, but everything is kind of connected.)
As I recall, your numbers are basically correct. Furthermore, I share your basic concern that the settlement amount might turn out not to be big enough to continue the amenities system. It certainly will NOT be if the IRS investigation goes totally south. (It is my understanding that the Developer did not disclose the existence of that investigation during the settlement negotiations, and as you know, the Daily Sun, for some reason, did not report on it.)
As I have said in earlier posts, only time will tell if the $40 million settlement received from the Developer, payable over 13 years, is in fact, sufficient to maintain the amenities to which we are contractually entitled. If not, it may, in the future, be necessary to either reopen the matter or initiate another lawsuit-- although the settlement did result in the Developer obtaining a release, which will complicate things. It is just too bad that the Developer's actions necessitated the class action in the first place.
In any event, in my view, we are all better off as a result of the class-action lawsuit than we would have been without it. Our amenities have, in fact, continued, facilities that were falling into disrepair have been repaired, and the cart path has been rebuilt north of 466. In other words, SO FAR the settlement has apparently worked out as intended. We will see what happens in the future-- but SO FAR, life is good.
I personally know most of the lead plaintiffs in the class action suit, and my feeling is that we all owe them a vote of thanks for taking the time and initiative to act on our behalf. I don't think that any of them was motivated by anything other than what they perceived to be in the best interests of the residents.
In regard to the plaintiffs' attorneys' fees, they don't strike me as being outrageously high-- considering the amount recovered, the complexity and difficulty of the case and the possibility that the attorneys would have gotten nothing had they not won. (It is my understanding that this was not a situation in which the Developer simply had an epiphany, rolled over, and voluntarily coughed up the money to continue the amenities at the promised level.) Put in simple terms, if you get me $47 million (even spread over 13 years) to which I am entitled and otherwise am not going to get, I'll give you $6.7 million without batting an eye.
In essence, as a result of the efforts of the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, we residents recovered, from the Developer, $40 million payable over 13 years. Both you and I hope that it is enough to continue the amenities' system. If not, we will all have problems that will have to be addressed.