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Originally Posted by graciegirl
Money that would be rightfully theirs? I will link again to that lawsuit that you keep bringing up. Read this again please.
Villages developer to pay $40 million for recreation upgrades to settle a lawsuit - Orlando Sentinel
ANYONE CAN SUE ANYONE. As a result of this LAWSUIT some individuals who live here apparently got a LOT of money.
Elaine Driedame is the president of the POA.
The developers maintain the areas and create beautiful new ones that I see south of 466 without anyone sueing them. I often wonder about that lawsuit. |
You continually overlook a key part of this settlement, the confidentiality agreement. Normally these agreements are made to keep the amount of the overall settlement confidential. In this settlement, the amount was well known. So what is the purpose of the agreement?
As stated in the article. "The settlement includes confidentiality and nondisparagement clauses, which prevent the parties from discussing the case or criticizing Morse of the Villages".
No doubt, during the Discovery phase of this litigation, less than favorable information regarding the developer and his dealings was discovered. So what the agreement did was buy the silence of the parties who sued Morse et al.
Yes, anybody can sue anybody, but you don't routinely get $40 million settlement agreements unless one party feels they have a lot more to lose if the case ever went to trial, which this one didn't. No doubt at some point Morse sat down with his lawyers and discussed the worst case scenario if it went to trial, which was probably greater than the settlement amount, so they agreed on the settlement.
It took a lot of courage to become a named plaintiff against someone as powerful as Morse. It's not a walk in the park being involved in this type of litigation. The 50K each was a reasonable amount for the named plaintiffs to recover and Morse bought their silence with it.