On
October 1,
2007, the DFWMGRC
sent out its Newsletter giving
information with regards to the Settlement Agreement for the
Dallas Ft.-Worth Metro Golden Retriever Club and Judy Word lawsuit.
We’d like to thank them for doing that as by publishing
that information for both the Public and the Golden Retriever Community to see on
the DFWMGRC
website, that action gives further justification
for the existence of
the Friends Of Goldenwind website.
As a final rebuttal to what Friends Of Goldenwind
contend should be the last
statement the DFWMGRC should
need to make in its Newsletter
regarding this lawsuit, please
consider the following:
Defendants stated in an earlier Newsletter, November
2006 that their attorneys believed the Plaintiffs' claims were totally
without merit. Defendants also stated
in their
newsletter: “Our attorneys will be filing a response on behalf of the
DFWMGRC with discovery requests shortly and at that time a copy of the
pleadings and an explanatory letter from the Board will be made available
to the membership."
THAT statement was never fulfilled by the DFWMGRC
Board to its members. The
DFWMGRC
general membership never received any such
letter from the Board
as the Board stated in that publication to the membership. The general membership of the DFWMGRC
was not able to participate in
any
decisions by the Boards
with regards to this lawsuit. Nor was
there ever a general membership meeting to discuss the lawsuit. When
a DFWMGRC
member
would bring
up the subject of this
lawsuit, they were shot down by the Board. Plaintiffs did
not
need Defendants to make any types of concessions with regards to
Defendants liability as the documentation contained in this website clearly reflects where any
liability/guilt was in this case.
Defendants paid Plaintiffs $7500. The 2005
Board’s actions should have been declared null and void by the membership
for the many reasons that you will see on this website. The 2006 Board
had the chance to settle any disputes outside of litigation and before an
attorney was retained by the Plaintiffs and the 2006 Board had more than
adequate notice from the Plaintiffs to do so. Had the membership been
advised of Plaintiffs' original offer to the DFWMGRC Board to rectify the
situation at hand as opposed to having to go to Legal Litigation, and had
the DFWMGRC membership had the opportunity to know all the facts in this case,
it is contended that the lawsuit would not have to have been filed.
In that DFWMGRC Newsletter, the
Defendants state that their motion for summary judgment was compelling and
their case strong.
Again, as stated above,
Defendants quoted in an earlier Newsletter, November
2006,
that their attorneys believed the Plaintiffs' claims were totally without
merit. The 44th District Court in Dallas Texas did not think
the Plaintiffs' claims were totally without merit as Defendant’s Motion To
Dismiss was denied on April 3, 2007.
The Plaintiffs were totally prepared to go
forward and already had the answer to Defendant’s Motion To Compel
completed which was originally scheduled for just two days after
Mediation. Plaintiffs also had most of their answer to Defendant’s
Summary Judgment prepared before Mediation. However, Plaintiffs' goal was
never to destroy the DFWMGRC as Sherri Farmer misquoted a GRCA Board
member as saying at the most recent
DFWMGRC membership meeting, stating that a GRCA Board member had said that to her.
That GRCA Board member was directly contacted by another DFWMGRC
member addressed in that misquote by Sherri Farmer and the GRCA Board member
denied ever making that statement. That GRCA Board member is a well
respected member of the Golden Community and in our opinion would not have
made such a statement. The conclusion may be reached after reading
this website that there have been quite a few misquotes and untruths
stated by certain DFWMGRC members.
The DFWMGRC had lost 18 memberships in 2006 (documented in their Newsletter)
and had lost another 10 memberships in 2007 (documented elsewhere) that did not pay
their dues to renew their memberships. In addition, in 2007, one Board
member and his spouse resigned from the DFWMGRC after just a month or so of his being in
office, and now two more memberships have resigned as a part of the
settlement agreement of this lawsuit. The DFWMGRC membership is
approximately half of what it was when Plaintiffs first joined in the mid
90’s. According to documentation, the DFWMGRC has lost over 30
memberships since 2006. There are currently 54 memberships.
That is a loss of over 1/3 of of the membership during the period under
the leadership of the Boards addressed in the lawsuit. These statistics in and of themselves speak volumes as to what
can be perceived as the status of the DFWMGRC in recent years.
Plaintiffs agreed to settle this case out of court as the Defendants (DFWMGRC/Judy
Word) had unlimited resources with a Pro Bono attorney (employer of Sherri
Farmer, 2005 Board member) and Plaintiff's contend that the Defendants
were going to throw every legal maneuver/roadblock that they could in
order to deplete the Plaintiffs' financial resources which were very
limited as it would be expected with any family. At the time of
Mediation, the Plaintiffs and their supporters had in their possession
enough original evidence and additional evidence through LEGAL DISCOVERY
to have the ability to put together this legal website to prove that
Plaintiffs did nothing wrong at any time during their membership in the
Dallas-Ft. Worth Metro Golden Retriever Club. Plaintiffs had the support
of long time DFWMGRC members and anyone viewing the lawsuit website can
clearly see which party is lacking in ethics and integrity. The fact that
the DFWMGRC paid $7500 to Plaintiffs to settle the case speaks volumes.
It is Plaintiff's contention that IF the DFWMGRC were innocent of any
wrong-doing in this case, they would have moved forward as their costs in
this case were negligible.
It would
be interesting to make mention at this time that per the settlement
agreement, Judy and Mark Word
resigned from the DFWMGRC and those resignations were to have taken effect
upon the payment of the settlement check to Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs
received the settlement check on September 10, 2007. Mark and Judy
Word attended the DFWMGRC membership meeting on September 11, 2007, the
very next day, and
Judy Word actively participated in this meeting by questioning Ann Horton
out loud during this meeting that she had no business at being at.
Something to think about.
Most of the Friends Of Goldenwind are/were long time members of the DFWMGRC. We saw what happened to the Plaintiffs and some of us were also
unjustly targeted and/or sanctioned by the DFWMGRC through the Plaintiff’s
Disciplinary hearing and sanctions. The evidence presented on this
website shows that the Plaintiffs were innocent of any wrong doing.
Friends Of Goldenwind contend that the evidence presented on this website clearly shows the Defendants were not.
