More than a year has passed since I last entertained you with the story of X, the owner of a unit in my little development who isn’t happy with decisions of the board of directors on which I still serve. X filed a lawsuit, (his || her) attorneys have come and gone and come and gone, inexplicably extensions and delays were granted by the judge, and finally our own attorney has taken X’s deposition and received a settlement proposal. I’d post the PDFs if I could but let’s just say that the details far surpass my poor brain’s capacity to understand.
X asserts that members of the HOA board of directors, past and present, have insulted, abused, harrassed and tortured (him || her) so that (he || she) has suffered severe illness and fears for (his || her) life or to even go outside, and further that we allow cats to use “the space outside my window as a toilet area.” I’m personally retaliating, according to this sworn testimony, because X had letters sent by (yet another) attorney when the board failed to repair a light outside (his || her) unit despite repeated requests.
Torture and abuse? Me? Another person might use such language to exaggerate for effect but I believe X intends the words quite literally based on the severe terms (he || she) proposes to settle the dispute. Specifically, and I quote some of X’s terms here unedited except to remove identifying information:
- “The board MUST allow due process.”
- “The board should NOT be a dictatorship.”
- “I want a guarantee that I will not be persecuted by future boards or individuals over [specific detail removed]”
- “I want to have the CC&R amended so that they cannot continuously repeat, year after year, board after board, or whenever somebody like [other owner name removed] wants to use the board as revenge.”
- “Other items to be discussed.”
- “Financial terms to be discussed.”
The settlement terms the board agreed to propose, as you might expect, are on a somewhat different plane of existence. We have a mediation meeting scheduled this week to see if a settlement can be reached without going to trial. I’m not at all confident this is possible.
Makes me wonder what the California standards are for slander in these situations.
BillSaysThis 