Thousand Trails Owner Corp. facing $111 Million Judgement

TandT

TandT

Founding Utah Chapter Leaders-Retired
Bill,
I agree that some compensation may be in order, but a million+ each?? It will be interesting to see if the award amount holds up. Trace
 
mrcomer

mrcomer

Past Ohio Chapter Leaders (Founding)
I agree. That much compensation seems extreme. I do hope that the giant corporation gets the wake up call and starts to put more money back into it's campgrounds. They have taken what used to be a member only campground system (Thousand Trails) and opened it up to the public. Now the campgrounds are harder to upkeep and maintain.
 
porthole

porthole

Retired
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]"Others said the case could set a dangerous precedent. "If verdicts like these are held up," said Phil Woog, an Orange County lawyer who defends park owners, "there won't be a mobile home park industry."[/FONT]

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]Interesting concept on the park's view.

Perhaps if the award is upheld parks will invest in the parks.

Just slightly lopsided.

[/FONT]"spending between $101,000 and $273,000 on upkeep annually at California Hawaiian and taking in more than $4.5 million"
 
dave10a

dave10a

Well-known member
Interesting how juries can make such large awards. I wonder if they evaluated the ability of the defendant to pay that sum.
 
wdk450

wdk450

Well-known member
I read somewhere in the story that the award amounted to about 10% of Equity Lifestyle's assets. The same owner, billionaire Sam Zell, has about 3 other "Equity" named holding companies owning senior housing apartments and condos, and the like. They are famous for buying rent controlled properties, then sending in their legal department in a "wear down and conquer" assault on the government entities to get rent control removed.
 
dave10a

dave10a

Well-known member
wdk450 said:
I read somewhere in the story that the award amounted to about 10% of Equity Lifestyle's assets. The same owner, billionaire Sam Zell, has about 3 other "Equity" named holding companies owning senior housing apartments and condos, and the like. They are famous for buying rent controlled properties, then sending in their legal department in a "wear down and conquer" assault on the government entities to get rent control removed.
Click to expand...
What source do you have for your assertion that this company "are famous for buying rent controlled properties, then sending in their legal department in a wear down and conquer assault on government entities". That is a serious allegation and should be backed up with a reputable source.
 
wdk450

wdk450

Well-known member
dave10a said:
What source do you have for your assertion that this company "are famous for buying rent controlled properties, then sending in their legal department in a wear down and conquer assault on government entities". That is a serious allegation and should be backed up with a reputable source.
Click to expand...

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Zell "Controversies" section

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/real...ty-lifestyle-faces-protest-at-annual-meeting#

http://voiceofsandiego.org/2008/04/16/i-wont-be-sued-into-silence/

http://tenantstogether.org/article.php?id=2969

http://www.bbklaw.com/?t=40&an=2301

https://www.casetext.com/case/equity-lifestyle-prop-v-county-of-san-luis-obispo#.U1haI1Vh8xE
 
J

jdfishing

Well-known member
That's plenty of "backup" for me Bill. Now I have an understanding of why TT operates as they do. I think I smell a legal beagle here.
 
dave10a

dave10a

Well-known member
Bill, Thanks for the backup information. I think is great when folks criticize others and can back it up. Too often we have folks that have opinions that are based on hear-say and not facts. At first I thought the folks at San Jose were victims of a bad property manager in a larger corporation. But now it looks like in may be more of corporate culture problem from the top. Therefore the large award from the court may be justified. It takes a large award to make a large company to take notice and change its practices or make retribution.
 
wdk450

wdk450

Well-known member
Dave:
Thanks for your gracious reply. I had seen 1 of the quotes (the protesters at the stockholders meeting), but just websearched the rest last night. I guess I was lucky those internet articles were out there. Agreed, many of us jump in and paint with a broad brush when perceived injustice is discovered.

Considering that my future retirement years are planned around staying in Thousand Trails parks most of the time, I hope Equity Lifestyles can stand up and be responsible for their past errors at a reasonable cost to them.
 
wdk450

wdk450

Well-known member
This afternoon somebody posted the ELS quarterly report to stockholders on the Thousand Trails Yahoo Group. The judgement is only about half of the current QUARTER'S gross income.

"ELS Reporting Growth in First-Quarter Income
Equity LifeStyle Properties Inc. (ELS), a Chicago-based Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with more than 170 RV parks making up nearly half of its holdings in the U.S. and Canada, reported first-quarter financial results Monday (April 21) .

ELS saw a rise of $7.8 million in normalized funds from operations over the first quarter of 2013, coming in at $71.8 million for the quarter. Funds from operations were up $6.4 million to $71.4 million. Net income available for common stockholders was up $3.1 million to $38.1 million compared to the same quarter last year.

Property operating revenues, including RV parks and manufactured housing communities, were up $10.5 million for the quarter to $186.4 million. The company had revenue of $196.6 million for the quarter.

ELS reported that it closed on two RV resort properties in Wisconsin in January and a Florida manufactured housing community in March.
A California jury slammed ELS last week with a $111 million verdict in a case involving a manufactured housing community. ELS announced it plans to appeal that verdict".
 
jmgratz

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
And Thousand Trails aka ELS raised dues for most everyone annually. Maybe this lawsuit will wake up some owner to begin repairing the roads in the Thousand Trails parks. We have stayed at many and most all have terrible roads.
 
ParkIt

ParkIt

Well-known member
Good luck on that thought, Jim.

Considering the corporate history, I doubt they will invest anything and most likely cut back on current park fixtures citing this case as having 'hurt' them financially.
We all know the words to that tune...
 
JohnD

JohnD

Moved on to the next thing...
jmgratz said:
Maybe this lawsuit will wake up some owner to begin repairing the roads in the Thousand Trails parks. We have stayed at many and most all have terrible roads.
Click to expand...

They'll probably claim that they leave the bad roads to help keep the speed down in the parks . . .
 
jmgratz

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
JohnD said:
They'll probably claim that they leave the bad roads to help keep the speed down in the parks . . .
Click to expand...

Yes we have heard that one before too. Guess they cannot spell 's-p-e-e-d b-u-m-p-s. i would be happy if they would put the box blade and the back of the tractor and spread a little gravel on the roads. Maybe even just fill in the holes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top