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LIBEL/SLANDER LAWSUITS – OR JUST ATTEMPTS TO SHUT UP
OPPONENTS
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
August 3, 2012
Over
the years I have seen many so-called libel/slander lawsuits
filed against condo owners and HOA owners who dared to openly
oppose the board president and/or some board members.
Most
of these lawsuits are a joke -- and are just an attempt to shut
up owners who feel that the president and/or board isn’t doing
a good job. It seems that board members feel that owners who
dare to publish a website and post documents and videos of
meetings – and even add their personal opinions about the
on-goings in the association -- are the “enemy” of the
association and have to be “put out of business,” meaning
being forced to shut down the website.
Filing
SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) and
Libel/Slander Lawsuits against opponents is as old as the
association system.
As
members of the HOA
TASK FORCE in 2003-2004, Karen Tysenn and I successfully
fought hard to have the Anti-SLAPP-Suit provisions added to the
HOA Statute [FS
720.304(4)]. Julio Robaina’s bill H995
added in 2008 the same provisions to the Condo Act [FS
718.1224].
These provisions in the statutes scared board members
enough to seriously decrease the number of SLAPP lawsuits being
filed, but it seems since the enactment of these provisions the
number of libel/slander lawsuits is on the rise.
We have seen hilarious lawsuits being filed, lawsuits
that did nothing but waste lots of association dues. I don’t
have any understanding for board members suing their neighbors
for not agreeing with their actions, but I have much less
understanding for the attorneys – the so-called professionals
-- willing to file these frivolous lawsuits. In my opinion these
attorneys are sacrificing their ethics for billing hours!
What
board members often don’t realize is the fact that many of
these lawsuits easily backfire. The plaintiffs (members of the
board) open themselves up for “discovery,” meaning their
life is an open book and many documents that are normally
privileged information become public records. People don’t
seem to understand that plaintiffs can as well be subpoenaed for
depositions where they have to answer all kinds of questions –
under oath. Transcripts of these depositions are court documents
– meaning public records. And we have seen quite a lot of
these lawsuits where the owners found the proof of the
wrongdoings of board members – the actions the owners accused
the same board members of doing that caused the libel/slander
lawsuit to be filed in the first place.
Let’s
face it: Most of these lawsuits go nowhere! Most of these
lawsuits turn into a huge waste of money with the defendant
being the winner. Don’t forget: In order to prevail in a
libel/slander lawsuit the plaintiff has to prove real damages,
not just the claim that his/her EGO was bruised.
Such a
libel/slander lawsuit devastating the finances of a HOA is
pending in
Boca Raton
. Personally I think this lawsuit is insulting the intelligence
of the homeowners financing this lawsuit. Most of them are not
even aware how their association dues are being wasted. I
reported about that lawsuit already in February 2011. In my
Op-Ed headlined “LAWSUITS
TO PROTECT PRESIDENTS' BRUISED EGOS?”
I pointed out the fact
that many of these lawsuits are just filed to shut up owners
who don’t agree with the actions of the board. These kinds of
lawsuits are doing nothing but wasting everybody’s time and
money. The only winners in the end: The attorneys!
Fishing
expeditions cost lots of money, especially if these expeditions
end nowhere, failing to prove the facts needed to win such a
lawsuit. I followed up with another article about this issue:
“LAWSUIT
TO WASTE GOOD OWNERS' MONEY!” But if you think this
lawsuit ended soon thereafter, you are utterly mistaken.
Subpoenas for depositions and private records are still flying.
Owners in that community are scared to open their doors – it
could be a process server serving them with a notice to appear
at a deposition and/or bring their computer hard drive and
telephone records. Since the deposition of the defendant
obviously didn’t supply the proof the board president and his
attorney had hoped for, they are now involving other owners who
are not even party to this lawsuit. One of the targets of this
harassment – that’s what I think it is – is a 78-year-old
former board member who was unwilling to go along with this
“nonsense.” They “grilled” her for 6˝ hours in a
deposition and now want her computer hard drive and her
telephone records! In my opinion it is
outrageous that our legal system even allows such
abuse of legal power.
Last
I heard this lawsuit is killing the association’s finances and
may cause the board to levy a special assessment to pay for all
the bills.
This
is just one sad example for board members being allowed to waste
association money for their personal ego. Or are you going to
tell me that trying to repair the bruised ego of a board
president is improving the property values?
The
big question: What can be done to stop such nonsense? In my
opinion, nothing -- as long as the statutes allow board members
to use association funds to go after their neighbors with
libel/slander lawsuits.
It’s
bad enough that board members are indemnified even if they more
or less knowingly violate the laws. Volunteers or not – board
members shouldn’t have a “get-out-of-jail-free card” if
they ignore the laws or even break them.
Stopping
libel/slander lawsuits filed by board members? Easy going! Have
them use their own private money to file and pursue such
lawsuits. Such lawsuits surely don’t benefit the association
members. And you can be pretty sure that a lawsuit, as described
above, never would have been filed – and the association
surely wouldn’t have financial problems.
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