Forty-one people who bought properties in Caliente Resorts sued the nudist community

[NakedGary]

Forty-one people who bought properties in Caliente Resorts sued the nudist community

Link - Land O Lakes - Propery owners sue Caliente Resorts article

[NakedGary]

Forty-one people who bought properties in Caliente Resorts sued the nudist community

Link - Land O Lakes - Propery owners sue Caliente Resorts article

[Fuzzy Nuts]

Wonder how the Caliente Corporation will screw the owners of Eden Bay now that Caliente has taken over.

[David77]

Here is another article about the same situation.
http://usanudist.com/blog/2007/03/20...liente-resort/

[D-TX]

From reading that second article, it appears the lawsuit is based on residents saying they were promised property for their Casitas for $50,000 before the Casita Village was approved and platted by the county, and then charged $100,000 once the lots were actually for sale.

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV either.

But, if the residents don't have any sort of written contract listing the promised sale price of $50,000, they're likely to just generate some publicity, and then still have to pay the $100,000 for their lots.

Take Care & Stay Bare,
David

[NakedGary]

Caliente alleges e-mail theft
By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published March 22, 2007


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LAND O'LAKES - A day before 41 home buyers sued Caliente Resorts, alleging a bait-and-switch scam, the nudist community's management had filed its own lawsuit to find out who stole and published confidential information from its computer server.

Caliente's lawsuit against "John Doe" was filed March 15 in Hillsborough County.

In January, an "unknown e-mail user" had allegedly stolen an internal, confidential e-mail from Caliente's computer server and sent it to Caliente homeowners, the lawsuit said.

"Doe disseminated the confidential information ... using a Yahoo! e-mail account, made to look as though Caliente intentionally published the confidential information," said Caliente lawyers Richard Petitt and Elizabeth Petterson, of the Tampa firm of Bricklemeyer Smolker & Bolves.

Whoever stole the information apparently sent it out using the e-mail address, "[email protected]," and user name, "Caliente International."

The lawsuit paves the way for Caliente to subpoena Yahoo! to trace Doe's identity. Yahoo! officials could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

The lawsuit was filed in Hillsborough because the e-mails allegedly reached users in that county, among others, the lawsuit said.

"The stealing and publishing of said e-mail has damaged Caliente," Petitt and Petterson wrote, asking to recover damages and legal costs, among other remedies.

Petterson did not reply to a call for comment Wednesday. Petitt was not in the office, an assistant said.

An attorney for the 41 home buyers denied the two lawsuits were linked.

"I have no knowledge of the John Doe case," said John Lakin, of the Bradenton firm of Barnes Walker & Lakin. "I don't know what the owner of Caliente is up to."

The 41 had bought "casitas," or mobile homes, from Caliente. They accused Caliente of doubling the lot prices beyond what the company had first advertised, after locking the buyers into lease and purchase agreements.

Until March 2005, Caliente officials were allegedly telling buyers that the lots were available for about $50,000 each.

Caliente's lots went on sale in November 2006. By then, Caliente had raised the lot price to about $100,000.

In a letter to casita owners, Chuck Foster, Caliente's vice president, said the lot prices reflected real estate trends and noted that buyers had never contracted to lock in lower prices.

Lakin criticized Caliente for threatening to end the home buyers' right to use the resort's amenities in retaliation for their lawsuit.

"They're using intimidation and coercion," Lakin said. "The law is not designed to let people do that. You can't represent to people that you would sell at a certain price, and then raise prices and be unjustly enriched."

Foster did not respond to calls for comment Tuesday and Wednesday.

Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at (813) 909-4613 or [email protected].

[CollarFreeWorker]

We were seriously considering buying a property, maybe one of the casita village lots, at Caliente when we heard talk about this situation earlier this year. That kept us away, and now we're settled on buying a home at Cypress Cove instead, where there doesn't seem to be any of this real estate drama going on.

I hope both sides in the Caliente dispute can settle things, because it would be a shame to have that gorgeous resort sullied by this kind of discontent among the owners and management.

Later,

Mike

[Rabid_Clam]

Why can't people just mind their own business? They all are sue happy ! Disgusting !!!

[EricNY]

quote:

Originally posted by Rabid_Clam:
Why can't people just mind their own business? They all are sue happy ! Disgusting !!!

Are you kidding? What would you expect to happen? What would you want people to do accept a situation like this?

[Bob S.]

Is the money really worth this press?

Even if Caliente was in the legal right with no signed documents, why would they want to turn around and alter the price like this?

And then to suggest that bringing a lawsuit against the resort would be grounds for dismissal is just scare tactics in order and sounds like a shake-down. Pay up and shut up or get out.

Bob S.

[Naturist Mark]

quote:

Originally posted by Bob S.:
Is the money really worth this press?

41 x 50k = over $2 million dollars. And there are probably just as many people who didn't join the lawsuit, so maybe $4 million or more.

Hell YES it is worth some bad publicity.

quote:

Even if Caliente was in the legal right with no signed documents, why would they want to turn around and alter the price like this?

Million$ of reason$

quote:

And then to suggest that bringing a lawsuit against the resort would be grounds for dismissal is just scare tactics in order and sounds like a shake-down. Pay up and shut up or get out.

It isn't a co-op club, it is a private business. "Members" have no legal rights except those that apply to a place of public accommodation, or those granted by a contract. They can be kicked out on the whim of the owners. This a case where even if the residents "win" the case, they can still lose if they lose the goodwill of the resort owners.

Since they are actually buying property, rather than leasing a site, I assume this case falls under whatever laws govern condominiums in Florida, so the residents DO have some rights, but not many. I'm guessing until the legal dispute is settled the residents must be allowed access to their property, but their use of resort facilities is up to the resort owners.

-Mark

[shomymojo]

quote:

Originally posted by CollarFreeWorker:
We were seriously considering buying a property, maybe one of the casita village lots, at Caliente when we heard talk about this situation earlier this year. That kept us away, and now we're settled on buying a home at Cypress Cove instead, where there doesn't seem to be any of this real estate drama going on.

I hope both sides in the Caliente dispute can settle things, because it would be a shame to have that gorgeous resort sullied by this kind of discontent among the owners and management.

Later,

Mike

...Mike...does this mean we will be having a future Sunbird event at Cypress Cove...???...sounds like fun to me...

[CollarFreeWorker]

Butch -

Yes, indeed! Starting from next May, the 'Birds are invited to be our guests at the Cove anytime!

Later,

Mike