Manhattan Club Lawsuit

Does anyone know about a "Statue of Limitations" as far as joining with Mr. Zimmerman's suit and being delinquent in maintenence payments? Would the amount in arrears get deducted (if a settlement is ever reached) or could you get kicked out of the suit for being in arrears?

hello Jim 2810

compilation and display on this forum of owners' contact information would compromise privacy laws. however if the courts, through the legal process, would give permission to obtain and judiciously use the list under court supervision, it would be very helpful in making ALL TMC OWNERS aware of legal actions being pursued.

another owner and I started compiling a list of TMC owner contact information, and we were successful in obtaining several names (with each person's permission... not for display), but not enough to spread the word of detailed TMC fraud and sham to enough owners. there are, on average, 16,000 TMC owners. the "guestimate" is that about 1,600 (and that's a high guess) know the fraud and sham operation that TMC was and continues to be and that legal action was initiated and litigated by the former new york state attorney general, eric schneiderman. they are not aware of how devastatingly financially affected they have been by TMC. this redweek forum along with a yahoo forum are the only means of communication (that i am aware of) available for owners to reach/connect with, one another... and that's almost exclusively anonymous except for a user name.

all of us should consider using a common attorney or legal entity that can work with TMC OWNERS as a huge group to fight this insidious TMC group of whom might be called TMC charlatans and frauds. their only purpose was and is to extract millions of dollars from us owners. they continue to do so by charging exponentially exorbitant maintenance fees.

i quote/paraphrase myself from a previous comment i made on redweek---

proactive ideas, recommendations and measures from as many of us owners as possible are needed. include approaches helpful to attorney zimmerman, and the honorable leticia James (nysag) as appropriate. joining an individual attorney or other legal entity appears to be the only chance we have to obtain legal, unequivocal, and adequate justice vs TMC/EICHNER AND NOW, BLUEGREEN.

jim2810 wrote:

We are ready to join the suit but do not know how many owners have joined the suit. My husband has emailed Jean Zimmerman and we are awaiting a response. Can someone compile a list of email addresses? I am not technologically savvy enough to do it or I would. If everyone on this blog would send their email addresses to one certain person perhaps a list can be made of owners? Just a suggestion. Thanks for the updates & information.

Chris, let's just say there were several irregularities with my Civil case against The Manhattan Club. I was not notified by the Court of a Civil Court hearing. I happened to be in the Civil Court on the 4th floor that day and could have easily attended my hearing on the 9th floor. The reason I was on the fourth floor of the Civil Court that day was I had four motions scheduled for the same day at the same time on the fourth floor. A fifth motion was scheduled for the same day at the same time on the 9th floor. I did not know about the 9th floor scheduling of the fifth motion. Therefore that motion was dismissed. My file has been gone through many times not by me and many of the documents I filed are missing. Let's say it is an interesting experience filing a lawsuit against The Manhattan Club.

Irene Smalls

Irene, what an ordeal you have been through. Glad you are not giving up. TMC is a tough bunch to deal with. Wishing you will finally win

We all support your efforts Irene. You have been an inspirational "David" to the Goliath we all want to fall. However, this maybe a good time to repeat your warning about who monitors this website, and to keep any details to a minimum, regarding any strategy. Thank you again. I wish you well. JAM

I spoke with Jean Zimmerman a few days ago and he is setting up a website so updates and questions can be seen by all. He feels we have a strong case however the legal process can be long. There are many owners that have signed up and the word is starting to get out there however that list would be helpful for him to reach out to all.

Does anyone have any idea how the MC and/or maintenance fees will be impacted by the loss of NYC rental income? Since rental income has diminished, how will the MC continue to maintain the property?

Since the Manhattan Club was never set up to have a rental department to benefit the timeshare purchasers as all the weeks were to be sold to purchasers, I didn't think we as owners benefitted in any way from rentals secured by the Manhattan Club. That was a false sales gimmick that influenced my decision to purchase 2 weeks as I had been told a rental department would be set up and if you didn't use your week, the Manhattan Club would rent it for you less a small fee and you as owner would get the rental income. Of course, that never happened. The annual budget and reserves were predicated upon all the interval week owners paying the yearly maintenance fee so I don't know how this is going to turn out. Perhaps someone who has studied the budget can tell us if the Manhattan Club HOA receives the rental income - I would think not - I'm sure it was and is going to Eichner, his cronies, and his bogus management/consulting company.. Eichner has made his money and I wonder if he would even be impacted or would care if the Manhattan Club went into foreclosure? Any ideas, Chris, and others?

gail,

given the past fraudulent, shady and above-the-law reputation of TMC, i don't believe eichner (in some form or another...family or colleagues connections) has ever given up his stake in TMC. he most likely continues to have a financial association with the TMC enterprise. keep in mind that joshua wirshba is still in a high management position in TMC. i thought that was not to be permitted under the nonsensical SETTLEMENT accepted by the former nysag, eric schneiderman in his case vs TMC. we owners still remain defrauded losers and will continue in this status until we get legal and court-supervised use of the owners' contact list. individual civil court cases vs TMC, as reported recently in reweek, may strengthen our case as precedents, but we would all probably need to follow in that direction which will probably take lightyears of time...a guess/assumption on my part. our first priority is having the owners' contact list available for our and our legal representatives' court-regulated legal use . in my opinion, that's the main direction we need to effectively begin, to combat the overwhelming TMC fraud from the original TMC sales/purchase to the current TMC continuation of said fraud in the form of the exponentially exorbitant and continuously increasing maintenance fees.

tulipblossom wrote:

Since the Manhattan Club was never set up to have a rental department to benefit the timeshare purchasers as all the weeks were to be sold to purchasers, I didn't think we as owners benefitted in any way from rentals secured by the Manhattan Club. That was a false sales gimmick that influenced my decision to purchase 2 weeks as I had been told a rental department would be set up and if you didn't use your week, the Manhattan Club would rent it for you less a small fee and you as owner would get the rental income. Of course, that never happened. The annual budget and reserves were predicated upon all the interval week owners paying the yearly maintenance fee so I don't know how this is going to turn out. Perhaps someone who has studied the budget can tell us if the Manhattan Club HOA receives the rental income - I would think not - I'm sure it was and is going to Eichner, his cronies, and his bogus management/consulting company.. Eichner has made his money and I wonder if he would even be impacted or would care if the Manhattan Club went into foreclosure? Any ideas, Chris, and others?

I believe the recently received budget shows $11 million of "misc income",which is described as "gross rental proceeds from Transient Revenue,Food& Beverage ....." I assume transient revenue is revenue from usage/charging for avail rooms,but not sure it's all such revenue.

How did u make out with your lawsuit?

The Court dismissed TMC's countersuit against me for back maintenance fees. My case against was TMC dismissed. I have filed an appeal. I will continue fighting. It is tough going against TMC. Their lawyers do not play by the rules and several times the Court has shown TMC leniency.

Irene Smalls

this individual and brave court attempt (apparently and currently unproductive) is all the more reason we should continue to persevere (as a group) in the courts to get the CONTACT LIST OF ALL TMC OWNERS for supervised use by our legal representatives vs TMC.

yes, hats off to the "david and goliath" comparison, but in this case, goliath seems to have the upper hand. this will most likely continue until we have the strong combative equipment necessary to win our case in our fair courts of law as a group rather than individually.

of course, we all wish all those who take on TMC individually, in court, a major and deserved victory. however, does this scenario seem to be possible or probable? history should teach us a lesson. our energies should be used as a formidable group. strong legal weapons must be made available for TMC owners to challenge, with legal representation, TMC management and win in court with a united TMC owner group front. this can become a reality if/when we have the TMC defrauded owners' list. we must inform as many defrauded TMC owners as possible of the legal actions we will pursue as a group. A VIABLE PROBABILITY: only about 10% of defrauded TMC owners are remotely aware that we are seeking fairness and adequate retribution from TMC in court. thousands of TMC owners have not been made knowledgable that they have legal rights and alternatives rather than simply accepting the fraud perpetrated against them by white-collar criminals (as has been noted and shown in the outcome of the lawsuit by the former new york state attorney general, eric schneiderman vs TMC.)

attorney jean-marc zimmerman may be the legal force to obtain AND USE the TMC's owners' contact list basically to inform all owners who have been defrauded by TMC. perhaps joining his legal efforts should be a consideration.

for your convenience.................

Jean-Marc Zimmerman Zimmerman Law Group 233 Watchung Fork Westfield, NJ 07090... Telephone: (908) 768-6408 Fax: (908) 935-0751

E-MAIL JMZ@ZIMLLP.COM ​

irenes93 wrote:

The Court dismissed TMC's countersuit against me for back maintenance fees. My case against was TMC dismissed. I have filed an appeal. I will continue fighting. It is tough going against TMC. Their lawyers do not play by the rules and several times the Court has shown TMC leniency.

Irene Smalls

Richard,

Thank you for your close reading of the budget and answer to my question.

Hi Chris,

Spoke to Jean Zimmerman last week and he is putting together a forum so he can keep us all updated. That list of owners would benefit us greatly however MC lawyers are shrewd and conniving. I’m starting to get into a cash crunch due to this crisis and not sure how many more years I can afford pay MC exorbitant maintenance fees. I want out of this bad investment but I will not give it back for $100. The fair price would be the price I paid because their sales pitch was that it will have enormous value when its time to sell. $100 is not the price I was hoping for!!

Gary J Paccagnini Penthouse Owner

A website would be a great idea Gary, as any inkling or tidbit of info his lawyers could glean from these open forums , may help the opposition. If anyone asks what Zimmerman's strategy is, they should only be directed to speak or e mail directly to him... Nothing else...Irene warned us, that his attorneys have mentioned details using THIS WEBSITE , and others!!... In WWII the motto was "Loose Lips , sink ships", as you could never know what seeming innocent info may help the enemy... I believe it's still good advice. I hope you can financially hang in there.. I'm sure his attorneys will redefine the words.."Slow Walking". Thank you and be well.

good morning gary,

I look forward to jean-marc's forum/website for updates. however, a concern is who else besides us defrauded TMC owners could see it and benefit from its contents (meaning TMC frauds, of course!)? i agree with the financial crunch "gifted" to us (and described in your comments here.) i have no legal background but there have been so many instances of the courts siding with TMC against us owners. i would welcome having a legal referee to oversee all proceedings concerning us and TMC in court. the essence of these court outcomes appears to favor TMC. we owners still stand holding a bagful of fraudulent TMC activities.

the main forms of our getting screwed in court (citing all that i can recall) follows: in 2013, our case dismissed.....2014, the nonsensical settlement accepted by former nysag, eric schneiderman (where fraud was admitted to by TMC, if i'm accurate).....2020, irene's and joy's apparently unsuccessful recent civil suits. all of these litigations seem to be obviously slanted in favor of TMC.

your quote and my ditto: "I want out of this bad investment but I will not give it back for $100. The fair price would be the price I paid because their sales pitch was that it will have enormous value when its time to sell. $100 is not the price I was hoping for!!" my addendum is that the price that I paid PLUS the accrued real estate value, from the original purchase to the present, is what I expect.

keep in touch, gary.

stay healthy and well.

chris

garyp151 wrote:

Hi Chris,

Spoke to Jean Zimmerman last week and he is putting together a forum so he can keep us all updated. That list of owners would benefit us greatly however MC lawyers are shrewd and conniving. I’m starting to get into a cash crunch due to this crisis and not sure how many more years I can afford pay MC exorbitant maintenance fees. I want out of this bad investment but I will not give it back for $100. The fair price would be the price I paid because their sales pitch was that it will have enormous value when its time to sell. $100 is not the price I was hoping for!!

Gary J Paccagnini Penthouse Owner

I actually won my Civil lawsuit in the beginning against TMC. The TMC lawyers missed the deadline and did not show up in Court. My case went to Inquest which is a one sided hearing with the Civil Court Judge awarding damages. The TMC lawyers eventually showed up and petitioned the Court to reopen the case. The Civil Court allowed it. This not a level playing field. Be especially wary of the Statue of Limitations. I urge anyone who wants to file any kind of case against TMC to file something now just to avoid the Statute of Limitations. It is 6 years for Fraud. The NYAG case started in 2014. The NYAG case ended in 2017 but the Court may adhere only to the earlier date. The Civil Court was draconian in applying deadlines to me in my lawsuit against TMC.

Irene, we owners are 100% with you. however, your quote: "This not a level playing field. " demonstrates that this is precisely why, with all of our legal efforts, we're still holding a bag of TMC fraud. we all hope you can create a straight line to level the legal field and win your case big time. TMC's consistent success in court is mysterious. are their attorneys so incredibly brilliant, applying all the right moves to their benefit? i think not. although TMC (and its attorneys) "lost" nysag eric schneiderman's case against them, the SETTLEMENT was inadequate punishment to match TMC'S admitted sales/purchase fraud against 14 to 18,000 owners. TMC's fraudulent action continues with its exponentially and exorbitantly rising maintenance fees.

irenes93 wrote:

I actually won my Civil lawsuit in the beginning against TMC. The TMC lawyers missed the deadline and did not show up in Court. My case went to Inquest which is a one sided hearing with the Civil Court Judge awarding damages. The TMC lawyers eventually showed up and petitioned the Court to reopen the case. The Civil Court allowed it. This not a level playing field. Be especially wary of the Statue of Limitations. I urge anyone who wants to file any kind of case against TMC to file something now just to avoid the Statute of Limitations. It is 6 years for Fraud. The NYAG case started in 2014. The NYAG case ended in 2017 but the Court may adhere only to the earlier date. The Civil Court was draconian in applying deadlines to me in my lawsuit against TMC.

I had a reservation to use my time coming up soon. Due to Covid-19, we are all on lockdown and not allowed to travel and stay in hotels etc. Since my contract for the year ends shortly after my upcoming reservation and I can't use it for obvious reasons beyond all of our control, I contacted the club to see if under the circumstances they will give us an extension/allow us to use it at some future time. I was told they are looking into it (which they have been for a while now) but at this time they are adhering to their normal policy and if you can't use it, you lose it. Why did I hopefully expect different? I really wonder how these people who run the club live with themselves.