TS TODAY - Judge concludes RCI Class Action

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I'm sorry . . . did I say I am surprised by the outcome? Did I ever say I expected something good to come of it?

No - but you did state that the intent of the lawsuit was to stop rentals. And that is where I'm taking issue with you. I don't think that was ever the intent; at best that was a convenient fiction.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

To take your point a step further, one of the purpose of the lawsuit was to approve rentals, legitimize them, and specify how it is to be done, and, therefore, the suit was successful.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

To take your point a step further, one of the purpose of the lawsuit was to approve rentals, legitimize them, and specify how it is to be done, and, therefore, the suit was successful.

I don't think that was the intent of the plaintiffs. I think that from the getgo the sole intent on the plaintiff's side was merely legal extortion. I think it's a mistake to ascribe to them anything else.

One the defense side, however, RCI's and it's attorneys saw this as a great opportunity to legitimize their rental programs.

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I speculate that RCI response to the case was as follows. They did not welcome the lawsuit, but once the lawsuit was filed the goal was simply to resolve the matter with the least damage possible.

In deciding to settle, they simply looked at what it would cost them to defend the case plus the probability of the cost should it proceed to trial, and weighed that against the cost of settling. The "correctness" of their position does not enter into the equation at all. It's strictly a business decision, every bit as much as the decision by plaintiff's counsel to take the case is simply a business decision.

Having reached that position, however, it does become important to RCI to insulate themselves against having to repeat the process. So, one key element for them in getting a decision is to eliminate the possibility they will need to pay another million dollar settlement in the future for the same issues.

Having hired capable counsel, the terms of the settlement therefore included legitimizing the action that is the object of the litigation.

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This is not rocket science. Anyone who has even a passing knowledge of class action litigation knows the game that is played.

The only surprising element in any of this is that some people here, including some who are familiar with legal process, willed themselves to somehow believe that somehow this case was "purer" in intent and purpose than other class action cases.

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As regards purity and noble intentions, had class action lawsuits been extant in Bismarck's lifetimes I' sure that he would have included them with sausages and legislation as things a sensible person should never witness being created.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Much like NASD litigation.

Didn't someone just in each lawsuit there is a Plaintiff, a Plaintiff's attorney, a Defendant, a Defendant's attorney and every case two of that will be winners.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

to summarize - this played out almost exactly as many of us predicted it would when the suit was filed.

I had always suggested that this action be brought through a state AG who would not have the temptation to take the money and run like the shyster in this case did. State AG's also have more tools like pre-litigation discovery at their disposal than a class action attorney would have. There were two reasons why I thought maybe this class action would not turn out like so many of them. One was that one of the named plaintiffs was Aldo who posted here and on other TS boards and I knew he was personally passionate about the issue. The second was private emails from a Tugger who knew one of the attorneys involved with the law firm handling the case and she assured me that he was a timesharer himself and knew the need for reform. The first sign that something might be amiss was that it always seemed that a female attorney was being mentioned in connection with handling the case and the timesharer/attorney was male.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

In lieu of paying $5.00 to ARA yearly. We should pay it to Timesharing Magazine for fighting for the rights of RCI's t/s members.