| The Ongoing Campaign to Undermine Elected Members of the Club Committee |
| On 9th June 2021 Club Member Mr Anthony Burford accused the Club Chairman of duplicity over the statements he made in response to Sr Castro’s letter to Club Members of 13th May 2021. The accusations were made regarding the allocation and transfer of Club Los Claveles Membership Certificates by Ona WimPen since 1st August 2015 in respect of cancelled Club weeks, and regarding the disclosure of the 2nd Arbitration Award. Owners who have followed the Club’s dispute with Ona WimPen since the start will no doubt remember Mr Burford questioning the legitimacy of the calling of the 2016 Club SGM. He declared then that he had been in communication with the late Mr Pengelly on a number of occasions prior to the meeting, as a result of which he raised doubts about the requisite 10% of members requesting a meeting having been obtained. Doubts that were unfounded. Owners may also remember Mrs Burford at the 2017 Club AGM requesting that information be given about maintenance fees paid to the Club, a request that led to a vote being taken by members to keep this information confidential and thus protect it from being made available to Ona WimPen. Neither of these interventions was well received by members attending these meetings. Mr Burford has continued to support Ona WimPen, so his latest activity in accusing the Club Chairman of duplicity over the disclosure of the 2nd Arbitration Award comes as no surprise and needs to be seen in the context of the long running campaign by Snr Castro, supported by Roger Barrow and Club Members opposed to the elected members of the Club Committee, including Mr Burford, to undermine the elected members of the Club Committee. As a reminder, here is what the 1st Arbitrator, Mr Brandon Malone said about this campaign: ……..“From the point of the Committee meeting at which the decision was taken to serve notice on the First Respondent (Ona WimPen), the parties have been in conflict. That conflict was heightened at the 2015 AGM when the decision to terminate the First Respondent’s appointment was ratified by the membership of the Club. It is clear to me that from that point onwards, the Respondents have done everything they can to deligitimise the actions of the claimants (the elected members of the Club Committee) and their authority. It seems to me that they have done that in an attempt to preserve their own position as administrator. The Respondents have rights in terms of the various contracts, and those rights are to be upheld. However, what they cannot do is to seek to benefit from their own failings and improper actions.”…… The allocation and transfer of Club Los Claveles Membership certificates by Ona WimPen since 1 August 2015 in respect of “Cancelled Weeks” In his letter to Club Members of 17th May 2021 the Club Chairman sought to give members a balanced view of what the Arbitrator decided rather than relying on Snr Castro’s claim that: “The arbitrator does not declare that the transfers of weeks from April 2015 onwards made by WimPen are unlawful or void.” That’s why the Chairman re-stated what the Arbitrator actually said, i.e. “I do not find the allocation and transfer of Membership certificates by the Claimants (WimPen) since 1 August 2015 in respect of “Cancelled Weeks” have been lawful and valid.” The simple fact is that the Arbitrator was stating, wrongly in our opinion, that she could not make a decision, one way or the other, on the basis of the evidence before her. However, Mr Burford chose to exercise his personal bias in favour of Snr Castro and accuse the Club Chairman of duplicity in a partisan and unreasonable way. The Disclosure of the 2nd Arbitration Award Mr Burford also accuses the Club Chairman of “refusing to make the Arbitration Award available to Members despite a reasoned request to do so”. In making his accusation(s) he chose to ignore the explanations for non-disclosure made available to him by (i) the Club Chairman in his letter to Members of 17th May 2021, (ii) in an email from the Club Chairman to Mr Burford of 18th May, (iii) in a letter from the Club solicitor to Mr Burford of 18th June, and (iv) in the Committee decisions and resolutions that the Chairman published on 9th June 2021 in his letter to Members stating that: “The Committee resolves to consider sending an agreed joint statement to members taking into account any legal advice received from the Club’s solicitors, but also recognising that the Chairman will be required to verify the accuracy of the Register of Members prior to any dissemination of information.” The resolution was AGREED by a majority vote, 3 in favour and 2 against, with Mr Castro and Mrs Martin opposing the resolution.” As previously stated, at the outset of the 2nd Arbitration, the Club Chairman (who at the time was appearing without legal representation to save expense) attempted to obtain permission from the Arbitrator to dispense with confidentiality so that all Club members could be told about the arbitration. This was opposed by Ona WimPen’s legal representative. This is significant. It clearly demonstrates the efforts that the Club Chairman made on behalf of Members to keep them informed about the arbitration, and that his efforts were thwarted by Ona WimPen. Later in the arbitration there were three occasions on which apparent breaches of confidentiality by Ona WimPen were drawn to the Arbitrator’s attention by the Club. On each of those occasions the Arbitrator demanded – and received – confirmation that both parties had been reminded by their legal advisers of their obligations in respect of confidentiality and that they understood those obligations. In summary From all of the above, fair-minded Club Members will see that Mr Burford’s accusations of duplicity against the Club Chairman are unjustified and most likely borne out of Mr Burford’s fixed mindset of supporting Ona Wimpen and their campaign to deligitimise the elected Committee Members rather than fairness. |
| Club Los Claveles Elected Members of the Committee 5 July 2021 |