Century Village president sued over recreation fees

Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post

By Jane Musgrave

Published October 13, 2007 

WEST PALM BEACH — A $10 million legal battle over recreation fees at Century Village got personal this week when the company that owns the social amenities in the massive retirement community off Okeechobee Boulevard filed a lawsuit against the president of the development.

In a move that is reminiscent of once trendy SLAPP suits that unscrupulous developers used to silence critics, WPRF Inc. sued condominium association president George Loewenstein personally, claiming he encouraged residents not to pay the company the recreation fees that are the subject of the legal fight.

"It's just one more attempt in a whole series of attempts to intimidate the residents out there," said attorney Denise Bleau, who is representing the community in the dispute over the recreation fees.

It also is contrary to promises WPRF lawyers made to a federal judge to convince him that the recreation fee fight should be resolved through arbitration rather than in a courtroom, she said.

"They assured Judge Hurley that residents would not be retaliated against for paying money into the court registry," she said, referring to U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hurley.

A company attorney countered that the suit is not about retaliation or intimidation. It's about making someone take responsibility for doing something irresponsible, said attorney Daniel Brams.

"This is really not a SLAPP lawsuit," he said, referring to the acronym for strategic litigation against public participation. "We're not trying to attack an old man. But he has to be responsible for his actions."

Loewenstein's action, Brams contends, created a nightmare for WPRF, for the federal court system and ultimately for many of the nearly 8,000 unit owners.

When four residents sued WPRF this year for charging them full price to use shuffleboard courts, swimming pools, card rooms and a theater that were under repair for months after the 2004 hurricanes, Loewenstein began telling people they should begin paying their regular monthly recreation fees into a court registry, Brams said.

Further, he claims, Loewenstein frightened residents by saying that if they didn't pay their fees into the registry, they wouldn't be able to share in any of the money recovered in a successful court battle.

When Hurley in April turned the case over to an arbitrator, he also said the fees should never have been paid into a registry. The money, he said, should be returned.

Exactly how the registry was created is unclear, but Brams said court clerks have spent hours and hours returning thousands of dollars to residents.

Many elderly residents are confused about why they are getting the checks. WPRF has had five employees working full-time, contacting residents and explaining they owe the money to the company for recreation fees that are now months delinquent.

"It created absolute havoc," Brams said.

"It's our contention that he knew or should have known that the money shouldn't be paid into the registry. He wanted to bring WPRF to its knees."

Loewenstein, who is president of the United Civic Organization, an umbrella group that represents all the condominium associations in the development, didn't return a phone call for comment.

But, Bleau said, when he told residents to pay their fees into a court registry, he was simply passing on the advice of the association's attorney.

Brams said he doesn't know exactly how much the company will seek in damages. It depends on how much the collection ultimately costs the company.

But, he said, Loewenstein's action also hurt the reputation of the company, which is still under the control of Century Village creator Irwin Levy.

The lawyer-turned-developer revolutionized South Florida when he came up with the concept for a retirement city and cloned it, creating four other giant retirement havens from Pembroke Pines to West Palm Beach.

CONDO ARTICLES HOME NEWS PAGE