A Wyndham Class Action lawsuit is a case in which a group of plaintiffs’ relatives are suing the owner of the prestigious Wyndham resort for negligence. According to Freddie Francy (one of the lead plaintiffs in the first class action lawsuit), Wyndham is trying to intimidate them into settling their claims with the prominent hotel conglomerate. In an interview on Al Jazeera, Francy stated that, “The main thing that they want to do is to threaten you that if you bring your claim against them, you will lose your settlement.” According to Francy, the threat was delivered via an e-mail from one of the attorneys handling the Wyndham case.
Francy then proceeded to tell reporter Geoff Shepherd that the threat was untrue and that Wyndham has never once threatened anyone in any way in connection with their case. In addition, Shepherd noted that during the same interview, he had asked the hotel’s attorney if the claims were true. The attorney replied, “Yes.” The attorney went on to state that Wyndham has never actually threatened anybody in any way with the Wyndham Class Action lawsuit.
Unfortunately, in this same article, Shepherd also included an e-mail from Wyndham stating that they would file a complaint in federal court in Missouri against the plaintiffs. The e-mail sent to Mr. Shepherd contained a statement from Wyndham stating that, “based on our discussions with our legal counsel, we believe it is likely that the claims in question may be defenses to liability with respect to the actions taken by the Company in its conduct of business…” Mr. Shepherd went on to say that Wyndham was not a timeshare owners’ club and did not wish to take legal action against the plaintiffs. These statements support the notion that the Wyndham Class Action lawsuit is nothing more than yet another attempt to scare off potential timeshare owners from buying or selling a timeshare. If there were ever a time that the FTC would step in and start regulating the sale of timeshares, it would certainly be now. Why is the FTC trying to scare people away from buying?
One of the biggest questions surrounding the validity of the Wyndham Class Action lawsuit is whether or not the complaint contains enough evidence to support a lawsuit. Plaintiffs argue that they are entitled to a refund of approximately $1000 since they have spent thousands of dollars on advertisements and traveling to various states to attend seminars. There are also plaintiffs who have purchased properties at one of the resorts owned by the Company, but lost money due to the higher than average commission charged by the Company. Some other lawsuits have been brought against the Company, but no class action lawsuit has yet been brought forward. If this is the case, then Mr. Shepherd may be facing a mountain of paperwork and a handful of dead horses.
The Wyndham Class Action lawsuit was brought on behalf of all those that bought timeshares at one of the resorts in Florida that the Company owned. When this lawsuit was filed in the courts, the Company was defiantly evasive and said that they had no liability. At the time, the Company stood to lose a lot of money if a class action lawsuit was ever brought. If the Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, then the Company stands to lose a lot of money because of having to give back millions of dollars in credit line that were granted based on the flawed sales projections.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out and what kind of effect it may have on other companies who are considering purchasing property at one of the resorts owned by the Company. It appears that the credit line settlement will be a very tall order for the Company and their shareholders. It will definitely be interesting to see where this case goes and how it affects the economy in Florida.