# Worldmark Lawsuit Settelment email



## Tokapeba (Jun 9, 2011)

I received the following email today. Any thoughts?

Andy. 


WM Owners Owner Alerts

Proposed Class Action SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT AND RELEASE
Wixon v. Wyndham Resort Development Corporation


Summary:

WM Owners, Inc. believes the proposed Settlement is NOT in the best interests of WorldMark owners and provides no meaningful benefit. If approved, this settlement will be devastating to the future of our Club.

WM Owners, Inc. Recommendation:

All owners should opt-out of this Settlement unless you or your attorney plan to object in person at the August 5, 2011 hearing. If you opt-out, it is suggested that you include a clear statement explaining why you wish to be excluded from the class and we also suggest that you send copies to the attorneys and to the court.

Your opt-out letter must be postmarked no later than July 8, 2011.

Here are the addresses you need

See the FULL proposed class action settlement

Below are just a few reasons WM Owners recommends that you opt-out of the settlement.

        Abandons Member Protection of "Relative Use-Value"
        Amends/Ignores our Governing documents without an Owner vote
        Unauthorized Removal of Real Property from Our Club
        Inadequate credit cancellation at disputed resorts

Abandonment of Relative Use-Value

The proposed Settlement destroys our only protection from credit inflation by releasing Wyndham from its duty to honor "relative use-value" in allocating credits at new resorts.

The WorldMark governing documents state:

    Such allocation shall be based on the relative use-value of the new Resort compared to existing Resorts, in the Declarant's reasonable discretion. [WorldMark, The Club Declaration, Section 3.4, emphasis added] 

This settlement will permit Wyndham to FOREVER IGNORE the requirement in the future - WITH IMPUNITY! Relative Use-Value and why it matters

Amending WorldMark Governing documents without a vote of the Owners

Changes such as those contained in the settlement agreement require amendments to our governing documents by affirmative majority vote of owners. However, by including a disclaimer in the settlement language that "Nothing herein shall be construed to amend the WorldMark Governing Documents" (see Settlement page 24), the Parties seek to convince the California Department of Real Estate and the Court that an owner vote is not required.

Wyndham states:

    So long as fewer than a majority of the owners opt out of the class, it means that the majority of owners approved the Settlement, including revising the Declaration to implement the Settlement.

Thus, if owners do nothing, they are considered to have voted for these changes.

If these changes are implemented, the settlement will impose significant changes to our club, bypassing the voice of owners, and circumventing the intent and purpose of our governing documents.

Removal of real property from WorldMark, The Club

The proposed Settlement will reduce the number of WorldMark timeshare units by 481 units - AND there are no binding constraints as to which particular units will be taken. These properties are owned by WorldMark, The Club, and as such they are Club assets. Wyndham has no authority to remove units from the Club, nor does any other person or entity without owner approval and a vote of the membership. This settlement is a blatant attempt to misuse the Class Action Process to improperly extract WorldMark assets without a vote of the owners.

Insufficiency of credit cancellation at disputed resorts

Based on a 14 year history prior to the purchase of Trendwest by Wyndham/fka/Cendant, the average "cost" in credits of a 2-bdrm unit was approximately 7,800 credits. (This cost is based on red, white, and blue weeks combined.) The current average cost in credits for a 2-bdrm unit is nearly 9,900 credits. This is an increase of greater than 2,000 credits for a week in a 2-bdrm unit, or more than 26% more credits are required to book the "average" 2-bdrm unit. Most of this increase has occurred since 2003, during the time Wyndham has been the developer.

Based on Relative Use-Value, the number of credits that all units in all resorts should have generated as of December 2008 is just over 2.83 billion credits. Instead, with run-away credit inflation, the number of credits that have been or can be sold is over 3.23 billion. Wyndham has generated more than 404.5 million credits above what should have been generated. Wyndham is proposing to "retire" barely 22 million credits. They should be retiring more than 404 million credits while leaving all current WorldMark, The Club real estate holdings untouched. Wyndham does not own that real estate, WE DO, as owners of WorldMark, The Club.

What else can I do to help protect our Club?

Help us spread the word! Our biggest obstacle is in reaching other owners.

Share this information with any other WorldMark owners you know. Encourage them to opt-out or object to the settlement. Give them our web address, www.wmowners.com

Make a small donation to help us to reach other owners. Despite our rights to access the membership lists under California law and the Club's Bylaws, the Board is forcing us to do physical mailings through a third party mailing house. A recent Court ruling has determined that this Club practice is both "unreasonable" and "unlawful," so great progress is being made, but for now, this is our only option.

Contributions can be sent to
WM Owners Inc, PO Box 3184, Salem, OR 97302
or by PayPal (credit cards accepted!) to contributions@wmowners.com

This email was created and sent to you by www.WMOwners.com, an independent, owner-run website dedicated to:

    Supporting Owner Advocacy
    Providing Education
    Encouraging Open Communication
    Creating Community

The purpose of this communication is to keep you, as an interested WorldMark owner, aware of and involved in the changes affecting your club. Thank you to all the WorldMark owners that have helped us reach out and touch other owners by providing us contact information. Another great example of what makes this club so great, owners helping owners! For more information on any of the issues mentioned in this message, visit us at www.WMOwners.com.

WM Owners is not in any way responsible for, nor does it have any influence on the actions of WVO (Wyndham Vacation Ownership) or the WorldMark Board of Directors.


Disclaimer: Information contained within OWNER ALERTS is obtained from various sources including but not limited to: public forums, web sites, email solicitations, WorldMark owners and non-WorldMark owners. Neither wmowners.com nor its Principals are responsible for the accuracy of the statements and information contained within OWNER ALERTS. If you would like to stop receiving such messages, please log in to the discussion forum at www.wmowners.com/forum, select the Profile link and choose not to receive periodic owner alerts any longer. If you received this e-mail and are NOT registered on the forum, your e-mail address was provided by a forum member and you can reply to this e-mail with "OPT OUT" as the subject and further alerts will not be sent. All recipients are encouraged to be responsible consumers and fully investigate the information contained herein for themselves.

©2011, WM Owners - www.wmowners.com. All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.


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## sue1947 (Jun 11, 2011)

I agree with it completely.  The settlement is a ripoff for owners.  The only winners are Wyndham (who gets to continue to rip off owners with ridiculous credit values) and the attorneys.  I have already sent my opt out letters for my two accounts and urge others to do the same.  

Sue


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## Yanna (Jun 27, 2011)

*WorldMark Class Action Settlement*

I have been looking for WorldMark data similar to that in the email you shared. Thanks and I would like to see and discuss more similar data.

Also, past WorldMark members who terminated their membership before 2011 are not part of the Settlement. Past Members should be heard on the Settlement, thus past members please post your concerns so they can be raised to the court.


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## ChrisandBeth (Jun 27, 2011)

Yanna said:


> I have been looking for WorldMark data similar to that in the email you shared. Thanks and I would like to see and discuss more similar data.
> 
> Go to WMowners.com-click on discussion forum. 6 topics down is info on the settlement. WMownerts.com is an incredible resource for WM owners.
> 
> Chris


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## mtribe (Jul 4, 2011)

We have opted out and encourage everyone to do the same before the July 8 deadline.  Stand up for your rights take interest and action, this is very Important to the future of the club.


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## rrlongwell (Jul 4, 2011)

Does anyone know if the proposed settlement goes through with the loss of the timeshare assests, is there a coorsponding reduction in the number of owners or do existing owners just have less availability?  Is this a sign of things to come for Wyndham Club Access if the owners have a serious disagreement with Wyndham?  Loss of some inventory, Wyndham keeps functional control of the Board.  The real possablity that furture club timeshares go to Wyndham from club assests if another serious dispute occurs.  This might very well set a real precedent in the furture for Wyndham related Clubs that do not permit owners to own a percentage of the underlying timeshares.


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## sue1947 (Jul 4, 2011)

rrlongwell wrote:  do exist owners just have less availability? 

That's exactly right.  Wyndham raised credit values needed for booking by up to 50%.  This settlement has them reduce some by 5% and give back 400-481 units (which they can use for renting in places like Anaheim).  Those credits at those higher locations were sold all over the country, including a lot in the Northwest where the resorts have become incredibly difficult to book.  People who purchased those credits, can book at the lower cost resorts making it more difficult to book.  

Sue


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## Bellatrix (Jul 5, 2011)

received by email


> Dear Fellow WorldMark Owner:
> 
> My name is Robin Miller*and my wife & I have been WorldMark owners for many years.  Like most of you we love this Club and the many wonderful memories it has provided for our children; and yes, now even our grandkids.  I hope we will be able to create many more - but sadly that possibility is now in jeopardy.
> 
> ...


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