If it was not true it would be funny....

[Tony Quist]

Gary,
 
You can take a Lawyer to small claims court in a lot of states.  
 
Tony
 
-----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]
On Behalf Of Gray E Fowler
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 7:13 AM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: If it was not true it would be funny....
 

Any Lawyer types on the list? 

I got a call from my club President last night, since I am the ex
president. It seems that a lawsuit has been filed against the Richardson
Radio Control Club for about $4000. The break down goes like this 

1. Broken arm -medical expenses......$1500 
2. Lost wages..............................................$1500 
3. Court costs.................................................$250 
4. Suffering....................................................$1000 

The charges also include "trespassing". 

We have a meeting set up for this Saturday to discuss what we are going
to do as a club and I wonder if anyone has some experience-advice. 

Here are some facts.   

Round 1 
The RRCC field is on Collin County land set aside by the county
SPECIFICALLY for the development of and RC flying field. The county
approached the RRCC about 1997 and asked us to develop this site per a
plane they had, which we 100% complied with, and met all goals. We are
in year 8 of a 20 year $1 lease.  This lady who filed this lawsuit in
small claims court first attack us 3 years ago. I was president. We had
a meeting at the Collin county Parks Managers office so they could hear
her complaints and our responses. Her complaint was noise. At that time
Lance who was VP and I had already started a manditory noise restriction
club legislation and it was passed by our membership. This was because
we knew we had a problem with several 100cc gas engines rating 108dB on
the ground (pattern style measurment)  and screaming supersonic props in
the air. 
The lady IS nuts and went hysterical during this meeting with the
county. I invited the County managers out to our field with this lady
present to witness the "noise". in short we flew demos with several
types of plane and measured noise on he ground and during overfly at and
past our boundaries. The County managers witnessed that Lance's IMAC
style plane (101 dB pattern style measurement) was quieter flying over
the 950 ft boundary road than the traffic on the road itself by a factor
of 2-4 X.  So they concluded that there IS NOT a noise problem at our
field. The complaining lady was not happy. 

Round 2 
Next, The lady files a complaint against us in "County Commissioner's
Court" for the same reason. She states her whine, we state our case and
are backed up by the county managers. We presented or efforts to contain
noise and the results of our demo with the county managers. The County
Judges dismiss the Lady's whine and asks us a few question about these
"neat toys".   Yeah -we win. 

Round 3 
This lady consistently calls the Sheriff about noise. The Sheriff is
obliged to show up at our field, but nothing ever happens. The plane she
has pointed out to the Sherriff about the horrible noise is none other
than Lance's Symphony.  During our demo, Lance flew his pattern plane
(NATS legal) PAST the boundary road directly over my head at 150ft
high-I could not get a dB reading over the background noise. 

So, I suppose that the lady got SO UPSET about the noise that she ran
out of her trailer house, fell off the steps and broke her arm , so
therfore it is the fault of the RRCC. She could not then work (she works
for the USPO, so we better be careful!!!) and obviously the USPO has no
short term disability insurance, and so no wages are our fault too.
Trespassing must be planes flying over her house as we are not aware of
any real trespassing. Court costs and "suffering" are obvious. 

We are contacting the AMA today, and the county managers. 

Anyone have any real advice for this situation that could help? Fire
bombing her trailer is not an option, even though it would solve the
problem. I am not sure, but I suspect that she is from the Irish branch
of AL-Queda (dyed bright red hair). 

Seriously.....any ideas would be appreciated-especially from lawyers on
how we should handle this. The lady DOES NOT have a lawyer, and it is
small claims court. I do not know what the proceedure here is. If you
read this past about 3pm please respond to aeroslave at comcast.net. 

Thanks Guys



Gray Fowler
Principal Chemical Engineer
Composites Engineering
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