The Trump organization just lost a class-action lawsuit over golf memberships, and now must pay 65 members almost 6 million dollars. After hearing the claims of the members about how they were treated, many people may never join a Trump golf course.
The sordid story revolves around the Trump National Jupiter Golf Club in Jupiter Florida. In 2012, Trump bought the financially troubled course from the Marriott Corporation for only $5 million. That would have been a steal for just the Real Estate itself. However, part of the deal was that Trump also had to assume the liability of about $50 million dollars of refundable deposits put down by the club’s members.
Existing members signed up under the Marriott Corporation had the ability to resign from the club, and get their refundable deposits back. However, the golf club didn’t need to instantly let members resign, they could make members wait until a new member joined the club before they had to return the original members deposit. That meant that members needed to be added to a resignation list, and had to wait perhaps years before a new member signed up. Under the Marriott rules, members wanting to resign needed to remain as members until a replacement could be found, and were responsible for paying their annual membership dues until they were able to resign. While they waited and paid their dues, they were able to use the club and the facilities as full paying members.
For whatever reason, Trump didn’t want those members who wanted to resign at the club. Trump instituted a new rule, barring those on the list from using the club. “As the owner of the club, I do not want them to utilize the club nor do I want their dues,” he wrote in a letter to members. Then, a few months later, he began charging them dues anyway — even though, as his son Eric testified, paying with no access to the club “would violate a fundamental rule of life,” the judge noted.
Members understandably were upset, and said Trump was unfairly changing the rules of their membership contracts. They filed a class action lawsuit. Their lawyer, Brad Edwards, says Trump essentially revoked their memberships while still requiring them to pay their dues and keeping their deposits.
The judge found that the golf course had effectively revoked the membership of those on the resignation list but had failed to return deposits that ranged from $35,000 to $210,000. He ordered the club to return $4,849,000 in deposits, plus $925,010 in interest. Of course, the Trump Organization did not agree with the ruling, and has appealed. It has been almost five years since the lawsuit was filed. It is unlikely that the members who wish to resign will see their deposits returned anytime soon, if ever.
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