disputed electoin results, Granted a TRO , Temporary Injunction hearing is monday

Started by LaskaS • 4 replies • 80 views

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LaskaS (Texas)
Posts: 1,036

Posted:

ok. The announced election results of our texas condominium annual meeting did not accurately reflect the underlying electoin proxies, ballots, documentation. Myself and Current board member exhaustively audited the results. When we presented the findings to the company who tallied the results(our accounting company and designated managing agent) they said you will have to take it up with the board. When we presented the findings to the board, they said we rely onthe management company to conduct the election.. In effect refusing to acknowlege that the announced results did not match the underlying documents. I filed a lawsuit and filed for an emergency temporary injunction. specifically, seeking declatory relief that the announced results . The tro was granted. Now I hae the TI hearing.. i'm struggling with what to request. I believe a TI is a much bigger hurdle than an TRO. Has anyone every had to go to court to ask a judge to order a neutral reconstruction of the votes.. i'm not asking the court to decide, i'm asking them to stop the current board (as announce) from making any decisions or governance changes outside of normal operatings for maintenance and paying regular bills.

ElleN (Idaho)
Posts: 1,383

Posted:

Thank you for the update. It is all interesting.

In layperson-speak, for the temporary injunction (TI) it seems to me what you now face is the arguments from the HOA (under direction of the HOA) as to why there should not be a TI. For one thing I believe you have to show irreparable harm if the board is allowed to make decisions outside of normal operations for maintenance and usual bills? I am just googling and reading things like https://www.fiduciarylitigator.com/files/2018/09/Temporary-Injunctive-Relief-_Slides.pdf .

One concern is the HOA attorney will bury you with procedural requirements. As I say from time to time: There's a reason attorneys go to law school and have to pass the bar.

LaskaS (Texas)
Posts: 1,036

Posted:

ok, so a Temporary INjunction was granted. .. however. the judge didn't order a reconstruction of the votes. So the board can only carry on ordinary business, can not change the policies, fill board seats, elect or change officer positions, change any bylaws, or rules or institute new policies. just pay bills and conduct ordinary day to day business.. The TI stipulations weren't as detailed as I would have liked. The judge also said this case should be transferred to the other court who handled the orginal case(regarding my seeking a declaration that the board did not have the authority to call a special meeting of owners to recall a director ...) I'm trying to figure out what now. I don't think its necessary to have a brand new election, there are approx 12 votes which were either improperly included or excluded. Correcting those will materially change the board seat positions. But , the board isn't go to agree to correct a vote that they know will likey remove some of them.

LaskaS (Texas)
Posts: 1,036

Posted:

The case got transferred back to the court that handled the original case (invalid special meeting, resignation ). I filed a motion to clarify the Temporary Injunction. The way it is written is not specific enough and the association attorney is already misstating what it allows and doesn't allow. i;ve attached the TI. In addition to it being way too vague. The judge also set the court date for an impossible date. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ikT3Bjor6YxWXyww3LW_4nNLZeXqHx7H/view?usp=sharing

QuorvumT1 (Other)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Laska, since you already have temporary limits on board action, I would make the next request as procedural and narrow as possible. Instead of asking the judge to decide who won, ask for a written neutral reconstruction protocol.

For example: preserve all original proxies/ballots/sign-in sheets; appoint a neutral inspector/accountant/attorney acceptable to the court; define the source documents to use; require a log for every accepted, rejected, duplicate, ambiguous, or corrected vote; and require a final report that ties each counted voting interest back to an owner/unit without disclosing more than necessary.

That gives the court something administrable and makes the issue less about factions and more about protecting the owners' voting rights. I would also ask your attorney whether the order should say what happens if the records are too compromised to reconstruct reliably -- corrected results vs. a new election.

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