Attorneys Only Winner in Fight Over Tee-Off Times, Litigants Say

The battle lines were drawn.

On one side stood the avid golfers of Leisure World. On the other stood the retirement community’s seasonal visitors dubbed the “snowbirds and sunbirds” because they flee the cold northern winters and sweltering desert summers to rent condominiums here.

To the golfers and scores of other Leisure World residents, the visitors were causing problems by crowding the community’s three nine-hole golf courses.

The disenchanted residents eventually formed a group called the Concerned Owners Resident Committee and sued their homeowners’ association, the Golden Rain Foundation, for failing to give them preferential tee-off times over the seasonal renters.

Last April, a Superior Court judge agreed with the homeowners’ association that it could not have separate rules for owners and renters.

Almost a year later, the battle continues. The owners say the only winner so far is the defendant’s attorneys who have billed the association’s insurance company for up to $300,000 in legal fees.

The Concerned Owners Resident Committee filed its appeal shortly after the Superior Court ruling. The group also proceeded to file a second lawsuit, asking the court for a declaration of the owners’ rights. A Superior Court judge has stayed the second lawsuit pending a decision on the appeal, which will most likely be handed down in June.

A.J. (Bud) Bernhardt, a retired Los Angeles court commissioner and a leader of CORC, said earlier this week that although interest in the matter has waned, CORC members are still pursuing the lawsuit.

“We don’t have the kind of money and resources that our (homeowners’) association has,” Bernhardt said, “but we have the conviction that what we’re doing is right, and we still have faith in law and justice.”

A major portion of the $40,000 donated by residents has been used to pay for advertisements in the community’s newspaper and for legal costs incurred by George West, a Los Angeles attorney and friend of Bernhardt’s who is representing the group on a pro bono basis.

West said the homeowners’ association could have avoided the expensive lawsuit by allowing residents to tee off earlier than visitors for four days a week.

West predicted that CORC will win the appeal. “I do not believe that our government and the courts are going to take away personal property rights,” West said. “The capitalist system is the only one that works, and only those that work and earn property should have the right to keep it.”

Doug Wood, vice president of the homeowners’ association, said the cost of the lawsuit would affect all Leisure World residents. He said that although the association’s insurance company will pay the legal fees, its deductible had recently increased by $15,000. The new costs will be passed on to the owners, he said. Currently, owners pay an average of $300 a month in association fees.

Wood said homeowners’ association officials want to compromise, but they still can not discriminate against renters. He said all golfers, whether owners or renters, should “take their turn” on the golf courses.

Wood said: “Everyone in Leisure World has to get the same treatment. We can’t act as if some residents are more equal than others.”