Legal Feud to Tee Off Again Over Hole in One

A golfer scored a hole in one in June at the Channel Islands Lions Club Annual Charity Golf Tournament and won a free trip, but a legal brouhaha has erupted over who will pay for it.

The Lions Club has been sued by a Port Hueneme travel agency that fronted the money for the trip. The golfer contends that he has yet to receive all of his winnings. And the company that provided insurance to cover such prize money can’t be located.

The travel agency, The Travel Mart, won its case against the Lions Club in Small Claims Court in Ventura. But the club has appealed the decision, and the case will go to trial in Superior Court on Tuesday.

“It’s a mess all the way around,” said Elani Scholler, wife of Charles Scholler, the North Hollywood retiree who hit the winning hole in one.

She said her husband was promised a cruise trip to Mexico or $7,500 in travel expenses. He opted for the $7,500 and took a trip to Germany, using $2,300 of the winnings.

“He promised me a trip to Greece,” Elani Scholler said. “It’s not fair.”

The controversy began on June 21 when the club held a golf tournament at Mountain View Golf Course in Santa Paula. The Lions Club offered prizes for holes in one on three different holes, including $10,000 for one hole, a Ford Explorer truck for another and a cruise to Mexico for the third.

The club bought insurance from Sports Guarantees Unlimited of Cathedral City to cover any lucky shots. The coverage was arranged by Coast General Insurance Brokers of Oxnard. Margaret Bird, owner of The Travel Mart, sponsored the 16th hole--where the prize was the cruise--and she helped pay for the insurance premium.

Bird said she advanced Scholler’s travel expenses to Germany, anticipating that Sports Guarantees would reimburse her and cover the $7,500 in winnings. “The company told me the check was in the mail,” she said.

But Sports Guarantees refused to cover the winnings because the Lions Club had allowed 126 players to participate in the tournament when the coverage called for no more than 120, said David Schenk of Coast General.

When Schenk later tried to contact Sports Guarantees, he found that it had moved and left no forwarding address or telephone number.

Looking for someone to reimburse her for the travel expenses, Bird sued the Lions Club. The club, in turn, filed a claim against Coast General. Sports Guarantees cannot be located.

The dispute has turned vitriolic. Bird accused the Lions Club of “deceptive practices” in a letter Wednesday to The International Assn. of Lions Clubs. She said the club has treated her with “verbal abuse and strong-arm tactics.”

“I was just trying to help out a charitable organization,” she said. She contends that the Lions Club should just pay the $5,000 judgment that she was awarded in Small Claims Court, and that the club’s appeal is without merit.

The club’s attorney, Richard Hanawalt, said Bird has been the real problem in resolving the case.

“She’s been snarly and quite bitchy about the whole thing,” Hanawalt said. “You would think I was taking gold out of her teeth.”

Hanawalt said the prize that Scholler won was simply a trip for two to Mexico, and that the $7,500 was not offered.

“No one reduced it to a dollar figure,” he said. “It was never stated to golfers on the brochure. That could have been for an afternoon in Tijuana.”

Hanawalt said the issue over the number of players who participated is “a question of interpretation” to be decided by the court. The Lions Club isn’t responsible for the payment, he said, and furthermore, it doesn’t have the money.

The tournament netted $2,600 for the club, which has only about a dozen members, he said.