rader.qxd
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I want to bring readers up-to-date in regard to the lawsuit concerning bylaw 2.005, the bylaw authored by Aviva Patt that puts severe constraints on freedom of expression in IVI-IPO. The suit was brought by 13 members of IVI-IPO against the current leadership. It is indeed unfortunate that, after the article had been in the works for close to a year, Mr. Felshman’s editors decided to run it on the very day that the judge was making a ruling in the case. The article ends with near south chapter leader Lois Dobry referring to the lawsuit as “harassment” and further stating her belief that the suit will be thrown out of court and that her allies will sue the plaintiffs for court costs. Yet on the afternoon of Thursday, November 6, at the very moment that the Reader hit the streets, Judge Thomas Durkin was ruling against the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case. He stated that:
“The court finds that indeed there are sufficient allegations in the complaint to thrust jurisdiction upon the court. In reaching that conclusion the court finds that the plaintiffs alleged facts which, if proven, could establish the existence of fraud or collusion…which are two of the instances that permit courts to accept jurisdiction over the internal affairs of IVI-IPO….Additionally, the court finds that it may intervene because the allegations also sufficiently plead that the board violated its own rules.”
At the end of his letter, Saul Mendelson says, “We will keep on doing what we’re doing.” That’s the shame of it.
