Industry Watchdog Timeshare Compliance Wins Key Ruling from Federal Court, Lawsuit Against Hilton's Diamond Resorts Will Proceed
U.S. District Court Denies Attempt by Resort Company to Dismiss Case on Summary Judgment
Landmark Suit Against Timeshare Company Set for Jury Trial January 2024
ALISO VIEJO, Calif., April 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Timeshare Compliance, the nation's leading timeshare exit company and industry watchdog won a major victory for nearly 800 victimized timeshare owners as a U.S. District Court judge ruled a lawsuit against Hilton's (NYSE: HLT) timeshare giant Diamond Resorts will go forward.
U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer said in an order denying summary judgement to Diamond Resorts that among other reasons, the timeshare company failed to show that Timeshare Compliance's good-faith efforts to help dissatisfied timeshare owners exit their contracts constituted interference in a business relationship or "tortious interference."
"Diamond's arguments were decisively rejected by the court, and Timeshare Compliance will now present its full case to a jury at trial," said Katherine Ferro, in-house counsel who oversees the legal team representing Timeshare Compliance in the suit.
Among the rulings favoring Timeshare Compliance, the court said that Timeshare Compliance's statements to Diamond Resorts' timeshare owners that their heirs automatically inherit their timeshare contracts were not false.
In other words, the lawsuit alleges, Diamond Resorts lied when it told timeshare owners that their heirs wouldn't inherit the contracts, when in fact as Timeshare Compliance correctly informed Diamond owners, the timeshare contract continues, and family members would be on the hook for burdensome fees every year, long after the original owners had passed on.
"The filing showed Diamond Resorts timeshare owners were unaware of the perpetual nature of the timeshare they acquired under high-pressure sales tactics which laden their children with increasing annual maintenance fees in perpetuity," said Ferro.
Moreover, the ruling alleges that Diamond Resorts retaliated against dissatisfied owners who contacted Timeshare Compliance for help by preventing them from participating in a contract modification program and would only work with the owners if they severed their relationship with consumer advocates like Timeshare Compliance.
Timeshare Compliance's Co-Trustees, Rich Folk, and Bo Wilson, both timeshare industry executive veterans who became disgusted with the industry's sales practices said the ruling against Diamond Resorts is a huge victory for hundreds of timeshare owners who have been victims of assumed deceptive sales practices by the resort company.
"Diamond Resorts' desperate hopes of avoiding damaging discovery at trial have been dashed by this ruling," said Rich Folk, Co-Trustee of Timeshare Compliance. "As has already been revealed by this ruling showing how timeshare companies retaliate against victimized owners, now a jury will get to hear in embarrassing detail all the ways timeshare companies misleadingly market their products and punish owners who dare to get help to exit their contracts."
Co-Trustee of Timeshare Compliance, Bo Wilson added; "Timeshare Compliance is confident that a jury hearing testimony from timeshare owners who were freed from their burdensome timeshares, acquired by Diamond's unscrupulous sales techniques, and who are satisfied with the valuable service that Timeshare Compliance provided, will find in favor of Timeshare Compliance. We are confident that the truth will be heard – and timeshare developers like Diamond will be laid bare at trial."
The case will be heard January 23, 2024, in District Court in Los Angeles.
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SOURCE Timeshare Compliance
