CAMDENTON, Mo. (ABP) — The Missouri Baptist Convention could face paying more than $10 million to a developer over land formerly owned by Windermere Baptist Conference Center.
William Jester of Springfield, Mo., has filed a counterclaim to legal action convention officials originally filed against him and the conference center in 2006. The developer filed the countersuit in Camden County, Mo., where the lakeside conference center is located.
Jester accuses the original plaintiffs of hurting his business and defaming his character through the original lawsuit and publicity associated with it.
As part of a debt-restructuring plan to cover the costs of an expansion, Windermere transferred 943 acres of its original 1,300 to National City Bank of Cincinnati in late 2005. The bank then sold the property to Jester's Windermere Development Company Inc.
The convention sued, seeking to stop all land transactions at Windermere pending the outcome of a separate convention-filed suit against five institutions that were formerly affiliated.
The institutions, including Windermere, had removed themselves from the convention's control in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, the convention filed suit in Cole County, where it is headquartered, to regain control of the agencies' boards.
In that case, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan ruled March 4 that Windermere had acted legally when its trustees changed the center's corporate charter to appoint their own successors. The MBC plans to appeal that ruling.
The convention sought to have the Windermere property returned to the MBC as an outcome of that lawsuit. “They tried to take Mr. Jester's property in the Cole County case without enjoining him or his companies as parties [to that suit],” Jester attorney Burton Shostak of St. Louis noted by telephone on March 31.
In the separate Camden County suit, the convention sought to prevent Jester from beginning development of the property.
Jester's counterclaim charges the convention with making unsubstantiated and negative claims publicly, primarily through its in-house news journal The Pathway. Comments “relative to defendants' business capabilities, financial capabilities and the status of ownership … are derogatory and were made without any effort to confirm” their accuracy, Jester's suit notes.
Attorneys for Jester claim the MBC or its representatives warned prospective lenders against financing development of the property. He alleges the convention acted “with evil and malicious intent” and “outrageously when they intentionally interfered with the defendants' valid contracts and business expectations.” The MBC also acted “with reckless indifference” to Jester's rights.
The developer claims the interference has cost him more than $10 million in possible sales or development of the disputed property.
In his counterclaim, Jester is seeking at least $10 million to compensate for those lost profits. He also asks the court to grant punitive damages “in an amount that punishes them.”
“The financial damage they have done to my clients is beyond substantial, and we are looking to the plaintiff individuals and organizations to right that wrong,” Shostak said.
Jester filed his counterclaim against the plaintiffs in the MBC's suit against him, including the MBC Executive Board; former MBC president Bob Curtis; and convention-elected Windermere trustees Larry Atkins, pastor of First Baptist Church in Buckhorn, Mo.; Don Buford, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Big Spring, Mo.; James How of Washington, Mo.; Don Laramore of Caledonia, Mo.; James Robinson of Branson, Mo.; and Charles Schrum of Lebanon, Mo.
The plaintiffs in the Jester case have 30 days in which to respond. Then depositions will begin, according to Shostak.
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