A local native who is spearheading a class-action lawsuit against the Club at North Halton says he feels the recent shareholder vote to not pursue a possible sale of the facilities bodes well for his side in upcoming court decisions.
Peter Noble filed a lawsuit in Ontario Superior Court against the century-old Georgetown club in May 2015, claiming the legal action is based on a number of issues, including that North Halton’s current share exchange program is “a wealth transfer machine,” resulting in economic loss to a group of 122 nongolfing and non-member shareholders.
The class action also asks the court that the ownership structure of for-profit the Club at North Halton, which operates a golf course, curling and dining facilities, be dissolved and its net assets distributed among all shareholders.
The club held a special shareholders’ meeting on Oct. 4 to determine whether to entertain the best two offers — as determined by broker-of-record Colliers International — to sell the land and buildings, requiring a two-thirds majority vote to pass.
The final tally was 212 voting against and 206 for the sale of the club.
Noble said the process of soliciting offers through Colliers International confirmed that the actual shareholder value is approximately $100,000, which was what had been estimated in court documents filed in the minority-shareholder oppression-remedy class action.
Yet those looking to divest their shares in the club have only been offered a fraction of that amount in recent years and they can only sell their shares to other members.
“The recent (valuation) process will have a profound effect on our class action and it has a lot of implications, and the key outcome is that half the shareholders want to sell,” said Noble, who resides in Victoria, B.C.
“The 50 per cent of the shareholders who do not want to sell also do not want to buy out the remaining 50 per cent. They just want to keep the money of the shareholders who do not golf and use it for themselves to continue to play inexpensive golf, tying up $20 million of shareholder money for no reason other than they are too cheap to write a cheque.”
Noble contends in the lawsuit that the North Halton share sales starting in May 2015 uniquely damaged the share equity value of non-member, nongolfing shareholders while it merely subsidized the membership fees for golfing shareholders.
