'Contested' Shelter Bay board members served with claim for damages

Four members of a Shelter Bay Community board of directors that has been intensely criticized for more than two years may be headed to court. During a board committee meeting Oct. 13, resident Roberta Fontenot, an attorney, had a process server present Elaine Dixon, Monte Hicks, Louise Kari and Wendy Poulton with a claim for damages against them as individual board members. These complaints had not been filed in Skagit County Superior Court as of Monday morning, Oct. 24.

General Manger Rick Tanner and legal counsel Philip Buri and two former board members were also served, states a letter Vice President Joe Hurley emailed to residents for the board Oct. 17, though the entire board did not approve it.

The claim, Hurly wrote, is “for legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and injunctive relief. In a nutshell, our legal counsel, Philip Buri, for malpractice, six past and present board members for breach of fiduciary duty and (she) is requesting injunctive relief for herself.”

The three page letter continues: “In addition, she is seeking damages for all members of the Community for the passing of the budget and ratification thereof at the May 21, 2022 annual meeting of the members, stating it was done illegally.”

Fontenot would not speak on pending litigation nor share documents with the Weekly News. In August she circulated petitions to residents to recall these board members and a shortened version was printed in the Weekly News.

In her Oct. 5 A Citizen’s View, Fontenot summarized her points against these board members, writing they: “lack the skill and knowledge to fulfill their fiduciary duty to the residents. The recall is also about removing board directors who have betrayed the community members.” She lists “examples of fraud and mismanagement” and her belief that there is “malfeasance committed by the contested board members and their hired lackeys.”

Hurley’s letter states that Fontenot would file her complaint Oct. 17, but court staff said claims had not been filed.

Hurley writes the “board has opened a Directors and Officers Insurance claim and all named defendants, with the exception of legal counsel, will be covered.”

Filing a claim for damages is a condition precedent for filing a complaint for damages. The claim requires defendants to respond in court to the complaint, which describes the legal claims against them.

Until the claim is filed, neither party can start “any action claiming damages.” There is a 60 day period from serving the claim on a defendant before an action may be commenced, the Revised Code of Washington states.

Poulton did not respond to a Weekly News request for an interview. Poulton and Hicks were elected to the board in May 2021.

Dixon and Kari were appointed to replace board members, who died and resigned, respectively, after this May's regular board elections.

This is the second letter this year from a lawyer to the Shelter Bay board seeking to hold it accountable for actions against the community. In January, a Mount Vernon lawyer working for a Shelter Bay couple wrote the board in a six-page letter that “Directors are accountable for your actions with respect to fellow board member Steve Swigert’s (“Swigert”) misconduct in denuding Rainbow Park.” The letter ends: “I cannot predict how the Community will react, but in my legal opinion they would be justified in removing you from your positions as Directors and pursuing an action for damages against each of you, individually.”