Dear Friends of History and the Luther Hotel,

Here is an update from the May 30 hearing: 

(Thank you to Margaret Doughty and Attny. John Griffin for the summary below)

"At the hearing in Judge Polly Spencer’s court on Tuesday, May 30th, the lawyers for the Findley estate did not produce the requested accounting arguing that the accountants had not prepared it yet and that they would not be finished in time for the hearing on June 22nd. Lawyer John Griffin said this was not acceptable and reminded the court that the request for accounting had been made several times over many months. The judge agreed that the documents must be produced before the June 22nd hearing, and gave June 19th as the new deadline.

It was noted that in the prior document request to the Leshin law firm that a whole year of financial data had been omitted. Ms.Pettus admitted it was their mistake and said she would produce the missing information.

Our lawyers also asked the judge to order that Mr. Leshin’s clients produce the communications between Mr. Leshin and ERF and its agents.  The judge told Mr. Leshin to produce those documents to her, en camera (which means in private) in the next week.

Ms. Pettus had argued that the communications were privileged due to an email Edith Gower had sent.  Mr. John Griffin noted that this email had not been provided at least seven days before the hearing, as the rules require. Ms. Pettus said she did not have it with her. The judge asked her to email the communications to her.  Judge Spencer also told Mr. Leshin and Ms. Pettus to produce to our side all the invoices and proof of payment of legal bills from the Leshin firm and paid by Jack Findley’s estate.  Our side and the heirs are very interested in how much money has been spent or wasted on attorney’s fees for demolition efforts when Jack Findley wanted his beloved Luther Hotel to be preserved, not destroyed.  We should know in the coming days how much of Jack’s estate has been spent on all the legal wrangling to demolish the hotel."

At the end of May, we also received a letter of support from the Nueces County Historical Commission which is much appreciated! This letter means a lot not only for its show of unity from one preservation/historical entity to another, but because Corpus Christi is in Nueces County and many key players in that locale.

Upcoming:

If you're local, we will be having a garage sale/bake sale Saturday, June 24 in the parking lot of Old Main Book Store (in downtown Palacios) from 9 am-? If you can bring some items, help out, do some baking, please find us on Facebook at Palacios Preservation Association and let us know. Thank you--Sandra