Dogwood Valley case will continue

A civil case involving residents of Dogwood Valley and the Dogwood Valley Citizens Association (DVCA remains unresolved.
The case, heard last week in Charlottesville’s United States District Court, contends that the DVCA, its officers, and members of its board of directors “constitute an enterprise with a pattern of racketeering.“ The civil suit was originally scheduled for four days: Tuesday, June 24 through Friday, June 27. But both sides concluded their cases Wednesday, June 25.
The case—Joseph Mitchell Miller et al, vs. Dogwood Valley Citizens Association, Inc., et al. - has been to the Virginia Supreme Court and back again, in various forms.
Federal Judge Norman K. Moon gave the plaintiff’s attorney three weeks to compose a memorandum illustrating “a pattern of racketeering” comprised of at least two acts within 10 years.
Issuing his deadline for the memorandum, Judge Moon remarked:  “I’d like to get it done in my lifetime,“ referring to the case.
Stanardsville Mayor Gary Lowe is president of DVCA.  Joseph Mitchell “Mitch” Miller is a resident of Dogwood Valley, a subdivision of 320 lots near South River in Stanardsville.
The current action against DVCA is pursuant to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a federal law now often used to settle civil claims.
Legal issues surrounding Dogwood Valley began to attract press coverage roughly four years ago when it was reported that a dispute between Dogwood Valley absentee-landowner William Winkelman and the DVCA had found its way to the Supreme Court of Virginia.
In 1998, Winkelman’s two lots in Dogwood Valley were auctioned off by the DVCA for his failure to pay a $35 special assessment - an assessment of which Winkelman claimed to have no knowledge.
During testimony on June 25, attorney Kelly A. Hobbs of Dygert Wright Hobbs & Heilberg, PLC in Charlottesville, said she was doing collection work for the DVCA at the time Winkelman’s property was put on the block.
Hobbs testified that when she began work for DVCA she was “provided with a list of names and told to collect fees.“ She explained that she was a “new attorney.“ She also testified that she could not remember anything about the legal fees paid for her services.
Winkelman’s lots were not the only properties auctioned off in 1998, according to testimony.
Dogwood Valley resident and DVCA Treasurer Matthew Brown, a self-described contractor, testified last week that DVCA started making special assessments in 1995, following a flood, in order to be eligible for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Brown testified that DVCA began to “clear up its delinquencies” in order to meet FEMA requirements for a long-term, low-interest loan.  He said he believed DVCA was legally able to make assessments, due to the Property Owners’ Association Act (POA), a measure passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1989. DVCA began to use foreclosure and auction of delinquent properties to encourage assessment payments, Brown said.
However, Brown admitted that DVCA kept no annual budget and was not audited on an annual basis.
Dogwood Valley resident Shirley Ruth Moore testified that she began to receive notices of assessments from DVCA in 1998.
Moore owns 11 lots that comprise “a little more than 30 acres.“ She said she paid road fees but not the assessment fees “because (DVCA) doesn’t do anything about the roads.“ As a result of not paying the assessment, a lien was placed on her property. She said she paid $3,014.33 in fees and never received notice that the lien had been released.
The defense countered by showing her copies of documents releasing her property.
“I never saw those,“ Moore said.
In January of 2004, Virginia’s Supreme Court found that DVCA “is not a property owners’ association within the meaning of the Property Owners’ Association Act.“
The decision overturned the ruling of Greene County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Bouton, who had ruled that the DVCA did have the authority to issue assessments and conduct non-judicial foreclosures.
But that did not stop the assessments, or lawsuits.
DVCA requested that the Supreme Court rehear the case and began the process of investigating its options on the federal level. Brown filed paperwork that he testified he believed would bring DVCA under the auspices of the POA. Attorney George Dygert, who works for the same firm as Hobbs, filed “curative action” documents in the Greene County courthouse.
Last week Dygert - who currently charges $250 per hour for his counsel—testified that he had collected $159,000 in legal fees from “Mr. Brown” over the course of about 10 years.
Dygert also testified that following the 2004 Supreme Court decision, he told DVCA that there was risk involved in proceeding with warrants of debt. He also testified that continuing with those warrants had been DVCA’s decision.
In October 2006, Greene’s General District Court responded to Dygert’s “curative action.“
It ruled that DVCA is not a “Property Owners Association” and therefore had no right to “assess special assessments, charge interest … charge penalties, attorneys fees, docketing fees, or any other charge other than the regular assessments set forth in Deeds of Dedication.“
In January of this year, the Supreme Court of Virginia found that Greene’s Circuit Court had not erred when it determined in 2006 that DVCA did not qualify as a property owners’ association.