Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Nevada

Golf Membership Out

My husband became a golf member of a local club 8 years ago. He paid in $30,000 and pays 9,000 (per year) in ongoing dues. We want out of the membership. We have been told our name has to go on a list (we are #80) and that if and when we find a buyer or they get to #80 we can get out. Meanwhile we do not use this membership BUT have to pay the $9000 p/yr in fees. We have been unsuccesssful in obtaining a buyer (obviously who wants the membership if we are #80 on the list) BUT we are told we cannot freeze our membership and wait to get to the top but have to keep paying each quarter more money. I told my husband to give them their membership back and stop paying them by us forfeiting our original $30,000 membership fee. At this rate in 3 1/2 years we have paid the money in, all over again. My husband says there is no way out of this since 79 other people are on the list that someone surely would have found a way out. No one has, so he says we need to just keep paying. Any suggestions or recourse we may have? Thanks so much!


Asked on 7/21/05, 2:01 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Leon Greenberg Leon Greenberg Professional Corporation

Re: Golf Membership Out

Your situation raises some interesting issues. While I am unaware of any specific regulations in Nevada regarding these sort of club memberships (Nevada, in general, has fewer regulations of business activities than say California and many other states) you may, nonetheless, have some legal basis to pursue a request for relief from the Court. Specifically, a Court might be persuaded that the limitation on transfer of the membership is not proper (but I am not clear on all of the facts). I would suggest you carefully review your contract and the club bylaws. I am doubtful you will get much relief from getting a lawyer to write a letter or negotiate (from how you describe it, it sounds like they are giving many people a hard time about this). You might get me to bring litigation on your behalf, but the costs would be significant (if this could be resolved favorably by settlement at a relatively early stage you are still talking about maybe $3,000, possible a bit less or a bit more, if this drags out into a real Court fight it could be much more than that). If you were able to split these costs among a group of persons (it sounds like their are other members being messed around, you could all join a single lawsuit) you might find it more sensible to take this to Court. And remember, no guarantees (in fact, I cannot even give an opinion on the strength of a case at this time, I would require more information to do so) You can contact me at [email protected]

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Answered on 7/21/05, 2:28 pm


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