[Archived] Walker Family Lawsuit V Paul Egerton-Vernon

[VinjayV4]

I promise not to keep endlessly posting about the Walker Family and Trustees but feel this deserves its own topic. This could be the "smoking gun" so to speak in terms of neglect towards Blackburn Rovers. Even if this lawsuit was only filed by the family members in regards to their own personal interests as beneficiaries.

So here's the link I posted in the "Scathing Attack on Venkys" thread. The lawsuit was filed in 2014 and progressed to court proceedings.

http://www.jerseylaw.je/Judgments/UnreportedJudgments/Documents/Display.aspx?url=2014/14-01-24_Walker_and_others-v-Egerton-Vernon_and_others_025.htm

[VinjayV4]

Sorry but its ridiculous this HUGE find of information has no responses yet. Won't post anymore on this thread tonight (as I don't want to get banned for constantly posting about the same issues) but this is FAR more important than all the posts on the Championship thread this evening.

[K-Hod]

Anyone care to break it down into Layman's terms for me?

[arbitro]

Sorry but its ridiculous this HUGE find of information has no responses yet. Won't post anymore on this thread tonight (as I don't want to get banned for constantly posting about the same issues) but this is FAR more important than all the posts on the Championship thread this evening.

I personally can't comment on something I really don't understand. Can you break it down into bite size pieces to help me?

[K-Hod]

Haha, glad I'm not on my own Arbitro!

[tomphil]

I touched on this months ago after some digging. There has been quite a lot going on in the background over the past few years, also Venkys going after SEM and an alleged settlement. All the in the knows are very quiet these days

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

So the Walker family are sueing the head of the 'Walker trust'?...please correct if wrong

[LDRover]

I read it similar SG. Vernon has allegedly misrepresented the Walker family's financial interests.

So what is implied here? That the sale to Venky's was done on the cheap? That cash went 'missing' with a third party involved? I'm confused.

[tomphil]

Not that this makes any difference to us now or is really any of our business but the Walker trust was entrusted with being custodians of a community asset after all.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

'It wasn't meant to have been like this'

A comment or similar made by Ross Walker a few years ago on the sale to Venkys.

Hmmmm.

[BlueMonday]

So the Walker family are sueing the head of the 'Walker trust'?...please correct if wrong

That's how I'm reading it.

Can't see how it will help Rovers. We know The Trust failed in their duty of care. The Walker family aren't interested in the fate of Rovers. Even Venkys suing SEM won't help Rovers.

If they all win their lawsuits, Rovers are still deep in debt with, with clueless fecktards for owners

[47er]

Some members of the Walker family believe that those charged with the task of administering the Walker Trust settlement have not shown due diligence(thought I'd throw that in!) and have made some disasterous investments,therefore they are suing the administrators for negligence---that it in a nutshell?

Its up to you Vinjay to make the connection with Rovers and Venkys. Rovers were sold by the Trust for a sum it believed satisfactory and that got rid of the Rovers-related debt. Since this is all about money,I'm assuming those members of the Walker family are not criticising the administrators for that piece of work?

I do hope you are not going to get all obsessive again Vinjay and there is actually a Rovers point to all this?

[yoda]

I personally can't comment on something I really don't understand. Can you break it down into bite size pieces to help me?

It looks like Ross Walker and Micheala Walker are @#/? at Paul Egerton-Vernon for pissing the family fortune on bad investments, it does not say which investment they are though but the amount is about £127 million

[VinjayV4]

Surely there's some people with above average intelligence on here. Otherwise get a dictionary...anyway I'll break it down if nobody else will. I promise not to get obsessive 47er but people have asked for this to be explained so I will make one more post. Might edit it a few times if there's anything else to add so keep looking over it just incase.

Ross and Michaela Walker are Jack's children and they filed a lawsuit against four defendants including Paul Egerton-Vernon. I'm sure people understand what a defendant in court is right? Egerton-Vernon is named as the first defendant followed by three more but I'm trying to keep the length down so will mostly refer to Egerton-Vernon as PEV. PEV gave an interview to the Lancashire Telegraph shortly after Jack Walker passed away. In that interview he claimed that there would be no lack of funding and profits from other Walker businesses would be available to Blackburn Rovers. Of course this only remained the case for a couple of years after which funding was drastically cut to Stalinistic starvation levels. Without a sale this would have inevitably led to relegation eventually though probably with less debt and less utter incompetence in appointing an idiot like Steve Kean.

The family members accused PEV of being negligent with "disastrous" investments made by the Trust of over 100 million. Despite being referred to as Chairman of the Trustees PEV retired in July 2009 as a trustee of the Jack Walker settlement. Obviously the settlement included the trust fund that was supposed to provide funding to Blackburn Rovers as a beneficiary of the trust. Despite this stating that PEV retired in 2009 as a trustee he was the only one who commented on the sale to Venkys. That particular statement of course stated that they were delighted to sell the club to Venkys.

The family members are clearly only concerned by their own status as beneficiaries. Indeed there is nothing regarding Blackburn Rovers in this particular case. You have to wonder however if the family members include Blackburn Rovers as one of the "disastrous investments." I always wondered if the family members attempted to influence the trustees over the level of funding provided to Rovers. They certainly didn't care about the lack of funding provided to Rovers. People always accused me of confusing the family with the Trust. My points however towards were the family were in relation to them not standing up to the Trust over Jack's wishes for Rovers being ignored. You would think this was their moralistic duty to their Father but clearly since they were also beneficiaries that's what they were concerned about. As I pointed out this lawsuit was only filed in their personal interests and not out of concern to Rovers.

Perhaps the trustees did not want the legal hassle if the family complained about Rovers benefiting too much from the trust. That however is irrelevant as legally the trust was intended to carry out Jack Walker's wishes. Several of these wishes were not followed. Revidge Blue for instance said on this forum a few months ago that Saint John (Williams) openly stated at a fans forum meeting they refused to finance the rebuilding of the Riverside stand AGAINST Jack's wishes. The intention was to rebuild in 1999 but unexpected relegation halted those plans. Then of course Jack passed away and the trustees conveniently decided not to follow through on the rebuilding plans after the 2001 promotion. Whether the rebuilding would have proved successful or not is unimportant. It also poses the question of why did Williams not resign in protest at Jack's wishes clearly being overlooked.

Many have accused the Trustees of being negligent in the sale to Venkys. Club officials (Finn, Williams, etc) at the time however did not object to the sale so they must have been satisfied Venkys met the requirements. I don't know if the sale was negligent for sure but the suggestion they were negligent with other investments means their might be a case to suggest they rushed the sale of Rovers.

Yet there have been no efforts by the family to take legal action over the sale of Rovers. Indeed this lawsuit was only filed in their own selfish and greedy interests. Therefore Rovers fans should have placed more pressure on the Walker family to look into the sale of Rovers and take legal action if clear negligence was found. Many have certainly accused Venkys of breaking the terms of sale which clearly were not worth the paper they were written on.

Exiled In Toronto (one of the few who backed me to an extent in my past grievances against the family and trustees) posted this on the other thread where the link was posted...

"Interesting find. It seems the fans aren't the only ones with an axe to grind against the Trust, accusing them of peeing away 130 million in "highly speculative and disastrous investments." Maybe the Trust put as little effort into investing the family fortune as they did into checking out Anderson and Venky's."

[yoda]

 

Surely there's some people with above average intelligence on here. Otherwise get a dictionary...anyway I'll break it down if nobody else will. I promise not to get obsessive 47er but people have asked for this to be explained so I will make one more post. Might edit it a few times if there's anything else to add so keep looking over it just incase.

Ross and Michaela Walker are Jack's children and they filed a lawsuit against four defendants including Paul Egerton-Vernon. I'm sure people understand what a defendant in court is right? Egerton-Vernon is named as the first defendant followed by three more but I'm trying to keep the length down so will mostly refer to Egerton-Vernon as PEV. PEV gave an interview to the Lancashire Telegraph shortly after Jack Walker passed away. In that interview he claimed that there would be no lack of funding and profits from other Walker businesses would be available to Blackburn Rovers. Of course this only remained the case for a couple of years after which funding was drastically cut to Stalinistic starvation levels. Without a sale this would have inevitably led to relegation eventually though probably with less debt and less utter incompetence in appointing an idiot like Steve Kean.

The family members accused PEV of being negligent with "disastrous" investments made by the Trust of over 100 million. Despite being referred to as Chairman of the Trustees PEV retired in July 2009 as a trustee of the Jack Walker settlement. Obviously the settlement included the trust fund that was supposed to provide funding to Blackburn Rovers as a beneficiary of the trust. Despite this stating that PEV retired in 2009 as a trustee he was the only one who commented on the sale to Venkys. That particular statement of course stated that they were delighted to sell the club to Venkys.

The family members are clearly only concerned by their own status as beneficiaries. Indeed there is nothing regarding Blackburn Rovers in this particular case. You have to wonder however if the family members include Blackburn Rovers as one of the "disastrous investments." I always wondered if the family members attempted to influence the trustees over the level of funding provided to Rovers. Perhaps the trustees did not want the legal hassle if the family complained about Rovers benefiting too much from the trust. That however is irrelevant as legally the trust was intended to carry out Jack Walker's wishes. Several of these wishes were not followed. Revidge Blue for instance said on this forum a few months ago that Saint John (Williams) openly stated at a fans forum meeting they refused to finance the rebuilding of the Riverside stand AGAINST Jack's wishes. The intention was to rebuild in 1999 but unexpected relegation halted those plans. Then of course Jack passed away and the trustees conveniently decided not to follow through on the rebuilding plans after the 2001 promotion. Whether the rebuilding would have proved successful or not is unimportant. It also poses the question of why did Williams not resign in protest at Jack's wishes clearly being overlooked.

Many have accused the Trustees of being negligent in the sale to Venkys. Club officials (Finn, Williams, etc) at the time however did not object to the sale so they must have been satisfied Venkys met the requirements. I don't know if the sale was negligent for sure but the suggestion they were negligent with other investments means their might be a case to suggest they rushed the sale of Rovers.

 

"the trial is presently fixed to start on 6th October, 2014"

You need to dig some more Vinjay and find out what happened when it went to trial

[patrickvalery]

Surely there's some people with above average intelligence on here. Otherwise get a dictionary...anyway I'll break it down if nobody else will. I promise not to get obsessive 47er but people have asked for this to be explained so I will make one more post. Might edit it a few times if there's anything else to add so keep looking over it just incase.

Ross and Michaela Walker are Jack's children and they filed a lawsuit against four defendants including Paul Egerton-Vernon. I'm sure people understand what a defendant in court is right? Egerton-Vernon is named as the first defendant followed by three more but I'm trying to keep the length down so will mostly refer to Egerton-Vernon as PEV. PEV gave an interview to the Lancashire Telegraph shortly after Jack Walker passed away. In that interview he claimed that there would be no lack of funding and profits from other Walker businesses would be available to Blackburn Rovers. Of course this only remained the case for a couple of years after which funding was drastically cut to Stalinistic starvation levels. Without a sale this would have inevitably led to relegation eventually though probably with less debt and less utter incompetence in appointing an idiot like Steve Kean.

The family members accused PEV of being negligent with "disastrous" investments made by the Trust of over 100 million. Despite being referred to as Chairman of the Trustees PEV retired in July 2009 as a trustee of the Jack Walker settlement. Obviously the settlement included the trust fund that was supposed to provide funding to Blackburn Rovers as a beneficiary of the trust. Despite this stating that PEV retired in 2009 as a trustee he was the only one who commented on the sale to Venkys. That particular statement of course stated that they were delighted to sell the club to Venkys.

The family members are clearly only concerned by their own status as beneficiaries. Indeed there is nothing regarding Blackburn Rovers in this particular case. You have to wonder however if the family members include Blackburn Rovers as one of the "disastrous investments." I always wondered if the family members attempted to influence the trustees over the level of funding provided to Rovers. They certainly didn't care about the lack of funding provided to Rovers. People always accused me of confusing the family with the Trust. My points however towards were the family were in relation to them not standing up to the Trust over Jack's wishes for Rovers being ignored. You would think this was their moralistic duty to their Father but clearly since they were also beneficiaries that's what they were concerned about. As I pointed out this lawsuit was only filed in their personal interests and not out of concern to Rovers.

Perhaps the trustees did not want the legal hassle if the family complained about Rovers benefiting too much from the trust. That however is irrelevant as legally the trust was intended to carry out Jack Walker's wishes. Several of these wishes were not followed. Revidge Blue for instance said on this forum a few months ago that Saint John (Williams) openly stated at a fans forum meeting they refused to finance the rebuilding of the Riverside stand AGAINST Jack's wishes. The intention was to rebuild in 1999 but unexpected relegation halted those plans. Then of course Jack passed away and the trustees conveniently decided not to follow through on the rebuilding plans after the 2001 promotion. Whether the rebuilding would have proved successful or not is unimportant. It also poses the question of why did Williams not resign in protest at Jack's wishes clearly being overlooked.

Many have accused the Trustees of being negligent in the sale to Venkys. Club officials (Finn, Williams, etc) at the time however did not object to the sale so they must have been satisfied Venkys met the requirements. I don't know if the sale was negligent for sure but the suggestion they were negligent with other investments means their might be a case to suggest they rushed the sale of Rovers.

Yet there have been no efforts by the family to take legal action over the sale of Rovers. Indeed this lawsuit was only filed in their own selfish and greedy interests. Therefore Rovers fans should have placed more pressure on the Walker family to look into the sale of Rovers and take legal action if clear negligence was found. Many have certainly accused Venkys of breaking the terms of sale which clearly were not worth the paper they were written on.

Exiled In Toronto (one of the few who backed me to an extent in my past grievances against the family and trustees) posted this on the other thread where the link was posted...

"Interesting find. It seems the fans aren't the only ones with an axe to grind against the Trust, accusing them of peeing away 130 million in "highly speculative and disastrous investments." Maybe the Trust put as little effort into investing the family fortune as they did into checking out Anderson and Venky's."

It's all interesting and would go some way to justifying the very public fan unrest. But it's not gonna make a jot of difference now. We're in bed with Venkys. Like it or not. I'd be very interested to know the outcome here because it seems there's a case to be answered that Jacks wishes were horrifically ignored. But in this moment I think the Venkys case against SEM is more poignant no?

[BlueMonday]

It's all stable doors and bolting horses

[VinjayV4]

It's all stable doors and bolting horses

I promise just one more post by me on this tonight.

This just backs up 100% my past criticism of the Walker family and trustees and proves I was right all along. Of course I was the first to do so though more people on here became increasingly critical as time progressed. I'm not trying to come across gloatingly but after all the abuse I received can't help feeling quite vindicated.

Could the BRFC Action Group (backed up by Seneca for legal costs) not attempt to make some legal claim against the Trustees? Or put more pressure on the family to make a claim on the fans behalf. I'm not saying it could reverse the sale but the trustees could be deservedly punished for their actions.

Tomphil said he posted about this (or certainly something similar) months ago and nobody did anything then. So certainly I won't get my hopes up about that but this had to be said.

I can't find the result of the lawsuit but I have emailed the Jersey court requesting information.

[patrickvalery]

Could the BRFC Action Group (backed up by Seneca for legal costs) not attempt to make some legal claim against the Trustees? Or put more pressure on the family to make a claim on the clubs behalf. I'm not saying it could reverse the sale but the trustees could be deservedly punished for their

For what gain? They aren't custodian's of the club. Say they succeeded. What then? The trust sit on X amount of money. Still not enough to buy the club. Possibly a share I suppose. But only if Venkys feel so inclined to sell.

I agree that from a moral standpoint this is important. But in practical terms I don't see its magnitude.

[BlueMonday]

The Walker family are only in it for their own gain. Venkys are only suing SEM for their own gain.

Venkys can hardly sue the Walker Trust for selling the club to them.

If anything we should be suing the F.A. & the Premier League.

Poor old Rovers just get a kick in the nuts

[koi]

Rovers was Jack's passion, it was also his way of giving something back to the town that helped him become filthy rich. Sadly, it was only Jack who appreciated what the club means, and what he did meant to the town, the rest of the Walker clan enjoyed the champagne when the trophy was lifted but as I've said elsewhere, they couldn't really give a toss.

Maybe I'm bitter, my dealings with Howard left me feeling sorry for Jack having such a son and I feel my club was shafted. But bitter or not, I am in no doubt that the club WAS NOT run in accordance with Jack's wishes after his death. It can't have been. Jack would not have built the club to standard he did and then just let it decline.

As I've said in the other thread, plenty became very wealthy on the back of Jack's wealth and that is the crux for me, Jack's money, dead or alive. Fck the lot of 'em, we're peasants to them and I'd be very surprised if any money spent on the club is not classed as wasted.

Is it a known fact Venky's are taking legal action against Jerome and his motley crew?

[RevidgeBlue]

I've only glanced at this quickly, and it doesn't actually seem to be anything to do with Rovers more the Walker family sueing the "professional" trustees for making bad investments which have allegedly cost them £127m. Whether or not any action would be successful remains to be seen as any investment contains a degree of risk I suppose it will hinge on whether the degree of risk is deemed to be reasonable or acceptable.

I don't suppose any of this relates to Rovers, I'm presuming they aren't taking any action against anyone regarding the so far very unsuccessful sale of the Club to Venky's, I'm guessing they are perfectly happy with the 23m they received in respect of that.

I saw my name mentioned briefly above in relation to John Williams and the Fans Forum. John indicated off the record that they went against Jack's wishes on a number of occasions when it was thought to be best and simply in relation to the Riverside I think it was the correct call not to build the behemoth structure Jack originally envisaged which would have taken Ewood's capacity up to around 40 k. I was and remain of the view that a more modest stand should have been built years ago when things were going well and the feelgood factor was high if only because the potential cost of replacing the Riverside goes up every year the longer it is left.

[47er]

I promise just one more post by me on this tonight.

This just backs up 100% my past criticism of the Walker family and trustees and proves I was right all along. Of course I was the first to do so though more people on here became increasingly critical as time progressed. I'm not trying to come across gloatingly but after all the abuse I received can't help feeling quite vindicated.

Could the BRFC Action Group (backed up by Seneca for legal costs) not attempt to make some legal claim against the Trustees? Or put more pressure on the family to make a claim on the fans behalf. I'm not saying it could reverse the sale but the trustees could be deservedly punished for their actions.

Tomphil said he posted about this (or certainly something similar) months ago and nobody did anything then. So certainly I won't get my hopes up about that but this had to be said.

I can't find the result of the lawsuit but I have emailed the Jersey court requesting information.

For somebody who wonders if there are any intelligent people on this MB, there are some pretty dumb statements in there and in your other bigger post.

Quite clearly the Walker family are concerned about some allegedly bad investments which have had detrimental effects on their personal circumstances. I'm thinking its nothing to do with Rovers or us at all. And how any Rovers fan group could qualify as "interested parties" in relation to any of this is beyond me, even if they could afford it.

You would be best served by throwing your enthusiasm into something else, although I admire your tenacity. Lets hope its no more than that and you're not just obsessed with being "vindicated".

[VinjayV4]

For somebody who wonders if there are any intelligent people on this MB, there are some pretty dumb statements in there and in your other bigger post.

Quite clearly the Walker family are concerned about some allegedly bad investments which have had detrimental effects on their personal circumstances. I'm thinking its nothing to do with Rovers or us at all. And how any Rovers fan group could qualify as "interested parties" in relation to any of this is beyond me, even if they could afford it.

You would be best served by throwing your enthusiasm into something else, although I admire your tenacity. Lets hope its no more than that and you're not just obsessed with being "vindicated".

I notice you liked my post and unliked it again. I guess you meant to click the quote button lol. I'm not obsessed with being vindicated in fact I've felt a lot less anger and bitterness recently thanks to seeking help for depression issues in general. That's why I decided to return though certainly stand by a lot of stuff I've said in the past. Didn't make a big deal out of my return with any lengthy post and have made a genuine effort to stay "low key" while still being active. After finding this information however it had to be brought to the forefront. I tried to restrict it to the "scathing attack on Venkys" thread at first but simply felt it was too important to be overlooked and needed its own thread.

My motivation is simply to see them finally get the level of criticism they deserve. The stuff about the Action Group and Seneca is a very slim hope but it was worth posting. Ideally the Walker family would be "persona non grata" in this town until being shamed into taking legal action against the trustees over Rovers. I know however that is extremely unlikely to happen and there's not much I can do about it without the assistance of others. Posting repeatedly about it won't work as I know to my cost but deep down I'll know that I tried. That's all you can do sometimes.

Revidge I certainly think the issue with lack of team funding was far more important than the Riverside. Just that as you're far more respected on here than me it was a useful example of pointing out where one of Jack's wishes was blatantly ignored. Since they ignored that who knows how much else they ignored.

Did say it would be my last post "tonight" but that was yesterday and its past midnight now lol. Don't worry not going to bombard everyone with posts on this thread because I'll get banned again!

[old darwen blue]

You post what you want Vinjay, at least it provokes conversation which may make for an interesting read.