July 21 – The campus of the Scotland School for Veterans Children has had a whole lot of changes in recent years.
In 2022, a holding company named Gable Holdings purchased the organization, which was and still is administered by David Newell.
There have been stories of disrepair in the buildings and employees not getting paid for their work.
Well, next Thursday, the campus will go up for auction.
Attorney Clint Barkdoll said, “This has been kind of pending I would say for a couple of months now. I actually talked to a couple of those employees and referred them to the Department of Labor website to get their complaints filed. My guess is the Department of Labor was very deliberate with the timing of this complaint because they know it’s going out for auction next week. So the Department of Labor wants to have that lawsuit filed on record so at least those affected employees could have this amount, the back wages and there’s some fines and penalties in that as well. They could at least get that amount escrowed as part of the sale of the real estate because the thinking here could be that once that real estate is sold, it may be very difficult for a government agency to collect any assets against the Scotland Campus entity.”
Apparently 21 people are affected by this.
Barkdoll said, “I think with the fines and the penalties and the actual back wages, the total amount is north of $346,000. They’re clearly saying if you were affected by this, go to the Department of Labor website, submit your information. I would not be surprised if the number of people and the dollar amount would keep growing as this thing goes on.”
Scotland Campus will have 20 days to file a written defense to these allegations. If they choose to defend the case, it would then go to court.
Barkdoll said, “My understanding is the lawsuit is filed against the entity itself. So the ‘they’ would be their officers, the Board of Directors, whomever is still in charge of the governance of the organization. The problem that the entity is going to have now that this has been filed, this creates what’s called a cloud on the title. So assuming the property successfully sells at auction next week, and then typically it would go to a closing in 30 or 60 days, as the seller, the money that’s alleged for damages in this lawsuit, it’s likely that’s going to have to be escrowed. Put aside in a separate account, and maybe even more, some places may say make it double for safety purposes. That’s going to have to be set aside and put in a special account until this litigation is concluded. So this is definitely going to affect the seller’s bottom line when this transaction goes to a closing.”
