Published: July 03, 2008 10:51 pm         

Lawsuit seeks to halt sale of Oakwood Park

SYRACUSE, Ind. — A lawsuit has been filed seeking to avert the sale of Oakwood Park, with the plaintiffs suggesting the proposed property sale to private developers “would represent the death of Oakwood.”

Howard Brembeck and Don Blosser filed a lawsuit June 27 in Kosciusko County Superior Court against the North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church, against the Oakwood Foundation and against its directors to prevent the sale of Oakwood Park and to request appointment of a receiver, according to a press release issued Thursday.

“Mr. Brembeck and Mr. Blosser have filed this suit with great reluctance but in the conviction that what the Oakwood board has done in giving away Oakwood and what the NICUMC proposes to do, in selling Oakwood to private developers and pocketing the proceeds, would represent the death of Oakwood. The court is asked, therefore, to void the transfer of Oakwood to the NICUMC, to prevent its sale by the NICUMC and to appoint a receiver until such time as Oakwood can obtain competent management,” according to the press release.

The 42-acre Oakwood property on the northwest shore of Lake Wawasee includes the 77-room Oakwood Inn and restaurant, program center and a chapel. Members of the Oakwood Foundation for Adult Ministries board announced in March that the property had been returned to the Northern Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church.

According to Dan Gangler, director of communication for the NICUMC, the foundation financially was unable to continue operating the Oakwood Christian Retreat and Conference Center in Syracuse as an adult Christian ministry.

Foundation officials planned to cease activities at Oakwood on Sept. 1.

Oakwood Park was founded in 1893 by the Evangelical Church, a predecessor of the denomination of the United Methodist Church.

In June 2006, the Coalition of Oakwood Alive and Brembeck, who donated millions of dollars to purchase and refurbish the Oakwood Inn and the property in 1995 for the Oakwood Foundation, sent letters to Syracuse residents contending that changes needed to be made at the retreat center.

Coalition members said the inn, which was supposed to serve as an ecumenical facility, was being used to further the beliefs of the board of directors and was being mismanaged financially.

According to the press release, the lawsuit alleges the transfer to the NICUMC was a fraudulent transfer under the Indiana Fraudulent Transfer Act, violated numerous provisions of the Indiana Non-Profit Corporation Act and constituted breaches of contract and of fiduciary duty on the part of the Oakwood directors.

The court is asked to declare the transfer void or to enter against each of the individual defendants who voted for the transfer a judgment for the assets transferred.

The complaint alleges that since the founding of the Oakwood Foundation in 1993, Brembeck, along with numerous other persons, “has contributed more than $23 million to Oakwood on the basis of representations and agreements that the Oakwood improvements, including particularly the Oakwood Inn would be used to further the development of Oakwood as an inclusive, non-denominational religious and community resource.”

Brembeck’s “intentions and understandings at the time of his gifts were that the Oakwood Inn would be operated and managed on a professional basis so that it would generate funds for both religious and cultural programming at Oakwood that would benefit no particular denomination but, rather, the entire community.”

The lawsuit alleges that the Oakwood directors not only breached their fiduciary duties to the Oakwood Foundation but also breached the Oakwood Foundation’s agreements with Brembeck.

This occurred with the conveying of the property, improved by Brembeck’s gifts, to the NICUMC, “which has announced its intention to sell the property and pocket the proceeds, in effect converting the Brembeck funds into a huge cash windfall to the NICUMC.”