An ousted Trial Lawyer’s College board member has filed an elder financial abuse lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of the founder of the illustrious litigation training school for lawyers in Wyoming.
Rex Parris, who attended the school 25 years ago, sued fellow board members James Clary, John Sloan, Dana Cole, and Milton Grimes alleging they engaged in deceit and misrepresentation to deprive the elderly Gerry Spence of his money and property.
“As a direct and proximate result of defendant's fraudulent conduct, plaintiff is deprived of his intellectual property, his personal property, and his brand and logo,” Parris wrote in the complaint. “Plaintiff suffered severe mental and emotional nervousness and distress. Defendant's conduct was intended to cause injury to plaintiff and was carried on by defendants with the willful and conscious disregard of the rights and safety of plaintiff. Defendant's conduct subjected plaintiff to cruel and unjust hardship and was carried on with a conscious disregard of plaintiff's rights.”
As previously reported, Spence, an attorney, has not lost a jury trial since 1969 and has never failed at a criminal case. He founded the Trial Lawyer’s College in 1994 to teach lawyers who represent people, not the government or corporations, in personal injury, product liability, and criminal cases how to win at litigation.
“Gerry is certainly depressed and devastated over it but he's a fighter and even at 93 years old, he's going to fight to get it all back,” Parris said. “At least every three days we're on the phone talking about it, planning what to do, and meeting with lawyers. There have already been a million dollars in fees spent on both sides and the defendants pay their fees out of the Trial Lawyer’s College contributions.”
The defendant trustees are accused of fraud, conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent misrepresentation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and elder financial abuse.
“Gerry Spence has thousands of hours of videos of training lawyers and they didn't return them to him,” Parris told the Southern California Record. “They also stole his brand for the Thunderhead ranch. He never authorized them to trademark that and they trademarked it and represented to the federal government that they owned it. They don't own it. So, it's a financial elder abuse case.”
Parris added that $6 million is one of the issues that has lead to disagreements with certain board members who want to do things differently than what Spence and his group of board members had been doing.
“We found out that without board approval, the treasurer and the president transferred the money to where he banks without the required disclosure,” Parris said in an interview.
A separate lawsuit was filed in Cheyenne, Wyoming Superior Court between the warring board members over who should be on the board.
“I think I'm going to win it because the court granted us preference due to Gerry’s age,” Parris said.
Gerry Spence v James Clary, John Sloan, Dana Cole, and Milton Grimes is currently pending in Los Angeles Superior Court after it had been removed to U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in December 2020 and subsequently returned to state court.
"They got a stay until the Wyoming case is concluded but it's still going forward,” Parris added. “We're up on appeal to get it back on track because Gerry is 92 years old.”
Representatives from the Trial Lawyer's College did not immediately respond to requests for comment.