Webster Golf Club members sue for dues

Listen to this article

Fifteen members of Webster Golf Club are suing the owners, claiming their membership fees, totaling about $160,000, have not been returned to them after 10 years, as promised.

According to the complaint filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court, the plaintiffs were offered lifetime memberships in April 2008 with the understanding that the “fees would be returned in full on the 10^th anniversary of payment.”

The fees were supposed to be used to buy 10-year certificates of deposit “in order to protect plaintiffs’ membership payment” and ensure its return in 2018, according to the suit, but the CDs were never purchased, the plaintiffs claim.

The membership fees amount to about $10,666 per plaintiff member.

The memberships included unlimited golf and golf club storage, plus the use of carts and the club’s practice range.

Lifetime family memberships included up to two adults and all children under 21.

The membership agreement included a clause that the agreement could be terminated without cause by giving prior notice to the members if the club stopped operating as a golf facility, or if it merged with another entity “in which merger the Club is not the surviving entity.”

Under the agreement, if the agreement is ended without cause the membership fees must be returned to the member.

After the 10 years had passed, the member plaintiffs asked for their membership fee to be returned, but club officials have refused, according to the suit.

In April, Colm and Brendan Murphy, the owners of Webster Golf Club Inc. and B&C Golf Inc. “revealed” that Webster Golf Club had no money to refund the membership fees, according to the complaint.

According to the suit, the club “had been insolvent for the vast majority of its operation throughout the 10 year period by spending the lifetime membership funds without prior authorization of approval.”

The plaintiffs insist they were told the membership fees were not an investment and the money would be protected by the purchase of a CD.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorney Ron F. Wright.

Webster Golf Club officials did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

[email protected] / (585) 232-2035