Tidra Corp and the two remaining West Wind schools are located in Alameda County, but they have had PO boxes and other schools in different counties. I will search those someday. Also, this does not count any federal suits concerning bankruptcy or tax liens, which I am about 99% sure they have. Here are the filing dates and summaries of the info I found today:
6/16/1988 Grimes Vs. Tidra
Masked file, unavailable for public viewing. I may have written the year incorrectly, as I suspect Tidra came later, after Thompson took over, which I suspect was late 90s.
3/8/1991 Traders vs. Baugues
This was a masked file, and I have no idea what it’s about. Tidra was listed as a defendant party, but I’m not sure the role they played, or who the listed parties are.
1/31/1994 Espejo vs. Tidra Corp
complaint: damages
This case got messed up somewhere along the line and was dismissed WITH prejudice, so I don’t know much about it. The files were also uninformative.
8/29/2001 Trawick vs. Tidra Corp
Plaintiff’s claim: “Defendant owes me $900, not including court costs, because defendant refuses to refund any portion of funds for cancelled lessons due to intended student moving to another city. June 2001”
The trial was 10/15/2001, but neither party appeared.
4/21/2003 Weatheroy vs. Tidra
“Defendant owes me $5000 for breach of contract”
The lessons were for Beatrice Weatheroy’s grandson, Anthony, who attended West Wind between July 1997-December 2002. In her own statement on file: “Defendat breached the Agreement via egregious comments and derogatory statements (curse words) made to Anthony during the course of instruction. The level of disrespect was so severe that Anthony has suffered emtional trauma (crying at competition after being snatched off the floor and cursed at by instructors) and refuses to re-enter the defendant’s establishment.” Both parties agreed to the termination in 12/2002. Beatrice was promised a return of all pre-paid fees, assured there would be no constest to Anthony severing the relationship. Mr. Sheppard agreed to refund the money, but recanted when confronted with the substantial refund. Beatrice did some some math with her reciepts to determine how much the refund should be for. Reciepts totaled more than $16,210 paid to West Wind-- $15,557 for lessons, $398 in tournament fees, $255 for clothing. In the statement: “Prior to this incident, plaintiff expressed that since the change in ownership in the school, the instructors appeared more concerned with finance, as opposed to instruction and mentoring students.”
At the 9/11/2003 trial, Beatrice Weatheroy appeared, but the defendants did not. The Judgement was for the plaintiff in the amount of $2,580 principal, and $188 in court costs. 10/27/2003, a writ of execution was issued to Contra Costa County (several different Tidra/West Wind addresses have been in Contra Costa County over the years.)
7/30/2003 Sokalski vs. West Wind Schools
“Defendant owes $4940 for breach of contract and fraud”
At trial, plaintiff appears, defendants Chris Thompson, Keith Sheppard, Scott Flint, Tidra, West Wind, not appearing. Judgement or plaintiff $4920 and $236.50 costs.
8/15/2003 Herbert vs. West Wind Schools
“Defendant owes $3,010 and costs for breach of contract and fraud”
At trial, plaintiff appearing, Defendants CT, KS SF, Angelo Reyes, Tidea, WWS, not appearing. Judgement for plaintiff in the amount of $3,540 and $277.98 court costs.
7/28/2004 BMW Bank of North America vs. Thompson
Property claimed: 2001 BMW Z3 2.5i two-door roadster
Bought at Weatherford BMW, Berkeley CA on March 30, 2001. Payments scheduled until 4/14/2006, last payment recieved 12/2003. It was bought as a business vehicle, and several Tidra employees were permitted to drive it. After several months of skipped payments (still owing $13,946.57), the bank sent a Final Demand Notice on 5/14/03 to Christian Thompson. The bank filed with the court that its property was being wrongfully detained, and after filing, they were able to repossess the car, and no court date was needed.
9/17/2004 Security Central Inc. Vs. Thompson
“Defendant owes $295.12, not including court costs, for unpaid invoice #s 149760 & 150155”
Trial date 11/15/2004, plaintiff appearing, defendant Chris Thompson and defendant Keith Sheppard not appearing. Case is continued as to CT, and RESET as to KS.
Trial date 1/6/2005, defendant not appearing. Judgement for Plaintiff.
I might also note, that for EVERY service that was sent by certified mail, the recipients refused to claim the mail. I don’t know if it is simply Tidra policy to deny certified mail, but every recipient refused to sign the certified mail. So, service had to be processed by certified servers, which costs money.
And once trial dates were set, the defendants were NEVER present. Not once. So even if the plaintiffs had no strong case, of course they will win it. If you don’t show up, you lose. Only the Weatheroy case contained the formal, detailed complaint, so I will have to try to track down the other plaintiffs to ask more about the case. I am pretty certain that they will be cooperative. Hopefully their contact info is still current.
Also, while I couldn’t find any hits for his name, Ron LEISKOSHEK is listed as a party in one of the claims.
So that’s my info for now.
