A legal threat to private clubs in Florida has emerged! Imagine your club facing a lawsuit in which you
know the law is on your side, but the judge rules for the plaintiff anyway—potentially exposing your
club to tens of thousands of dollars in settlements and creating an administrative nightmare simply
because your membership voted to change the club’s bylaws. There is a case on appeal in Florida right
now in which the judge ruled that bylaws are a contract and even though they were properly amended
by the membership the club has to pay members who sued.

The National Club Association (NCA) has created a Legal Action Fund to assist a club in just this situation
and its outcome will have wide-sweeping ramifications for every private club in Florida—including
yours!

The case is currently under appeal and NCA has filed a motion with the court to submit an amicus brief
supporting our member club to show the court where the ruling judge erred in his decision. However,
legal fees for filing this amicus brief will run into the tens of thousands of dollars. We are asking clubs
to contribute $500 to $1,000 to our Legal Action Fund to help offset the cost of hiring a retired
appellate court judge to draft and file the brief. A small investment from your club now helps us
overturn an extremely expensive precedent you would have to follow later.

If the ruling in this case stands, every private club in Florida will have to abide by the club’s bylaws in
effect when each individual member joined. This would be the case even if the membership
overwhelmingly approves changes to the club’s bylaws. This would create an administrative burden few,
if any, clubs would be able to maintain over decades. It’s also an unjustifiable judicial intervention in
club operations.

We need clubs to unite behind our efforts to defend private clubs. Unless this ruling is overturned,
every club in Florida will have to figure out what set of bylaws were in effect for each member at the
time they joined. That’s just the start of the madness – then you’ll have to determine whether there
was a financial impact of the changes and individually calculate how much the club owes each member
or apply different rules to different members based on when they joined your club.

We must get this ruling overturned and we need every club in Florida to pitch in to help! Please
contribute $500, $1,000 or another amount to NCA’s Legal Action Fund today!

This case is moving quickly, so we made contributing as easy as possible. You can contribute at this link
with your corporate credit card or by downloading the contribution form and submitting it with a
corporate check.

Thank you for your support, and if you have any questions or would like further information on the Legal
Action Fund or this case, please contact Joe Trauger, NCA’s Vice President of Government Relations at
202-684-8753 or trauger@nationalclub.org.