[Southsider2k12]

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs..../-1/BIZ/CAT=Biz

BBB owes landlord $50,000
Challenge will be collecting money, lawyer says.


YaVONDA SMALLS
Tribune Staff Writer

MICHIGAN CITY -- The Better Business Bureau of Northwest Indiana has agreed that it owes a landlord here just under $50,000.

The problem is, the BBB that owes money is no longer in business, and no one knows exactly how the payment will be collected.

Eighty-year-old Arnold Besse filed suit against the BBB of Northwest Indiana Inc. in October for walking away from a four-year lease and not paying about $40,000 in unfinished renovation work to the rental space. The suit was filed in the LaPorte Superior Court, where the judgment was also entered.


"The reason this case is so egregious to me is the fact that it's the BBB that did this," said Besse's attorney, William J. Nelson Jr., of Michigan City. "It's unbelievable." Besse's journey began last May when the BBB said it would merge its South Bend and Merrillville offices into a regional location in Michigan City. Besse signed a four-year lease in late May with Morris Cochran, who was then president and chief executive of the BBB of Northwest Indiana in Merrillville.

"I figured I can agree to whatever they want, mostly, and we had no problem there," Besse said.

The lease was for a 5,000-square-foot space at $1,240 per month in Besse's 26,000-square-foot building, located on Franklin Street, Nelson said.

But in late summer or early fall, Besse learned the BBB was walking away from the contract and not paying for the renovation work, Besse said.

The BBB ended up not moving to Michigan City after all. In fact, news came in November that the territory of the BBB of Michiana and the BBB of Northwest Indiana had been reassigned because they didn't meet the standards of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, a not-for-profit based in Arlington, Va.

So St. Joseph, Marshall, LaPorte and Kosciusko counties fell under the auspices of the BBB in Fort Wayne, known today as the BBB of Northern Indiana. Porter and Lake counties were assigned to the Chicago BBB.

Meanwhile, the space inside Besse's building remains unleasable since the work is still unfinished, Besse said. "I've got to spend at least $10,000 to finish this space," Besse said.

On top of that, had he not paid renovation expenses, a contractor's lien could have been placed on his building, even though the BBB owed the money, Nelson, his attorney, said.

"(The BBB is) intended to protect business people," Nelson said. "They're intended to protect the public ... and yet what have they done? This is what they've done to Mr. Besse and his business."

It's the most ironic thing Nelson's seen in his 15 years as a lawyer, he said.

Attorney Earl Studtmann represented the BBB pro bono, meaning he did it as a volunteer and without compensation. He said he was asked to represent the BBB in this particular case, though he's not the BBB's general attorney. Regarding the BBB issue, all Studtmann could say was that the BBB of Northwest Indiana was out of business.

Which points toward one of Nelson's key concerns.

"I'm very concerned about our ability to collect on that judgment," Nelson said. "Why would they (agree to the judgment) but for the fact that there's no assets?"

Nelson said he will do everything he can to move forward in collecting the money owed. In the meantime, he's left wondering how this ordeal could have happened in the first place.

"They ran their business in such a way here that they victimized Mr. Besse," Nelson said.

"Why they did it, I have no idea."

Staff writer YaVonda Smalls:
yavsmalls@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6248

[JHeath]

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200.../news/news2.prt

BBB owes $50K

By Jason Miller, The News-Dispatch
Building owner doubts he will ever get paid

The Better Business Bureau of Northwest Indiana Inc. admitted in court last week that it does, in fact, owe local businessman Arnold Besse for a failed lease agreement Besse had signed with the BBB.

Besse isn't holding his breath until he gets the money, though.

“I could've asked for a million bucks ... they'd agree to anything because they don't have it to pay,” Besse, owner of Prince Galleries, 726 Franklin St., said Wednesday. “It takes a lot of nerve to do what they did.”

Besse found out last week that LaPorte Superior Court 4 Judge Robert Boklund judged in Besse's favor and that the Better Business Bureau owes him $50,000.

He has been fighting the BBB for more than a year. He entered into a lease more than a year ago with the then-head of the BBB's Northwest Indiana division, Morris Cochran, to rent an office in the 700 block of Franklin Street.

Besse owns the building, which is the home of his art gallery and WIMS Radio.

Cochran brought in local contractors to refurbish the office and retrofit it to accommodate the BBB office, which he said was moving from Merrillville to become a regional office encompassing Lake, Porter, LaPorte and possibly St. Joseph counties.

The BBB exists to keep business from taking advantage of customers.

When nearly $40,000 in work already had been done to the office and more than $10,000 remained, Cochran was fired from the BBB, which said it was consolidating its Northern Indiana divisions into the Fort Wayne office.

Besse's Michigan City attorney, Bill Nelson, said Wednesday that the Better Business Bureau didn't contest the court case and, in a surprise move, stipulated to the amount Nelson had asked for, which he said included the cost of the work already done as well as missed rent.

“They said we don't agree, but we know we have a problem,” Nelson said Wednesday. “We set a trial date and when we showed up to set the date, they instead admitted judgment. Then we sent a letter on what we felt the judgment should be and, two days before the hearing, they told me if I put together the paperwork they'd sign it.”

The judgment was for nearly $50,000, and will likely grow to over that amount as it goes unpaid, Nelson said. The BBB has contended in the past that it isn't responsible for Besse's situation because Cochran was a contract employee.

Besse said he needs an additional $10,000 to take the office to the point it can be rented to someone else. He paid the contractors' bills last year to keep them from placing a lien on the building.

He's resigned himself to the fact that he probably won't receive a cent of the settlement. Nelson said he didn't know if the BBB has the authority to pay the judgment, but said he doubts it.

“I don't know if the operation has finally shut down completely, but I've been told there are no assets,” he said, noting the irony he sees in the whole mess. “The Better Business Bureau did to (Besse) what they exist to stop others from doing,” Besse said.