Judge considers motions in Windermere case

By Vicki Brown
Word&Way Correspondent

CAMDENTON — A Camden County case against Windermere Baptist Conference Center will move forward despite an appeal filed in a related case. But Windermere and Missouri Baptist Convention leaders will have to wait for a ruling on several additional motions their attorneys argued in the 26th Judicial Circuit Court on Aug. 19.

Lawyers for the two sides, along with counsel for several other defendants, appeared before Associate Circuit Judge Bruce Colyer in an ongoing legal action the MBC filed against the conference center on Nov. 1, 2006. The 26th Circuit includes Camden County, where Windermere is located.

As part of a 2006 debt restructuring plan to cover the conference center’s Wilderness Creek expansion, Windermere transferred 943 acres of its 1,300 acres to National City Bank of Cincinnati in late 2005. The bank sold the property to Windermere Development Company Inc., owned by William R. Jester of Springfield.

The MBC filed the Camden County suit in an effort to stop all land transactions at Windermere pending the outcome of legal action the convention had taken against five formerly-affiliated institutions, including the conference center, in Cole County in 2002.

The MBC filed legal action against Windermere, The Baptist Home, Missouri Baptist University, the Missouri Baptist Foundation and Word&Way after the five entities changed their corporate charters in 2000 and 2001 to allow each institution to elect its own trustees.

At the Aug. 19 hearing, MBC attorney Charles Hatfield argued that the Camden County lawsuit should be put on hold until an appeal in the Cole County case is settled and asked Judge Colyer to reconsider an earlier denial.

Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan ruled March 4 that the conference center acted legally when it changed its articles of incorporation. The MBC has appealed that decision.