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Thelen Reid Files Lawsuit Against Sierra Club and its ExecutivesSuit Alleges Nonprofit Violated California State Law in Board of Director ElectionNEWS RELEASE, Magnet Communications, February 10, 2004
Contact: SAN FRANCISCO -- Thelen Reid & Priest LLP announced today tha t a lawsuit was filed against the Sierra Club, its President Larry Fahn, and its Executive Director Carl Pope yesterday, alleging that the defendants violated California State Law and the Sierra Club's own organizational bylaws. The suit was filed on beha lf of environmentalists and current Sierra Club Board of Director candidates former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm; former Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Frank Morris; and noted Cornell Professor David Pimentel. The Sierra Club will vote to elect five new candidates to serve on its 15-member Board of Directors in April 2004. The action is pending in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco, with an initial hearing scheduled for March 1, 2004, before the Honorable James L. Warren. The complaint alleges that the Sierra Club, Larry Fahn, and Carl Pope, overtly violated California Corporations Code and the Club's own bylaws, which require the organization and individual members to remain neutral in the election of its Board of Directors, and refrain from using Sierra Club resources to promote or disparage any particular candidate or group of candidates. According to the complaint, Fahn and Pope have authorized the use of Sierra Club resources to disparage Lamm, Morris, and Pimentel. "This lawsuit is about a small group of individuals at one of America's oldest and most recognizable environmental nonprofit organizations using its members' resources to violate California law by circumventing the fair and democratic election of its Board of Directors," said James H. Turken of Thelen Reid & Priest, lead counsel for the plaintiffs. "This election would shame Tammany Hall," said former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm. "I have been watching elections for 40 years, but I have never seen an election less just, less objective or less democratic." Also commenting on the lawsuit, which alleges Fahn and Pope authorized the use of Club resources to disparage candidates including the plaintiffs, Frank Morris, former Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation said, "It is shocking the Sierra Club's staff and Board members would try to smear me by identifying me for taking positions held by the majority of African-Americans and Americans in general." # # # A copy of the complaint filed in this action is available upon request.
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