Celebration Sanctions Irby
Wednesday, August 1, 2012

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Editor's Note:  The following is a letter released by the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration sanctioning Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' & Exhibitors' Association President Marty Irby.

Mr. Marty Irby
4400 Franklin South Court
Franklin, TN 37064

Re: Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Association (Complainant) vs. Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ and Exhibitors’ Association (Respondent)
National Arbitration Forum Case No. FA1206001448966

Dear Marty:

At the July Celebration Board Meeting, the following documents were submitted by Attorney Stephen Zralek of Bone McAllester Norton, to wit: Decision of the National Arbitration Forum and a statement from Bone McAllester Norton in the amount of $11,263.52 for legal services required in the matter.

The final Decision of the National Arbitration Forum provides, among other things, that “Respondent has no rights or legitimate interest in respect of the domain name(s)” and further “that the domain name(s) has been registered and is being used in bad faith.” The Arbitrator in referring to your email to the Executive Committee on May 4, 2012, finds that “In this context, ‘leverage’ sounds distressingly like extortion.” The email to which he’s referring is as follows:

“Dear EC:

Please find the attached copy of a letter from Bussart to Bone McAllister. I  received a copy in the mail today and have scanned for you all to see. Mr. Thomas  informed of the status of this situation yesterday. My goal is to use the website as  leverage in a TWHNC Sponsorship if the EC sees fit. Surely the two domain  names are worth $5,000 or more. If not we will just keep them for ourselves. We  have less than $30 in the names plus whatever Bussart charged for the letter.

Thanks,
Marty

 Marty Irby
 Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
 Baskin-Irby Construction Co. LLC.
 Insurance Claims Specialists

 4400 Franklin South Court
 Franklin, TN 37064
 Cell: 615-796-5334
 Office: 615-599-8999
 Fax: 615-599-8008

 103 Hillcrest Drive, Suite 106
 Clarksville, TN 37043
 Office: 931-444-9915
 Fax: 931-444-9909

 Email marty@baskinirby.com
 www.BaskinIrby.com

Initially, you and your counsel disputed any validity to the Celebration’s position requiring us to retain specialized counsel. Subsequently, you acknowledged our position, but only after the Celebration was forced to file this arbitration action in accordance with The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. Notwithstanding numerous concessions by the Celebration during the negotiation process, and even after our attorney tendered the settlement documents, we were unable to obtain your cooperation to access the usernames and passwords needed to transfer the domain names. This required Mr. Zralek to engage in discussions with the Disputes Administrator of GoDaddy.com in the order to effectuate the transfer. Because of your failure to grant us the usernames and passwords, the transfer will not be completed until after the end of business on August 1, 2012. As a result of your unresponsiveness, the above-referenced decision was issued on July 17, 2012.

What should have been solved with a simple phone call has resulted in significant expenditures of time and money. The independent arbitrator’s use of the terms “bad faith” and “extortion,” speaks volumes. It appears that you had a personal agenda, and, accordingly, the Celebration Board of Directors hereby suspends you from the Celebration grounds and any and all activities conducted by the Celebration for a period of one (1) year following the reimbursement by you to the Celebration of $11,263.52 representing the Bone McAllister Norton fees paid.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

Yours very truly,

 

Dr. Doyle Meadows

DM/ap

xc:  Celebration Board of Directors (via email)
 TWHBEA Executive Committee (via email)

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