Condominium

by John D. MacDonald

  “Let go! Let go!”

  Branhammer released him so suddenly Brooks Ames tilted back and sat on the lap of Mrs. Winney, and jumped back to his feet immediately.

  “Go blow your little whistle, captain,” Branhammer said. “You wanna get my attention, you better shoot me in the head with that little gun you got there. Go away, huh?”

  Branhammer turned back, completely dismissing Ames. Brooks said, in a voice a half octave higher than usual, “You will be permitted to stay in this meeting. Mr. Branhammer, if you will watch your language. There are ladies present. Is that understood?”

  Branhammer yawned and sighed.

  “You have been warned,” said Captain Ames, and sidled back along the row, as twenty different conversations all started up at once. The babble faded away as the three officers came back into the room and took their places at the card tables.

  McGinnity said, “I want to apologize to all of you for my display of temper. This is a miserable thankless job, and I would drop it in a minute if anyone else would take it. But I want to make it clear that I will not stand for any vilification. I will not be called names. I will not be treated with suspicion and distrust, as there is no way in the world any of us officers can make one lousy dime out of the hours and hours and hours we put in on this job. Now we will get back to the meeting. I want no interruptions. When I want to open things up to comments from the floor, I will let you know. We will take the committee reports in order as usual, and then we will proceed to old business and then to new business. Now we will hear the treasurer’s report.”

  David Dow reached and pulled the microphone close. In a breathy raspy whisper he said, “As you can plainly hear, I have laryngitis. I have had enough copies of my report made for all. I will wait until Mrs. Gregg has distributed them to all of you.”

  After the distribution he said, “Total budget is $91,000 per year. You can see the simplified breakdown. We had to make a total assessment of $15,412.50 on June first in order to catch up on back underassessments. The first of this month we dropped back to the regular amount of $7,583.45. Of this total of $22,995.95, we have not yet received approximately $4,000. We will need it in order to make all budgeted payments. Excuse me for whispering.”

  McGinnity said, “We will skip any report from your president at this time and go directly to old business, which means picking up where we left off at the last meeting: namely, this business of the management contracts and the maintenance service contracts we were stuck with on account of the arrangements were made by the previous officers of the Association, namely, Mr. Liss and his people. Now I am not going to open this up for discussion until your officers have made their comments, so stop waving your arms at me back there and sit quiet and listen. You might learn something. Hadley?”

  Forrester pulled the microphone over. “As was recommended, Mr. Dow, Mr. Wasniak and I consulted an attorney about this whole matter, a Mr. Searle Wadkin of Hooper, Wadkin and Lannigan, in the Athens Bank and Trust Company building. We had two sessions with him. I took copious notes, but I see no point in going into detail at this time. He states that constant changes are being made in the law, to protect the condominium dweller, and that though many of these may not stand up in court if tested, most of them will. He said that it would not be possible to do exactly what was done to us, if this project was just starting at this time. But at the time it was done, it was perfectly legal, and it is his opinion we are stuck with it.”

  He grimaced when he heard the groans from the audience and pushed the mike back to McGinnity.

  McGinnity said, “I had some long talks with David Dow, here, before he lost his voice. So I’ll report what he was going to report to you. You will remember we noted in passing how nice Mr. Martin Liss was to the four of us when we called on him. (That was one you couldn’t make, Gus.) We got class-A treatment in Liss’s office, and it puzzled us. In the car on the way back we talked about it, saying he didn’t really have to talk to us at all, but he knew we were upset and for some reason he wanted to calm us down.

  “Now I have to get into some of the new business in order to say what I have to say, so I guess it will have to be okay with you people. We now know why Martin Liss didn’t want any big fuss going on here. He has showed his hand. He is starting one hell of a big project right behind us, a very rich project. And he is taking a big risk starting something in times like these, with empty condominium apartments all over the state, tens of thousands of them. Maybe hundreds of thousands. And so many up for sale by individuals. You can look at the Sunday paper and find page after page. Okay, now let me look at this piece of paper here that David prepared for me. You people look at that ninety-one thousand budget. I asked David to peel it down to what we would actually have to have here in the way of expenses: insurance, maintenance, cleaning and so forth. He came up with a horseback guess of forty thousand dollars. Now we divide that by forty-five apartments, not forty-seven, and we come up with eight eighty-eight a year, or seventy-four a month. No, don’t applaud. It isn’t a fact, certainly not yet. Of course, using the same pro rata basis, the monthly cost would go from probably fifty a month on the first floor to a hundred on the top floor.

  “Well, we sought some more legal advice, and this time I won’t tell you the name because he would rather not be quoted. He said the first thing we have to do is catch everybody up to date on the assessment schedule. Then we have to be able to advise Investment Equities and Gulfway Management that we have decided, every single one of us resident here, to stop all payments on the recreation lease and on the management contract—”

  “Now just a minute, Mr. McGinnity. You can’t—”

  “Shut up, Julian. You are here at this table as a guest.”

  “I just …”

  Gus Garver reached over and put a powerful hand on Julian’s forearm and silenced him with a warning pressure.

  McGinnity continued. “The lawyer agreed that it is a ripoff situation, even though it was done legally. We have to stand together, every single resident. We have to try to get every kind of publicity we can. If we can make enough stink we can make this new thing behind us look like a bad bet. And maybe we can give some other condominiums the guts to quit making payments on their lousy contracts too. The lawyer said he thought if we went at it right, that they’d come back to us with some kind of compromise deal. When that happens, provided we all vote to go ahead with it, we can negotiate. The way we are right now, there are people here who just can’t keep on paying so much every month. They just can’t do it, and it isn’t right they should have to. Now I’ll open it up for question from the floor. Please, everybody, no speeches.”

  A hunched little woman in a floral dress stood up. She was wearing a pink hat with a wide brim, and carrying a shiny red purse. Others stood up too, but the pink hat caught McGinnity’s eye.

  “Yes, Mrs.…”

  “Taller. Mrs. Boford Taller. What I want to ask is, who was it had the pool party last Tuesday night? I swim early every single morning because I’m allergic to the sun, and I’m telling you, that whole pool area was one nasty mess when I—”

  “Mrs. Taller!”

  “What I’m wondering, did they even register at the office to have a pool party? People eat like pigs and drop ugly hunks of food in the pool and it lays there and it turns my stomach.”

  “Mrs. Taller!”

  “I want somebody to find out who it was. Maybe it wasn’t even people from here. I’ve said before, we all ought to have special badges and have to wear them, so outsiders won’t use our facilities the way they do. I want it investigated. That’s all.” She sat down, chin high, lips sucked in.

  “Anybody else out there who has any comments on anything besides the monthly assessment costs, please save it until later, okay?”

  “I want to say something,” Julian said.

  “Residents first, Higbee.”

  “I forgot to mention,” Mrs. Taller said, hopping up again, “that the pool furniture was moved
around every which way, and one of the umbrellas was broken. Just who pays for it, I wouldn’t know.”

  McGinnity sighed into the mike. “Jack Cleveland?”

  “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Grace and me have talked this over. It just isn’t fair in a person’s retirement to get cheated out of the little extras that make life worth living. Now I would guess that because I had a pretty good success in the building supply business, we’ve got a little more cushion than most. But I can tell you we have felt it, having the assessment on the first of the month go up by a hundred dollars. That’s twenty-five dollars a week that we would be using to eat out more. And I just can’t see what we’re getting for that extra hundred. Take for example the recreation lease. Neither of us care a darn thing about the pool, not with that wonderful Gulf of Mexico right out there. And tennis is too active, and about all anybody does in this room is have meetings or play cards. I can tell you, I had enough of meetings in my lifetime. I don’t need any more, not at this stage in my life. And cards … I was going to tell you a joke about that, but the funny part of it has slipped my mind at the moment. I guess what I want to say is that Grace and me, we will go along with whatever the majority says. That’s the democratic way of life, as I see it. But if they take legal action against all of us, and it looks as if we could lose the apartment or anything like that—well, I am going to put the difference into a separate savings account, and if it turns out we all have to pay up, I’m not going to fight city hall. I mean, there has to be a stopping place. I’m not going to turn myself into some kind of a martyr just to prove a point. I can tell you this, though. Most of us went along with the developer’s suggestion and we set up the mortgage paper on the condominiums with the Athens Bank and Trust Company, and speaking as a director of a bank in Warren, Ohio, I can say that no bank would be very happy about any kind of action that would toss thirty-five mortgages back in its lap all in the same building. God only knows how long the bank would have to pay for all the maintenance and so on before, in these times, they could unload the property. It would seem to me that—”

  “Thanks for your valuable advice, Jack. We should probably all put the difference aside in case things go against us, so it won’t be too much of a shock to come up with the money. But if we stick together, we’ll have a better bargaining position.”

  Arms were waving. People were calling for recognition. He recognized Phil DeLand from 1-B, a lean, bearded, retired major addicted to wearing tank tops, jeans and beads.

  “Pete, will this Wadkin fellow continue to represent us if we go through with this plan?”

  “To whatever extent we ask him to.”

  “Right on,” said the major and sat down next to Roxanne, his Indian-looking wife.

  He recognized Sally Kelsey from 2-G, a broad tanned woman noted for swimming straight out into the Gulf, out of sight. “Mr. Chairman, if we have a legal obligation to pay this additional money, then my husband and I think we have a moral obligation to pay it. All over this country we have seen people marching around, burning and destroying, because they didn’t like this law or that law. We guessed what might happen at this meeting and we talked it over. We think that the right thing to do is to pay under protest, and at the same time sue the developer for misrepresentation.”

  There was a chorus of groans and hisses. She glared around at them all. Somebody said, “Those guys are suit-proof, Sally.” Another said, “What they’re doing to us is legal.” Another said, “What about the Boston tea party?”

  She continued, angrily, “A lot of people around here talk about law and order all the time, but apparently they don’t believe in it. Brian and I will pay our monthly check to the Association as before, in full, and if the Association decides to hold it up and not pay those contracts, then that’s between the Association and the people who expect the money. When this matter comes to a vote, we do not intend to vote. We will abstain, and we would hope other people will follow …”

  Her last words were lost in the shouts of disapproval. McGinnity banged the gavel and said, “We are supposed to be ladies and gentlemen here, and I will expect courtesy and consideration for everyone’s point of view. Santelli, you were doing a lot of shouting.”

  The man stood up, fat, bald and sweaty. “If you are on a courtesy kick, Chairman, how about Mister Santelli for openers.”

  “Mr. Santelli, do you have a comment to make, or would you rather sit around yelling?”

  “Sure, I’ll make a comment. The only thing that works in this world is leverage, right? You got some, you use it. If we get nine or ten people not paying, they will pick us apart. Like in the old story about trying to break the bundle of sticks. We got to protect each other in this thing. What we don’t need is a lot of people like Mrs. Kelsey, so scared of breaking the law she’s about to wet her pants.”

  “Order!” McGinnity yelled, banging the gavel. “Order! What’s the matter with you people. Can’t you talk nice?”

  Brian Kelsey was trying to get close enough to Santelli to hit him. He was being restrained.

  Frank Branhammer was on his feet and working his way toward the door, tugging his wife along, holding her by the wrist.

  “Where the hell are you going, Branhammer?”

  The big man stopped and glowered at McGinnity. “There’s no point in hanging around. You’re never going to give me a chance to say a goddam word. Besides, I don’t care what the hell you do. I’ve said all along I bought my place and I agreed to pay eighty-one fifty a month, and I been paying eighty-one fifty a month, and I don’t give a shit what you ass holes decide, I keep right on paying eighty-one fifty a month, so fuck off!”

  And he was gone, banging the door behind him.

  “I demand to be heard!” a woman yelled.

  “So be heard, lady,” McGinnity said. “Give your name.”

  “Linda Furmond. Mrs. Gerald Furmond. Apartment One-E.” She was tall and very erect, with gaunt cheeks, a forehead peeling from sunburn, and fierce, bulging, blue eyes.

  “Go ahead, Mrs. Furmond.”

  “My husband and I have been saved. We got the message of the Lord loud and clear three years ago next Sunday. We reside in the Lord in eternal love and bliss, and acknowledge his son, Jesus Christ.”

  “Mrs. Furmond, I don’t think this is the time or place …”

  “Please let me finish. I want you to understand that I do not hate that pathetic creature who just left our midst, dragging his pitiful wife along with him. I do not hate him. I wish only that I could save him from the black depths of hell where he is going to fry in unimaginable torment for all of eternity. So what I am about to say is not revenge for his loosing his foul tongue upon us. You said that the lawyer said that it would be wise for us all to be paid up on the deficit before we make our confrontation. Mr. Furmond and I have paid up our share of the deficit, and I apologize that we were unable to pay the full amount on July first, but had to wait until the fifteenth. How much of the four thousand is owed by that man who left, by that creature who left, for certainly he is less than a man in the eyes of the Lord?”

  David Dow found the figure and showed it to McGinnity, who said, “I guess it’s not confidential, not after his final instructions to us. Four hundred and forty dollars and sixty cents.”

  “Is he the only one who absolutely refuses to pay?”

  David Dow nodded. McGinnity said, “Some people are having a lot of trouble with it, but they are going to come around as soon as they can.”

  Mrs. Furmond said, “Then I move that you take the appropriate legal action against that creature with all possible haste. I move that you file a lien against his apartment, as you have the authority to do, and that you either get the money or have him evicted by the sheriff.”

  “Second!” said Brooks Ames loudly. “Who needs him as a neighbor?”

  “Any discussion?” McGinnity asked. “None? All those in favor raise their right hands and keep them there while Mrs. Gregg counts.”

  “I make it
twenty-four in favor,” she said.

  “Opposed, same sign.”

  “Three,” she said.

  “With thirteen abstaining. Mr. Secretary, will you research the kind of notification we have to deliver to Mr. Branhammer, who has to sign it and so forth, and when you have the dope, we’ll get together and do what has to be done at this preliminary stage. I want to make it clear there is going to be no nose-to-nose confrontation between any officer of the Association and Branhammer. I don’t want anybody getting hurt or killed, and I think he is capable of it. David tried to explain the situation to him and got nowhere. He left before Branhammer completely lost control. Now as to this vote, I want to point out that when it comes to amending the Declaration of Condominium, we need thirty votes in favor not just twenty-four, and—”

  “May I speak to that?” a young man said, standing in the rear of the room.

  “Name?”

  “McKay. Gregory McKay. I am an attorney-at-law, and I own … my wife and I own numbers Two-E and Two-F.”

  “What did you say you wanted to speak to?”

  “I would like to direct your attention to chapter 711 of the Florida statutes, known as the Condominium Act, subchapter ten, paragraph one. ‘An amendment of a declaration shall become effective when recorded according to law.’ And paragraph two says, ‘An amendment shall be evidenced by a certificate executed with formalities of a deed and shall include the recording data identifying the declaration.’ Sir, would you attempt to record an amendment stating you will not pay legal contractual obligations?”

  “Take it, Hadley,” McGinnity said.

  Forrester spoke slowly and carefully. “What we have here, Mr. McKay, is an amendment to the Golden Sands Declaration of Condominium. As you know, all declarations are similar, but not exactly alike. Ours has this statement in it, regarding the Association: ‘It shall have the power to execute contracts, deeds, mortgages, leases and other instruments by its officers.’ I believe that power is as stated in the statutes. We would like to add this sentence, directly following ‘its officers’: ‘The officers of the incorporated Association shall have the right to renegotiate any contract with any supplier of a commodity or a service, or any lease agreement, for the benefit of the members of the Association whenever in their judgment the cost of the commodity, service or lease is excessive, or the item, service or facility provided is inferior to what could reasonably be expected to be obtained in the open market, and in the process of such renegotiation the officers of the incorporated Association shall be free to exercise their own best judgment as to the steps to be taken to achieve such renegotiation, even to bringing suit to have the matter adjudicated in a court of law.’ ”