Moe ordered to drop suit against receiver

The former operator of Spokane Raceway Park is under a new court order to “cease and desist” his legal battle against a court-appointed receiver and others representing limited partners seeking repayment for $2.5 million in stock purchases.

The latest action against Orville L. Moe came in relation to a suit he filed on March 8, claiming he is the victim of a “civil conspiracy and constructive fraud” being carried out by several defendants, including court-appointed receiver Barry Davidson.

Davidson was appointed in July 2005 to take over operations at the Airway Heights motor sports complex after Superior Court Judge Robert Austin ruled that a history of financial irregularities and possible fraud warranted court intervention.

Moe, initially invited to work with a court-appointed receiver, later was banned from the facility and found in contempt when he secretly established his own bank account for the facility and was attempting to thwart the authority of the receiver.

In the latest legal development, Davidson was represented by Spokane attorney John Giesa, who sought the cease-and-desist order.

Giesa has been involved in the three-year legal battle by 500 limited partners and their heirs who are seeking compensation for $2.5 million in stock purchases they made in the early 1970s in Washington Motorsports, the partnership that built the race complex. Orville Moe was president of Spokane Raceway Park Inc., the general partner.

In an apparent effort to stall the limited partners’ suit, Spokane Raceway Park Inc. filed for financial reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last August. But the initial stay was lifted, and the limited partners’ suit is moving forward in Superior Court while bankruptcy trustee John Munding sorts through the assets and debts of Spokane Raceway Park Inc.

Moe’s latest lawsuit in Superior Court against the court-appointed receiver and others was “vexatious” and an attempt to “contradict, collaterally attack or ignore” earlier rulings by Judge Austin, who has handled a series of hearings over the last three years, according to legal documents filed by Giesa.

Moe’s suit “ignores and interferes with this court’s exclusive authority over the receiver” and the judge’s exclusive jurisdiction to determine all controversies relating to the collection, preservation and distribution of Washington Motorsports assets and claims made against the partnership, the documents said.

“It appears that even after three years of litigation and numerous orders of this court, Orville Moe still refuses to recognize this court’s exclusive jurisdiction and control over Washington Motorsports through the receiver as an officer of the court,” a motion for the cease-and-desist order said.

“Moe stubbornly refuses to accept the fact that the court is in control of Washington Motorsports – not him,” it said. “Moe’s vexatious suit was intentionally filed in blatant disregard of numerous provisions of crystal-clear Washington law.”

The motion said the receiver’s job, with quasi-judicial immunity, “is difficult, time-consuming and expensive enough without having to deal with the vexatious and frivolous filings of a disgraced and contemptuous former fiduciary – Orville Moe – who has been removed by this court …”

After listening to those arguments, the judge signed the cease and desist order on April 13.

Moe, previously found in contempt of court, could be found in contempt again if he violates the new order which freezes the suit he filed in March.