Plan agreed on in racetrack ownership dispute

Noel and Jeanette Davis decided in 1971 that it would be a wise financial investment to buy shares in a mile-square piece of property destined to be a drag strip and racetrack west of Spokane.

So, on a monthly payment plan, with $500 down, they eventually bought three “A shares” in Washington Motorsports. Their $1,500 investment helped a limited partnership eventually build Spokane Raceway Park.

Now, Orville Moe, the deposed former operator of Spokane Raceway Park, claims he owns the same three shares of stock – identified by specific numbers – that Noel and Jeanette Davis bought.

There are hundreds of other claims that cross, causing confusion over who owns approximately $2.5 million in shares – investment cash used to develop the racing complex that now may be worth 10 times that much.

To develop an ownership roster, Superior Court Judge Robert Austin has approved a request by court-appointed receiver Barry Davidson and his attorney, John Giesa, to establish a dispute resolution process.

Formalizing who owns what at Spokane Raceway Park – including almost a mile square section of land described as a developer’s dream – is seen as a preliminary step before the court can authorize sale of the facility to satisfy all the investors, including Noel and Jeanette Davis.

The court order signed by the judge is the latest step in a complex legal fight that started with a 2004 lawsuit filed by 500 limited partners who contend Moe swindled them out of all their investments.

There have been several court hearings over the past three years as Austin has tried to resolve the dispute.

When Moe said he couldn’t produce a complete list of investors, and other financial irregularities surfaced, the judge moved to name Davidson to take control of financial operations in June 2005.

Davidson sorted through boxes of haphazard records but still was unable to develop an accurate list of owners. He now has a list of about 700 people who claim some kind of interest.

Scores of the original investors have moved away or died, leaving their Washington Motorsports shares to heirs. Others, told their shares were essentially worthless, have sold them back to Moe, his wife and daughter, Susan Ross, court records show.

But Noel and Jeanette Davis claim they hung on to their shares, even though in the past 36 years they haven’t seen any return on their investment.

In 1996, they received a letter from Susan Ross, who didn’t divulge she is Orville Moe’s daughter. She offered to buy the three shares of stock for $600, but Giesa said the Davises rejected the offer.

Some years, the couple, who now live in Kelso, Wash., didn’t even get the necessary “K-1” paperwork from Washington Motorsports to write the investment off their taxes, Giesa told the court at a hearing last Friday.

He filed documents, reviewed by the judge, showing copies of the three shares, the monthly payment schedule for the Davis stock purchase – complete with check numbers, dates and amounts.

Moe filed his own declaration last year, claiming he now owns the same three shares of stock – Nos. 952A, 953A and 954A.

The judge said Moe’s declaration of ownership isn’t accompanied by any documents proving ownership or proof that he bought the shares from Noel and Jeanette Davis.

“I want to know, ‘What did you pay for it? How’d you get it?’ ” the judge asked in explaining why the ownership-resolution process is essential.

Bankruptcy trustee John Munding, overseeing the assets of Spokane Raceway Park Inc., the company Moe formed to be the general partner and operating arm of Washington Motorsports, agreed to the ownership resolution process.

Moe filed bankruptcy in August, apparently hoping to stall the state court proceeding, but that legal move resulted in only a temporary delay.

The plan to sort out ownership issues was drafted by attorney Davidson. Last summer, he fired Moe as general manager. Moe is legally barred from the facility.

If attorneys involved in the case can’t agree with the findings of the receiver, the judge said, he will schedule evidentiary hearings to decide who owns disputed shares.

“Give me somebody to work with, and I’ll show you what I own,” Moe, seated in the spectators rows, shouted to the judge at Friday’s hearing.

“If I want to hear something from you, I will ask you,” the judge told Moe from the bench. “Otherwise, zip it up.”

The judge noted that Moe was seated alongside his longtime legal adviser and business partner, Spokane attorney Robert Kovacevich, and attorney Brian Butler, who also was in the courtroom.

Moe has acted as his own attorney since firing Carl Oreskovich and listing his $140,000 legal bill on a bankruptcy petition filed last August.

Moe showed up in court on Friday with attorney Mark Vovos.

He was hired by Moe after he was indicted in September on public corruption charges. He is accused of offering cash bribes to Dale Perry, the former mayor of Airway Heights, who also is charged.