Judge rules against Moe in stock case

A judge who has spent the last three years hearing the complicated legal battle over ownership of Spokane Raceway Park ruled Tuesday that ousted operator Orville Moe doesn’t own 88 shares of stock he claimed.

In one instance, Judge Robert Austin said from the bench, Spokane Raceway Park records kept by Moe show he converted stock to his name four years after the original purchaser died.

The judge said Moe failed to produce any evidence or documentation that he legally owned the disputed stock or took possession of it in exchange for services he rendered.

“He doesn’t want to follow that procedure or he can’t,” the judge said.

The judge’s ruling on the ownership of the 88 shares was requested by court-appointed receiver Barry Davidson, who has identified more than 200 shares of disputed stock.

The receiver is using the court evidentiary process to determine who owns what and establish a court-approved registry of owners before any sale can occur to pay off limited partner investors who haven’t seen any return on their stock purchases made 35 years ago.

Limited partners bought an estimated $2.5 million worth of stock in the early 1970s to help Moe and his late father build the drag strip and oval track landmark.

The facility is now said to be worth an estimated $26 million. Spokane County commissioners recently hired an appraiser, who reportedly is recommending the county purchase the property for a future potential jail site and county-owned racing facility.

In Superior Court, there were several days of testimony regarding disputed stock ownership prior to Tuesday’s ruling by Austin.

The judge ruled that one grouping of 70 units of stock in Washington Motorsports, the limited partnership formed to fund the facility, did not belong to Moe as he has claimed. Those “A shares” were either forfeited for incomplete purchase or traded for more expensive “B shares” in the facility. The judge said ownership of those shares would be returned to Washington Motorsports.

Another set of four shares, claimed by Moe and Dr. Leib Alexander, also will be returned to the limited partnership because neither man could produce documentation of ownership, the judge ruled.

Austin then held that 10 units of stock that RosaLee Jones claimed she purchased in the mid-1970s belong to her or her heirs, and not Moe, if an additional $132 payment is made to complete the purchase.

Moe also claimed to own four units of stock sold to the late Clarence Maisch, who died in 1996. Four years later, Spokane Raceway Park records kept by Moe listed him as the owner of those shares.

The judge ruled that those shares would be returned to Maisch’s heirs or his estate.

The judge is expected to rule today whether to approve a $2.45 million deal between the receiver and the Kalispel Tribe to end another companion ownership dispute.

If approved by the judge, Washington Motorsports would be paid $2.45 million in cash by the tribe. A narrow access road, approximately 3 acres in size, would be deeded to the tribe. The tribe in return would hand over title to 10 acres of land it bought in a previous transaction with Moe, the legality of which was being challenged.

Moe sought protection from creditors last August by filing bankruptcy. A judge there supervising assets of Spokane Raceway Park has approved the same settlement with the Kalispel Tribe.