Walker Hearing Postponed Due to Litigation

John Cropper, Virtual Stamp Club Correspondent

The October 23rd APS board meeting was not able address the Walker situation, due in part to legal action filed on the matter. Action is now postponed indefinitely pending resolution of litigation in the matter.

In documents obtained by The Virtual Stamp Club on October 12th, Ken Lawrence filed a writ of summons against W. Danforth Walker (successful candidate for treasurer); Nick Carter, PhD. (successful candidate for president, against Lawrence); Janet Klug, Peter McCann, PhD., Randy Neil (signatories of the "Three Presidents" advertisement); Wade Saadi, Steve Rod, David Straight (successful candidates for the Board of Vice Presidents); and the American Philatelic Society. This action was filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Centre County, Pennsylvania. This is the resident county of the complainant, as well as the principal place of business of the American Philatelic Society.

A judicial summons is addressed to a defendant in a legal proceeding. Typically, the summons will announce to the person to whom it is directed that a legal proceeding has been started against that person, and that a file has been started in the court records. The summons announces a date by which the defendant(s) must either appear in court, or respond in writing to the court or the opposing party or parties.

In most U.S. jurisdictions, the service of a summons is in most cases required for the court to have personal jurisdiction over the party who is being hauled into court involuntarily. The process by which a summons is served is called service of process. The form and content of service in the Federal system is governed by Rule 4 the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the rules of many state courts are similar. The federal summons is usually issued by the Clerk of the Court, in many states the summons may be issued by an attorney, though some states use filing as the means to commence an action and the summons must be filed in those cases in order to be effective. Other jurisdictions may only require that the summons be filed after it is served on the defendants.

Walker, the "Three Presidents," and the Saadi-Rod-Straight BVP ticket all ran advertising that was critical of Ken during the past APS election. While Nick Carter ran no overtly negative advertising, he was the only presidential opponent to Ken Lawrence on the ballot. It is presumed that the American Philatelic Society was also named in the action as it was the party responsible for the regulation and management of the election, including campaign statements and advertising.

None of the principles nor other officers and staff of the APS have commented on this development.