Upper Peninsula Breaking News Exclusive:
Federal Court in Marquette, MI: The future of Mackinac Island’s longest running ferry service is in doubt – will it be the last Labor Day weekend for Arnold Line and its 11 vessels
On the busiest weekend of the year for Michigan’s famed Mackinac Island – 11 Mackinac Island ferries are subjects of federal lawsuits filed within 5 days of each other last week in federal court in Marquette – one suit seeks over $30.5 million and the about $2 million
By Greg Peterson, Upper Peninsula Breaking News
www.UpperPeninsulaBreakingNews.com
(Mackinac Island, MI) – The longest running ferry service to prestigious Mackinac Island in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is advertising its popular Labor Day Weekend trips – although the future of the “Arnold Line” and the sale of its 11 vessels including its proudest catamarans Mackinac Express and Island Express – are being played out in a pair of just filed battling federal lawsuits, Upper Peninsula Breaking News has learned.
Just filed in U.S. District Court in Marquette, Michigan (below you can download your own copies of lawsuits):
One federal lawsuit involves the Arnold Transit Company (ATC) and the sale of its catamarans Mackinac Express and Island Express to recover nearly $2 million – plus the other lawsuit involves the seizure of all 11 ferry boats and property to recover $30.5 million, according to documents obtained by Upper Peninsula Breaking News.
The lawsuits have dozens of defendants and many limited liability corporations (LLC) – most related in the ownership and financing of the company or its vessels – through financial companies, revocable trusts, loans, financing agreements, and many other tools.
The first shot across the bow of the Arnold Transport Company was filed on August 15, 2014.
Officially filed against the Mackinac Island Express, the Island Express, Arnold Bay Transit Company (ABT), Haldimand Bay Company, LLC; Mackinac Island Ferry Capital, LLC; and Roland Machinery Company.
A group of 20 people, trusts, trustees are listed as plaintiffs – and are seeking “to enforce and foreclose their First Preferred Ships Mortgages on the Mackinac Express and the Island Press, and enforce the secured Promissory Notes and Guaranty.”
Meanwhile five days later (August 20, 2014), the Mackinac Island Ferry Capital, LLC (Brent C. Rippe, CEO, Hamilton County, Ohio) filed the $30.5 million federal civil lawsuit in Marquette, MI against Haldimand Bay Company, LLC” and all the Mackinac Island boats owned by its subsidiary “ferry companies” in an effort to collect the monies through foreclosure liens on properties and vessels “that secure the indebtedness.”
The lawsuit lists several counts including breach of contract, and the foreclosure of both property and vessel mortgages. The plaintiff is represented by Traverse City attorney Matthew D. Vermetten of Brandt, Pezzetti, Vermetten & Popovits.
That 15-page second lawsuit (August 20, 2014) lists the defendants as Haldimand Bay Company, LLC; Union Terminal Piers, Inc.; Arnold Transit Company; McGregor Oil Company; Straits Transit, Inc.; Northern Ferry Company, LLC; Island Management Company, LLC; Island Resource Company, LLC; Anita Schneider; Henry W Schneider; The Toots Foundation; Stephen Schneider Trust; The 2008 Henry W. Schneider Trust, The Henry W. Schneider Delaware Trust, Cheboygan County Treasurer, Department of Treasury (Internal Revenue Service), Michigan Department of Treasury, U.S. Bancorp (financial services corp based in Minneapolis, MN); and Chase Industries, Inc. (a Michigan corporation); and the following 11 vessels – catamarans Straits Express, Island Express, and Mackinac Express, the traditional ferries Straits of Mackinac II, Chippewa, Algomah II, Ottawa, and Huron, and the non-passenger freight vessels Corsair, Beaver, and the Mackinac Islander.
The plaintiffs in the first (August 15, 2014) lawsuit are asking a federal judge to “issue a warrant for arrest and seizure of the Mackinac Express and the Island Express, but refrain from the removal of the vessels” from the Mill Slip in the Upper Peninsula town of St. Ignace.
Charging “breach of secured promissory notes, the plaintiffs want a “substitute custodian to take custody upon arrest of the vessels.”
“In 2010, plaintiffs sold all of the stock of Union Terminal Piers to the defendant Haldimand Bay Company, LLC (HBC) – and that ultimately left HBC as the parent company of the Arnold Transport Company (ATC), the lawsuit states.
The 35-page lawsuits states HBC and ATC failed to make “principal and interest payments under the terms of the secured promissory notes” due on June 18, 2014. That principal and interest was just shy of $2 million on June 30, 2014, the lawsuit states.
The 20 plaintiffs are: The Marsha Rudolph Adams Revocable Trust (Marsha Rudolph Adams, trustee); Andrew C. Brown; Barbara J. Brown; the estate of Dorothy M. Brown; James J. Brown, Jr.; Linda M. Brown Trust (Linda M. Brown, trustee); Paul H. Brown; Paul W. Brown Trust (Paul W. Brown, trustee); Prentiss M. Brown; Prentiss M. Brown, Jr. Trust (Prentiss M. Brown, Jr., trustee); Robert B. Brown; Caroline Cheeseman; Sally Ann Herbon; Jim & Sis, LLC; Laing Family, LLC; Pajalco Incorporated; Patricia Jane Perry; Susan L. Pierson, and Ruth M. Visnaw.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Brian J. Page and Mark. D. van der Laan of Grand Rapids (Dykema Gossett law firm)
The plaintiffs specifically list parts of both the Mackinac Island ferry boats including “all masts, towers, boilers, cables, engines, machinery, sails, rigging, auxiliary boats, anchors, chains, tackle, apparel, bowsprits, furniture, fittings, tools, pumps, radar, and other electronic equipment and supplies, and other attachments and accessories.”
The lawsuit requests judgments against the Mackinac Express and the Island Express – so the plaintiffs can recover the $1,961,283 that they claim is owed. Federal civil action summons issued on August 19, 2014 for the defendants state the have 20 days from date of service to respond to the lawsuit.
Download lawsuit and related exhibits:
Filed 8-20-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $30 M lawsuit
Filed 8-20-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $30 M lawsuit
Filed 8-19-14 Marsha Rudolph Adams vs The Mackinac Express Summons Civil
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Exhibit 8
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Exhibit 7
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Exhibit 6
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Exhibit 5
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Exhibit 4
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Exhibit 3
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Exhibit 2
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Exhibit 1
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Complaint
Filed 8-15-14 Mackinaw Island Ferry $2M lawsuit Complaint main
Photo of Mackinac Express
Mackinac Express, a catamaran passenger ferry of the Arnold Transit Company at Mackinac Island, Michigan.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hyku/163104958
by Flickr user “hyku” on June 8, 2006
Arnold Transit Co.
PO Box 220
Mackinac Island, MI
49757
(800) 542-8528
(906) 847-3351
(906) 847-3892 (fax)
www.arnoldline.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Transit_Company
Arnold president: Ferry line will keep operating
Tues., April 29, 2014
By Ryan Bentley, Petosky News
(231) 439-9342
rbentley@petoskeynews.com
http://www.petoskeynews.com/featured-pnr/arnold-president-ferry-line-will-keep-operating/article_804fbfc8-8420-5d60-a423-5ee95c8f0c2a.html
Arnold Line may not ferry passengers to Mackinac Island this year
By Garret Ellison
gellison@mlive.com
Follow on Twitter
April 22, 2014/updated April 25, 2014
www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2014/04/arnold_mackinac.html
Others:
www.mackinawcity.com/mackinac-island-ferries-12
http://sheplersferry.com
www.mackinacferry.com
www.mackinacisland.org/transportation
All season long, Mackinac Island is serviced from both Mackinaw City and St. Ignace by three ferry companies:
Arnold Transit
Shepler’s Ferry
Star Line Ferry
A 16 to 30-minute trip, luggage service, parking at the ferry docks.
See each company for schedules and pricing
Arnold Transit Company
(800) 542-8528
(906) 847-3351
Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry
(800) 828-6157
231-436-5023
Star Line Ferry
(800) 638-9892
(906) 643-7635
Upper Peninsula Breaking News by Greg Peterson 