Lawsuit against Ferndale Historical Society Dismissed
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Oct. 11, 2014)
A lawsuit brought by a former Mayor against the Ferndale Historcal Society has ended with a dismissal and his responsibility for half of the Society’s legal fees.
In April, former Mayor Robert McGee, who served from 1992-1994, filed suit against the Ferndale Historical Society for $25,000 in damages after being denied access to items in the Historical Museum.  The Historical Society is an independent nonprofit that cares for historical documents and items, and manages the Ferndale Historical Museum.  The society rents the Museum building at 1651 Livernois from the City of Ferndale at a cost of $1 per year.
McGee claimed that the FHS breached their contract by not allowing him to scan photos from the museum that he wanted to use as he was working on a book about the History of Ferndale for Arcadia Publishing.  He agreed to work with Historical Society Secretary Jean Spang to co-author the book and split the royalties.
The relationship fell through, McGee’s lifetime membership to the Museum was revoked, and he was banned from the building. As a result, in January 2014 Arcadia terminated McGee’s contract.
Darryl J. Paquette is the attorney that represented the Ferndale Historical Society.  In April he described the suit. “Mr. McGee’s membership was revoked for his ‘vocal disapproval’ of the FHS, which in the opinion of the Board of Directors had ‘proven to be disruptive, demeaning, and intimidating to Board members and Museum staff.’  It should be noted that while Mr. McGee had purchased a lifetime membership, he had done so just recently,” Paquette said.
“It should also be noted that, an individual does not have to be a member in order to access the FHS collection, though the FHS does have a long standing policy of charging researchers – members and non-members alike – a fee for obtaining high quality copies of images.  What Mr. McGee wanted was access to 100s of photos without paying a fee. An agreement was attempted to be made between the FHS and Mr. McGee where he would receive the images at no cost in return for donating, to the FHS, all the profits of any book sales. He agreed at first, then changed his mind, then sued when he was told he would have to pay the same fee everyone else does.”
Court documents show that on Oct. 7 Circuit Court Judge Wendy Potts, after mediation between the parties, dismissed the case and ordered McGee to pay 50% of the Society’s legal fees.
Neither side returned a request for comment.