Treetops Resort to sue UofM Fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu
The saga of vandalism caused by Sigma Alpha Mu at the Treetops Resort in Gaylord last January continues. Multiple media outlets, including the Detroit News and the Michigan Daily, report that Treetops is pursuing legal action against the fraternity and at least individual fraternity members Joshua Kaplan, Zachary Levin, and Matthew Vlasic, all named in the various accounts.
LINK: Detroit News.
LINK: Michigan Daily.
The suit alleges both physical damage and loss to reputation in excess of $430,000. Insurance and a payment of $25k from the Sammies covers some but not all the alleged damage. Interestingly, the Sammies were at Treetops the year prior, and caused in excess of $11,000 in damage. At first blush, this makes you wonder why Treetops would agree to allow them to return. However, according to Treetops, a certain amount of damage is considered normal with large college student groups.
In the January incident, things went south when Treetops management confronted Sammy leaders after their first night, regarding prepayment arrangements that hadn't been met. As a result, Treetops alleges malicious and intentional retaliatory action by many of the Sammies, including urinating on carpeting in all the rooms they were using. According to Treetops, this was the first time they ever had to contact State Police to have a group evicted.
Too much publicity. Just fix it.
I hope they win and those idiots have to pay every cent of it. Not sure how likely that is, but what they did there was some extreme douchebaggery.
I worked in a hotel for a few years. It's really difficult to keep banned guests from coming back.
Even if Treetops banned the Sammies, all they would have to do to come back is say that isn't them or have it under some elses name. That's what the working girls do.
The housekeepers? What are these working girls you speak of...?
total frat move
I'm waiting patiently for the Petr Klima comments....
Treetops is a broke resort, and I honestly hope the frat doesn't pay them another dime for this. Doesn't seem like they'll be able to pin this on anyone during a civil suit, so the insurers will be paying for the actual cost of damages, which is probably like $50k.
Joshua.
that you?
check the join date. I hope I didn't come off like that!
T-hoopie above you, join date yesterday....
Mr. Klima, is that you?
Nope, just a realist.
This is a money grab, plain and simple. After the resort attempted extortion of damages many times higher than the actual cost, the frat rightly told them to go pound sand.
that they're "just a realist".
Dismissing the lawsuit out of hand doesn't make you a realist. You're jumping to a conclusion that nobody from the outside of the situation can realistically make at this point. You have no freaking clue what is the appropriate amount for damages.
Having read your many comments on this and Minick's DUI, it is clear you are no lawyer and know nothing about either criminal/traffic or civil law. Thanks for joining (or rejoining under a new name) today. I already feel a little dumber.
why shouldn't the fraternity pay up? they are entitled for loss of revenue 100%. lets not forget they also harrassed our war veterans. they should be expelled imo.
Yawn...
Next year's headline when all large college groups stop going to Treetops:
"Treetops closes shop"
My fraternity formal was at Treetops in the early 90s. I remember watching Desmond get his Heisman there on the TV in the lounge when we had cocktails. We stayed there two days there did 0 damage. We had a great time and I got laid for one of the first times by my college sweetheart. Kids today have no boundaries or class.
Kids nowadays lose their virginity well before the age of 22.
Hate to break it to you, but humans have been having sex at a young age for many millenia.
I first had sex at the age of 14. While it seems like a millenia ago to me, it was back in 1967. And more than a few kids I knew my age were doing it too.
I was late at 20 years old in 1981. Not for lack of trying the previous 4-5 years.
My dad talked about how when he was in high school, the men and women swim teams would take trips to meets out of town together. "They don't do that anymore!"
yeah T Hoopie...I had lost mine in HS and had laid plenty of women by that point.
If you go back and read what I wrote, I said "one of the first times with that girlfriend"... we ended up have a terrific relationship after that and are still close today...it all began at Treetops
True man but Treetops had a lot to my sealing the deal with her. We had been dating for 5 weeks before we hooked up the week before, and then at Treetops we had such a great time. It was outside in the snow on the little walk there and she was just in such a good mood saying 'its soo pretty look at the lights and how they reflect off of the sky"... and we ended up in bed a bit later which was great...and then another couple walked in and we had to quickly cover up under the blanket and get dressed. That was a great time at Treetops and that is my point...
Back in the day, we used places like Treetops to come together and have a great time, fall in love... create memories. Kids today just seem to want to take out their frustrations and destroy a nice place like that.
Yes, it is getting worse with these kids...Im no old foggy either just look around at the shit that goes on these days. Kids are growing up in progressively worse environments full of hatred and manipulation. I guess that is my generations fault for not raising them properly....
I think this takes the cake on classic hot takes and sweeping generalizations about my generation from old people.
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I'd love for some of the people around here claiming these damages are obscenely too high to show their math on what they assume the damages are and how much they would cost to repair. Because based on the pictures shown, there are a number of rooms that will need work, and it's not like Treetops is going to eat that cost while this frat tries to shift blame around. And anyone claiming that this resort is using this incident as a chance to somehow keep their business afloat seem to be making a pretty big stretch.
The only evidence you have is based on a couple pictures of broken cabinets and ceiling tiles with extensive cleaning needed. Presumably these pictures are the worst of the damage.
Considering how cheap labor is up there, they could demolish and rebuild the resort section in question for the amount of money claimed. This is minor interior work, some new cheap hotel furniture, and some new mediocre carpet.
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Most wealthy people today are only wealthy because they inherited a significant portion of that wealth. Born on 3rd base thinking they hit a triple.
Raise the estate tax back up to 90% and then your argument might hold a little more water.
But to think that Treetops actually incurred damage to their brand is a joke. The place is just awful for skiing and way overpriced for what they offer. With many other options nearby that are much better (relatively speaking), Treetops is almost certainly an afterthought for people looking to spend a few days skiing in Northern Michigan.
And to be honest, I'd be willing to bet it was quite beneficial for Treetops to have their name featured fairly prevalently in the media, to the point that it easily has/will offset any hit to their reputation.