Yelba Sues Again!

Yelba Carvajal has filed another lawsuit against us, specifically directed towards the land where our Center itself is located, see satellite photo below -- the biggest shiny roof is the women's sewing co-op and the open area to the southeast is where the spinning co-op will go. This is the industrial park, threated by the first lawsuit that Yelba Carvajal brought against us. The treed area to the west of the industrial park is the Center, where the JHC-CDCA offices are located, along with the volunteer dorm and our house. This is the land threatened by the second lawsuit.

The fact that Yelba Carvajal has brought another lawsuit against us does NOT mean that the first suit has been dropped, so she now has two active lawsuits against us. We’ve been scheduled for another mediation this Thursday, April 17th, which we expect will prove as fruitless as the mediation for the first lawsuit back in February.

Request to throw out case

Upon revision our lawyer found several errors in the unofficial copy of the suit that we had received, and so based on that he asked the judge to review it and throw the case out for lack of specificity. The judge agreed and notified the attorney for Yelba Carvajal that the case was being rejected for that reason. Carvajal was given a period of time to comply, and her lawyer did so on time. So the case continues to be before the court, but nothing is happening with it. We have yet to be officially served with the lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the Genesis spinning plant cooperative is progressing with construction on its factory, which is located on the contested land. This week they brought in machinery to level and compact their land in preparation for foundation work. Despite the lawsuit threatening their building site, the co-op's 36 members plan to have their building finished and machinery installed before the end of 2008. Their co-op will give work to an initial 45 people spinning organic cotton into yarn.