Travel agents, consumers still waiting for refunds; lawsuits against Hemphill Harris are bogged down.Travel agents, consumers still waiting for refunds Last October Hemphill Harris Travel Corp. in Encino canceled several tours, stranding dozens of travelers overseas. During the next few months several lawsuits were filed and investigations were started both on the state and federal levels. The company remained open and promised refunds to hundreds of consumrs who claimed they lost their deposits when the tours were canceled. Now, almost a year later, the inestigations are continuing, no refunds have been issued, the company has closed down and consumers, and the travel agents who sold them the Hemphill Harris tour packages, are still trying to figure out what happened. Recently, the owner of Hemphill Harris Travel asked the courts to declare the transaction in which it acquired the company in December 1988 null A character that is all 0 bits. Also written as "NUL," it is the first character in the ASCII and EBCDIC data codes. In hex, it displays and prints as 00; in decimal, it may appear as a single zero in a chart of codes, but displays and prints as a blank space. and void. The suit asked that the company be reverted back to its previous owners -- Ron Harris The term Ron Harris can refer to:
Harris now operates another travel company in North Hollywood and Hemphill works at a tour firm in Glendale. Lavitt could not be located. The previous owners have blamed the tour firm's troubles on the new owners, Weststar Acquisition Corp., which is operated by David Dukesherer. Dukesherer has blamed the old owners. Dukesherer, who has refused to discuss what happened at Hemphill Harris Travel, is now involved, with other members of his family, in the operations of Great Western Express and an affiliated company, 1-2-3 Express Delivery Service in Culver City Culver City, city (1990 pop. 38,793), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles; inc. 1917. It is a center of the U.S. motion-picture industry, whose roots in the city date to c.1915. Its chief manufactures are rubber products and computers. . "As far as I can determine no one has ever received any refunds and people are still upset, particularly since nothing has happened. We haven't been able to do anything because we are not a legal body," said Carolyn Friede, who heads the consumer affairs division of the American Society of Travel Agents ASTA, short for the American Society of Travel Agents, claims over 20,000 members in 140 countries. Its members include travel agents and companies who offer travel products, such as tours, cruises, hotels, car rentals, etc. , a national trade group based in Washington, D.C. "We haven't been able to find out anything about the company, we have sent Federal Express letters and other things to the company and they have all been returned to us," she said. Thomas Dickerson, a New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. attorney who has brought a class-action suit Noun 1. class-action suit - a lawsuit brought by a representative member of a large group of people on behalf of all members of the group class action that names the tour firm, Weststar, Dukesherer and Harris as defendants, said the number of consumers and travel agents who have joined the action has risen from 200 to 300 since the action was filed earlier this year. The suit seeks to recover $2 million in consumer losses and $1 million in punitive damages Monetary compensation awarded to an injured party that goes beyond that which is necessary to compensate the individual for losses and that is intended to punish the wrongdoer. . Dickerson said the suit is now in its discovery stages and that the defendants have not made any offer to settle the action before it goes to trial. The staff attorney investigating Hemphill Harris Travel in the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. office of the California Attorney General's office, Jerry Smilowitz, said hundreds of consumers and travel agents from around the country have filed complaints against the tour firm, which sold deluxe packages to exotic locations around the world. "I can understand your frustration and the frustration of consumers but I have been told I can't talk about the investigation. I know it's been a long time but we are still involved," he said. U.S. postal authorities A postal authority organises collection and delivery of domestic mail (US), or post (UK), within its area of control, or in the case of foreign mail, delivery to or receipt of mail from other postal authorities. Payment for the service has been performed in many ways. , who last February raided Hemphill Harris Travel's office in Encino and seized company records, also said its investigation is continuing. Harris, who now operates Harris Travel Enterprises in North Hollywood, in June was awarded a $650,000 judgment against Weststar and Dukesherer in connection with the sale of the company. Harris, who owned 60 percent of Hemphill Harris Travel, has charged that Weststar deposited more than $1.7 million in worthless checks in a Hemphill Harris bank account and then withdrew $2.8 million to purchase the company. Dukesherer, in a lawsuit against Harris, has said the checks were to be used for recapitalization Recapitalization Restructuring a company's debt and equity mixture often with the aim of making a company's capital structure more stable. Notes: Companies often want to diversify their debt-to-equity ratio to improve liquidity. of a Hemphill Harris Travel subsidiary. In a interview last week, Harris also charged that Dukesherer took $400,00 out of the company in September 1989, one month before the tours were canceled. Dukesherer referred all questions about the company to his attorney, Robert Yaspan of Yaspan and Goch in Encino. Yaspan did not return phone calls. |
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