Park's lawsuit silences Harley's roar

A mobile home cooperative's rules don't allow any motorcycles. But one of its residents couldn't resist riding his. Now he's being sued.

By WILMA NORTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 16, 2000

SEMINOLE -- Its rumbling "potato-potato-potato" cadence is so ingrained in Americana that its manufacturer has tried to trademark the noise.

Owning a machine with that distinctive V-Twin engine sound has gotten Andrew Tomic sued.

Tomic, 43, owned a Harley-Davidson, a 1984 Wide Glide. He rode it to work and back from his home in the Holiday Village mobile home park. He admits the bike was loud. Like many Harleys, this one had been tinkered with to enhance its thunder.

"You could hear it all over the place," he acknowledged.

He says he tried to be considerate of his neighbors, tried to mitigate the motorcycle's roar by coasting part of the way home each afternoon.

It wouldn't have mattered. Even if he had pushed the bike through the park's streets, he was breaking its rules.

Motorcycles are not permitted in the park, a resident-owned cooperative set up in an arrangement similar to a condominium's. Residents own shares in the total corporation, plus they own their own mobile homes.

Motorcycles are prohibited, even if they belong to homeowners who use them for transportation. Even if they are never started.

Tomic knew this.

There is a battered sign at the park's entrance that says motorcycles aren't allowed to enter. The prohibition also is in the park's 10 pages of rules and regulations, which Tomic received when he moved there in 1996.

Tomic, who described himself as a truck driver between jobs, said he chose the park at 6580 Seminole Blvd. because the price was right. He said he paid about $17,000 for the mobile home and another $14,500 to buy a share in the cooperative.

His dispute with his fellow property owners is one of those that arises periodically in places like Pinellas County, where people live in close proximity, within communities that have strict rules about what residents can and cannot do on their own property.

Tomic said he never thought his motorcycle would be a big deal. But when he started using the motorcycle regularly, he found out differently.

In January, Tomic received a formal warning from the park's attorney, telling him the motorcycle had to go. Otherwise, it said, he risked a fine of up to $100 a day.

In March, he was warned again.

In June, the homeowners association sued Tomic. The suit alleges that on June 9 he "blatantly" rode the motorcycle on the park's streets.

And Tomic admitted that was true. "On that day, I probably was blatant," he said. That also was the day he sold the bike to a neighbor who lives two streets over in the same park.

D.J. Fernandes, whose husband, Gene, bought the motorcycle, said they got a warning to remove the bike a day after it appeared in their driveway.

They moved it to a storage unit.

"I don't agree with it, but it is in the park rules," said Mrs. Fernandes, who has lived there 11 years. "Unfortunately, Andy doesn't have a leg to stand on."

Mrs. Fernandes said the park's rules were written years ago when most residents were senior citizens. Now, she said, there are more families buying homes there. "The rules need to be updated," she said, "but we have a situation where there are a few senior citizens sitting on the board who don't want changes."

Sharon Colbert, the park's office manager and a member of the board of directors, referred questions about the suit to the park's attorney, who did not return calls for comment.

Mrs. Fernandes said she and her husband didn't buy the bike as a protest or to flout the park's rules, even though they don't agree with all of them.

"It's just something my husband has always wanted, and it was a good deal, so we bought it," she said.

It isn't clear what will happen with the lawsuit now that Tomic no longer owns the motorcycle. In his handwritten response, Tomic said he has sold the motorcycle to Fernandes "so that's who you need to sue. Whatever."

Meanwhile, Tomic has put his mobile home up for sale, too.

"If I'd known it was going to be like this, I never would have moved in here," he said. "I feel like I've been harassed."

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