Leary v. Diamond Resorts International et al

Selected Events:

In the lawsuit, timeshare owner Charmaine Leary, represented by Timothy J. Ryan of Egan, Flanagan and Cohen, P.C, claims elder abuse, fraud, misrepresentation and violation of Massachusetts law. She alleges that Diamond Resorts marketed and sold her various timeshare interests based upon false and misleading grounds and subjected her to contracts at outrageous interest rates.

Ms. Leary vacationed in May 2019 at a Diamond Resorts in Virginia Beach, Virginia. According to her complaint, as part of the vacation, Ms. Leary was required to attend a lengthy sales presentation by Diamond at the property. At the time, the Plaintiff was 79 years old. She purchased an interest in a Virginia Beach timeshare for $27,860 and claims she was told she would be getting a Silver Membership. Ms. Leary paid an initial deposit of $7,000 and financed the balance through Diamond at an interest rate of 17.962%. She alleges that the sales scheme used by Diamond was confusing and misleading.

Later, in August 2019, Ms. Leary was vacationing in Daytona Beach, Florida, at another Diamond Resorts, and during a mandatory sales presentation was told that she did not have a Silver Membership but rather she had purchased “temporary” points. Based on this, Ms. Leary says she negotiated a new purchase of a Daytona Beach resort designed to give her permanent points for a Silver Membership. She paid $12,000 in an initial deposit and the balance of $4,715 was financed by Diamond at 17.4428%.  On September 3, 2019, Ms. Leary exercised her right to cancel the Daytona Beach contract. 

On September 12, 2019, Ms. Leary was in Las Vegas, Nevada staying at a Diamond Resort and spoke with a Diamond representative about getting out of the Diamond Resorts altogether. The representative allegedly told her that due to a prepayment penalty she could not prepay the existing Virginia Beach contract and proceeded to sell her a Las Vegas timeshare as a Gold Member. This new contract was for $29,300 of which she paid 20% down and combined the balance with the Virginia Beach property for a total loan amount with Diamond for $44,329 at 15.31%. When Ms. Leary objected to this extraordinary loan, the representative allegedly told her she could mortgage her home to pay off the loan.

Leary asks the Court to order Diamond to annul and rescind the various transactions, to recover all payments, charges, expenses and costs incurred and to reimburse her attorney’s fees.