Two Dunthorpe, Oregon companies are battling in court over which gets to support a local underprivileged family. Both the Malcolm Group and Herner-Lents claim rights to the Millingtons.
“We approached them first,” says Malcolm Attorney Shirley Becker. “Our vision was to boost employee morale by helping a poor family get food and other stuff poor families can’t easily get for themselves.”
The Millingtons were ideal: Al, father of three kids under five, had just lost his utensil sales job, and his wife Marie was suffering from an unnamed deficiency.
“We had a meeting with the Millingtons, negotiated a little bit, and finally settled on $10,000 cash plus weekly deliveries of 17 different food products,” says Becker. “When we left them we thought we had a deal.”
That was soon foiled when Herner-Lents found out and offered the Millingtons $15,000, plus 26 products. The family accepted.
“There aren’t too many poor families in Dunthorpe so we didn’t have a lot of options,” says Herner’s lawyer, Sheila Montaigne. “Our employees deserve to have good morale, too.”
Malcolm countered with $17,500 – plus a $1500 clothing allowance – and Herner-Lents came back with $18,000. It was at this point the negotiations stopped and the two companies decided to resolve the matter in court.
The Millingtons, meanwhile, have yet to receive any assistance, and last week lost their home to foreclosure.
