Woman alleges MIU owes her $500,000

FAIRFIELD — A woman has filed a lawsuit against Maharishi International University, alleging the school owes her $500,000 for failing to return stock belonging to her.

According to the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Iowa, Mary Town of Wyoming and her then husband Philip Town donated stock to MIU in 1984. The 166,667 shares of stock were in the company Westbridge Research Group, founded by Philip and Bill Witherspoon.

The lawsuit alleges that a representative of MIU’s development office, Bobby Warren, informed the Towns that the university preferred a cash donation instead of stock, so in 1990, Mary and Philip donated $21,000 in cash to MIU in exchange for returning the earlier stock donation made six years earlier.

Mary Town’s lawyer Jeffrey Stone presented evidence to the court showing that, while MIU attempted to return the stock, it failed to complete the necessary paperwork and never returned the stock. The lawsuit alleges that MIU received dividends and approximately $500,000 in exchange for Westbridge Stock, which Mary claims rightly belongs to her. The lawsuit claims Philip told Mary in October 2021 that MIU had received money in exchange for the stock.

Stone presented a document from 1990 when MIU Treasurer Kenneth West Jr. attempted to transfer the 166,667 shares of stock from MIU to Mary Town by writing to the Security Pacific National Bank. The lawsuit claims that West failed to write out all required information on the back side of the Westbridge Research Group stock certificate, and had the original stock certificate delivered to Philip, then Mary’s husband.

Because the stock transfer document was not properly filled out, it was not returned to Mary. In 2014, Mary met with legal counsel for MIU in an effort to resolve the matter, and at that time the lawsuit claims that MIU acknowledged its obligation to return the Westbridge stock to Mary.

The lawsuit includes email correspondence between Mary and MIU legal counsel Caterina Roesler from 2014 and 2015 during which time Roesler apologized for the delay.

In December 2021, Continental Stock Transfer & Trust informed Mary that MIU had filed a claim in April 2019 to replace the original stock certificate No. 240 because it had been lost. The lawsuit alleges that this original stock certificate was Mary’s, not MIU’s, and that MIU wrongfully obtained a replacement stock certificate which allowed it to redeem shares of stock.

“As a result of MIU’s wrongful actions, Town has suffered and continues to suffer damages,” Stone wrote.

MIU is being represented in this case by Cedar Rapids attorney Mark Zaiger, who did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com