The forms don't tell you, though, that the estate of her late husband, businessman John W. Rollins Sr., was placed in trust for his 10 children and is inaccessible to her. John Rollins, a former lieutenant governor of Delaware, made his fortune with a truck-leasing firm, an entertainment complex that included Dover Downs and Dover Motorsports, and the lavish, 7,000-acre waterfront Rose Hall Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Michele Rollins' income comes largely from the dividends and interest emerging from the trusts Rollins set aside for the children.
That last sentence appears to be a reference to RMT Trust, the largest shareholder of Dover Motorsports Inc. of Delaware. RMT Trust is controlled by a man named Henry B. Tippie, of Austin, Texas, who long has been the "money man" behind various Rollins ventures. Dover Motorsports Inc. has not been performing well, as the Bush recession has hurt a number of NASCAR venues, and one unhappy investor commissioned a study titled "Dancing on the Deck of the Titantic: Henry B. Tippie and Dover Motorsports Inc." Here is how that study described RMT Trust:
Following the death of John W. Rollins, Senior on April 4, 2000, Henry Tippie (at the time, Vice Chairman of Dover) was named executor of Mr. Rollins' vast estate, and thereafter, Mr. Tippie possessed more than 50% voting control of the Company. The Last Will and Testament of John W. Rollins, Senior, established the RMT Trust as the primary vehicle to transfer assets to his wife, Michele M. Rollins. Among many of its stakes in property and operating assets, the RMT Trust held 8 million shares of Class A Common Stock in 2009, which represented approximately 39.4% of the voting control of Dover Motorsports. The Last Will and Testament stipulated that the RMT Trust would be administered by three trustees, presently Michele M. Rollins, R. Randall Rollins, and Henry B. Tippie. Through an agreement which renews annually, Michele Rollins and Randall Rollins yielded sole discretion over the voting power of shares held by RMT Trust to Henry Tippie. Therefore, at the behest of the Rollins, Henry Tippie maintained the dual role of Chairman of the Company and voting trustee of RMT Trust and was able to single-handedly determine the outcome of any and all shareholder votes.
As you can see, Rollins family finances can get complicated. But we have tried to sort them out because the Rollinses have strong connections to Alabama--and we have seen signs that they tend not to play fair.
One of John Rollins' 10 children is Ted Rollins, the CEO of Campus Crest Communities and the subject of numerous posts here at Legal Schnauzer. Our interest in Ted Rollins stems mostly from a divorce case that Sherry Carroll Rollins launched against him in 2001. It also should be noted that Ted Rollins has strong business interests in Alabama. His primary corporate law firm is Birmingham-based Bradley Arant, and Campus Crest Communities recently announced that it plans to develop a $26.3 million student-housing project at Auburn University.
As for the Rollins v. Rollins divorce case, it was filed in Greenville, South Carolina, where the couple lived, and was litigated there for roughly three years. When Ted Rollins failed to make court-ordered payments on the former marital residence, Sherry Carroll Rollins and the couple's two daughters were kicked out of their house and forced to flee to Alabama, where Ms. Rollins had relatives.
Ted Rollins proceeded to sue Sherry Rollins for divorce in Alabama, even though jurisdiction already had been established in South Carolina and could not lawfully be changed. Ted Rollins wound up with an extraordinarily favorable judgment at the Shelby County Courthouse in Columbiana, the same venue where Mrs. Schnauzer and I have repeatedly been cheated by corrupt lawyers and judges. Hence, our interest in Rollins v. Rollins, which I've called the worst case of courtroom abuse (civil division) in my experience.
Why should Rollins almost induce vomiting in anyone who is remotely familiar with jurisdictional law? There are several reasons, but here is the biggie: Ted Rollins was ordered to pay the grand sum of $815 a month in support for two children. And this is for a guy who owns multiple private jet craft and is CEO of a company with a $380 million Wall Street IPO in hand.
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