[Dixielandjazz] Remember the Audubon Quartet fiasco?

[Fr M J (Mike) Logsdon]

[A recently disseminated appeal:]

Dear friends and supporters,
   
   The Audubon Quartet's six year legal fight finally came to an
   end on February 3, 2006, with a settlement, agreed to by all the
   parties, that brings all court actions to an end.  However, that
   settlement was very painful: Akemi Takayama had to make a $40,000
   payment in order to remove the threat of continued litigations,
   including one that aimed at confiscating her (actually, her
   mother's) violin and Doris Lederer and Tom Shaw have been forced
   to start over financially in the fourth decade of their careers.
   To meet the provisions of the settlement, Doris and Tom had to
   give up their home, a substantial portion of their retirement
   accounts, and an additional sum equal to the appraised value of
   their bows and instruments, a net loss of approximately $460,000.
   To raise this much money, Doris and Tom had to sell their
   instruments (about which, see more details below).  In addition,
   all three still owe large sums to their lawyers.
   
   The court of world opinion is with these three members of the
   Audubon Quartet.  Many hundreds of letters and emails from all
   over the world have offered sympathy for their cause in the legal
   battle and in support of the assets they hold most dear - their
   precious instruments and the reputation of the Quartet.  Their
   instruments were bought by Dan Braden, a fair minded businessman
   who has signed a contract allowing them to have the use of the
   bows and instruments for ten years no matter who owns the
   instruments and offering them a short-term opportunity to buy
   them back (singly or all together) at a reasonable price.  The
   instruments are now safely beyond any court action, but Tom and
   Doris are destitute and have no hope of regaining ownership of
   their instruments without outside help.
   
   Many people have expressed a desire to help when it appeared
   likely that the court would order the instruments turned over
   to a trustee for sale.  The time has come: your help is needed
   now.  The Audubon Quartet Rescue Fund is a trust fund required
   to use all the donations it receives to buy back the instruments
   and return them to Tom and Doris and to pay for necessary expenses
   incurred in the processes.  Counting all known and anticipated
   expenses, the total amount needed is between $215,000 and $225,000.
   This is a staggering amount to raise, especially since the U.S.
   Tax Code will not allow contributors to count their gifts as a
   charitable gift for the purposes of income, estate, or gift
   taxes.  Nonetheless, with your help, we hope to return the
   instruments to their rightful owners, thereby ending this horrific
   saga on as good a note as possible.  Since the trust fund can
   use the money contributed only to buy back the instruments and
   to pay reasonable expenses, you are assured that your donation
   will help to put the Audubon Quartet back on its feet and to
   return Doris's and Tom's precious bows and instruments to them.
   We appeal to you to give, and give as generously as you can, to
   the Audubon Quartet Rescue Fund.
   
   Please send your checks to The Audubon Quartet Rescue Fund, c/o
   Richard Burian, 1002 Eheart St., Blacksburg, VA 24060.  If you
   prefer to use PayPal, you may do so by going to www.enditnow.org
   (which contains additional information for those who are
   interested); using the 'donate' button, asking to deposit your
   funds to the Audubon Quartet Rescue Fund trust account via the
   PayPal donation system that you will find at www.enditnow.org.
   
   Thank you for your help!
   
   Richard Burian and Wallace Easter
   
   P.S.  Please share this appeal with others whom you believe might
   wish to contribute to this cause.