A community charity says it was pushed to the brink of insolvency after being mistakenly sued by the daughter of M*A*S*H star Sally Kellerman in a dispute that began when a cafe declined to admit her dog.
Claire Kellerman, a US-born 62-year-old whose late aunt and adoptive mother played Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in the original 1970s M*A*S*H film, brought taxpayer-funded legal action against the Great Bernera Community Development Trust (GBCDT) in the Outer Hebrides.
Ms Kellerman, whose outspoken role on the island of Great Bernera has divided opinion locally, sought to pursue the organisation connected to a community cafe after staff allegedly refused entry to her dog, which she maintains is a service animal.
However, solicitors acting on her behalf served the legal papers on GBCDT rather than Bernera Community Association, the volunteer-run group responsible for the cafe’s day-to-day operations.
GBCDT, a non-profit established to support the island’s economic and social wellbeing, has now told the Daily Mail it was left in a precarious financial position after spending thousands of pounds defending the claim before it was eventually withdrawn ahead of a hearing.
Ms Kellerman, who locals accused of ‘bullying’ staff at the cafe, is understood to have been banned from the site over her behaviour before launching legal action claiming volunteers had refused access to her service dog.
GBCDT director Mark Bryant told the Mail how his organisation was wrongly served with a writ despite board members repeatedly attempting to contact Ms Kellerman, and her lawyers, to inform them of the error.
They also informed the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) of the mistake before its decision to fund Ms Kellerman’s case, he said, but the board chose to do so anyway.
Actress Sally Kellerman and her niece and adoptive daughter Claire Kellerman pictured together in 1999
Ms Kellerman, who arrived in Lewis around four years ago, is suing a community cafe on the island of Great Bernera (pictured)
GBCDT is completely separate from the island’s community cafe and has no role whatsoever in its running or organisation.
But after emails and phone calls went unanswered, the non-profit had to spend some £7,000 on lawyers of their own before those acting for Ms Kellerman finally admitted their mistake.
‘The cafe and the community centre have nothing to do with our business. We’re baffled by their [Ms Kellerman’s legal firm’s] incompetence in prosecuting the trust,’ Mr Bryant said.
To make matters worse for the trust, it has been told it cannot recoup any of its costs due to Ms Kellerman having been granted legal aid by the Scottish government.
Mr Bryant said: ‘We can’t get our money back through the court process. It is just wrong.
‘The only way the trust has avoided having zero cash is because private individuals have stepped up to support the trust through this difficult period.’
He added: ‘If she didn’t have legal aid she wouldn’t have a platform to do this. They waste taxpayers’ money supporting vexatious writs but they fill the courts with these actions that shouldn’t be there.’
Lawyers for Ms Kellerman, who grew up in California, have been acting via Glasgow’s publicly-funded Ethnic Minorities Law Centre (EMLC).
They have now amended their claim to sue the cafe’s actual voluntary operators, Bernera Community Association, for £10,000 – a claim which the charity said will all but bankrupt them if legal costs continue to mount.
It is already having to rely on a fundraiser to aggregate money to fund legal representation in the year-long dispute.
Ms Kellerman is claiming the charity’s cafe refused to let her service dog inside due to them preparing food on the premises.
But locals have told the Daily Mail she only sued after she was banned from the site over her behaviour, not due to the presence of her dog.
They have alleged the animal, which she insists aids her with an undisclosed disability, has been seen harassing livestock and chasing wild animals on the island.
One source even claimed it had defecated on a public bus, which Ms Kellerman then did not clean up.
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They added she had shown ‘consistent behaviour’ in which she ‘bullies staff, reduces staff to tears’.
They accused her of ‘weaponising’ her dog and taking part in disputes in cafes across the island.
Sally Kellerman played the character Major Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan in the original 1970s M*A*S*H film
‘She wants the confrontation,’ the source told the Mail. ‘She shouts loudly, reduces people to tears. It’s a very consistent MO and everybody is petrified to say it.’
Ms Kellerman, who arrived in Lewis around four years ago, is meanwhile still pursuing the case against Bernera Community Association, with a hearing set for December.
Online, Ms Kellerman speaks of the alleged ‘normalisation of abuses’ on Great Bernera, writing: ‘I am grateful to be encouraged by the many resilient individuals who’ve been harmed the past decade on Bernera, and for the opportunity to end the BCA’s unbridled abuses.’
She accused the BCA and cafe of ‘exclusion, collective harassment, shaming, ostracisation, wrongful blaming, illegal discrimination and victimization’.
She went on to cite ‘an illegal sign’ she said had hung in the cafe reading: ‘No dogs allowed in centre.’
Ms Kellerman added: ‘They act self-righteously abusing, harassing, targeting and illegally discriminating against incomers.’
She described the environment the charity had created for those who are disabled with assistance dogs as ‘vile’ with ‘intentional, targeted hostility’, blaming this on their ‘ignorance, and unwillingness to welcome all equally’.
The case has caused shock throughout the small community, which Mr Bryant described as ‘a very different world’ which prides itself on coming together to help those in need.
Labour MSP Donald Mackinnon has written to SLAB urging it to ‘urgently review’ its funding of the case because of the potential damage to its reputation.
He said it ‘raises broader concerns about the safeguards applied when public funds are used to support litigation’.
Under Scottish legislation, parties cannot typically recoup any costs from a party who has been assisted by legal aid.
A spokesman for GBCDT said: ‘The GBCDT has suffered significant cost, stress and wasted time being wrongly sued by Claire Kellerman, supported by the Ethnic Minorities Law Centre (EMLC) and Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB).
‘The GBCDT has been punished. It has nothing to do with the matters raised in the writ. EMLC & SLAB were clearly informed that GBCDT were not the right Defender in the writ. The Scottish Government should review funding for EMLC and SLAB.’
A spokesman for Bernera Community Association said: ‘We can confirm that legal proceedings have been raised against the Bernera Community Association. As the matter is now before the court, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further on the allegations or issues in dispute.
‘The Association remains focused on serving the local community and appreciates the support it has received.’
A spokesman for the SLAB said it was bound by strict confidentiality requirements regarding individual cases.
They added: ‘SLAB’s role is to assess whether the statutory tests for legal aid are met based on the information available at the time of application and throughout the life of a case. Decisions are made in accordance with legal aid legislation, regulations and guidance.
‘We are satisfied that our decision-making in this matter was, and remains, thorough, appropriate and fully consistent with the legal aid framework. Granting legal aid does not mean that SLAB supports a particular case or is financing a firm of solicitors; it means that the statutory tests for legal aid have been met.
‘Questions about the merits of a case, legal issues arising within a case or the conduct of proceedings – including whether or not an action is vexatious and whether such a finding should be reflected in awards of expenses – are matters for the courts, not SLAB.
‘We note that the case was called recently and the court allowed the action to continue. On that basis, there does not appear to have been any further change in circumstances that would require us to revisit the grant of legal aid.’
Ms Kellerman was approached for comment.