A COMMUNITY organisation in the Outer Hebrides that faces bankruptcy due to a legal battle with an American woman over her dog being barred from its cafe has received tens of thousands of pounds in donations to fight the case.
The Bernera Community Association, which runs a volunteer-run community cafe on the island in the Outer Hebrides, had warned it faces financial ruin after Claire Kellerman launched legal action against them.
Kellerman, who moved to Lewis from California four years ago, is claiming for £10,000 in a legal claim after she was refused permission to bring her dog into the Bernera Community Cafe.
Initially, Kellerman – the adoptive daughter of Sally Kellerman, who played the part of Hot Lips Houlihan in the 70s American war comedy film MASH – launched a court challenge against the Bernera Development Trust, which ran up legal costs of more than £7000.
However, Kellerman’s lawyers, the Glasgow-based Ethnic Minorities Law Centre, then admitted in court that the action was directed against the wrong organisation. The trust was awarded legal expenses by the sheriff court after it was wrongly named, but Kellerman is protected from paying costs under the rules of the civil legal aid scheme.
Her lawyers have now brought a claim against the community association, the voluntary group that runs the cafe.
The trust and the association have warned they face financial ruin due to thousands of pounds in legal costs mounting up, with the charity having to divert normal fund-raising efforts into legal fees to fight Kellerman’s case.
However, those behind the association confirmed on Tuesday that more than £20,000 has been raised to fight the case since the story went viral last week.
A spokesperson for Bernera Community Association said they had been “completely overwhelmed” by the support the group had received.
They said: “A huge thank you to everyone single person who has taken the time to email, message and send us words of support over the weekend. And to everyone who has so generously donated.
“We have been completely overwhelmed by the kindness, generosity, and support shown to the Bernera Community Association – not only from our local community, but from people far and near.
“To date, we have received an incredible 928 online donations, raising £20,075.
“Every message, every donation, and every word of encouragement means more to us than we can put into words.
“From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”
It comes after Kellerman attacked the Bernera Community Association an unearthed LinkedIn post written three months ago, claiming it created "vile, intentional, targeted hostility".
She wrote: “I live by the guidance that follows my prayers, asking always: how can I be of Sacred Service?
“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.
“I am grateful for my vibrant, robust legal team assisting me in supporting the exposure of the normalisation of abuses on the Isle of Great Bernera, in the Bernera Community Café, including exclusion, collective harassment, shaming, ostracisation, wrongful blaming, illegal discrimination and victimisation by a small group who are the directors and members of the Bernera Community Association — namely those working for the charity on Great Bernera, my new home.”
She went on to say they “act righteously, abusing, harassing, targeting and illegally discriminating against incomers”.
Kellerman continued to say that until the day she moved to the island and “addressed” the charity with legal action, the Bernera Community Association had “co-created an environment of vile, intentional, targeted hostility and unwelcome for those who are disabled with assistance dogs”.
“Due to their ignorance, and unwillingness to welcome all equally, despite the law protecting our human rights,” she added.
Last week, the case raised by Kellerman via the publicly-funded Ethnic Minorities Law Centre in Glasgow, a non-profit-making charity which provides legal advocacy for minority ethnic communities, was decided to continue for legal debate in December at a Stornoway Sheriff Court.
Since then, there have also been questions raised by Scottish Labour Donald Mackinnon as to why the legal aid certificate was allowed to be transferred to her revised action.
“This case raises broader concerns about the safeguards applied when public funds are used to support litigation,” he wrote, according to the Stornoway Gazette.
“Legal aid serves an important role in ensuring access to justice. However, it is equally important that publicly funded litigation is subject to appropriate scrutiny regarding its legal basis, prospects of success and overall reasonableness."
A spokesperson for the Scottish Legal Aid Board said no payments had yet been made to the Ethnic Minorities Law Centre for the case.
