The future of the closed New Mexico Route 66 Museum in Tucumcari has become more uncertain in recent weeks.
A local lawyer representing the museum recently filed an amended lawsuit against four members of its board of directors, alleging “willful misconduct, recklessness and fraud.” The suit requests actual and punitive damages.
In August, Warren Frost, the lawyer, was granted his request for a temporary restraining order against museum board members David Shine, Eric Shine, Ken Christian, and Flora Cordova from moving the museum’s contents out of the county. David Shine had said he was transferring the memorabilia to an unspecified museum out of state, though a substantial portion of the museum’s collection was on loan.
During the August court hearing, the board members’ attorney, Nancy English of Tucumcari, stated that they were nearing an agreement under which they would return the memorabilia, resign their positions and seat a new board of directors that included Frost as a member.
Frost said in the amended lawsuit that he had contacted English by email, text and phone about the agreement and when the memorabilia could be returned.
“Each time the inquiry was met with an excuse or silence,” the filing states.
English then texted Frost in mid-September and said the four defendants she represents “still had not decided whether to sign the agreement and besides most of the property had been turned over to third parties.”
In the new filing, Frost said the defendants “unlawfully exercised dominion and control of the personal property” belonging to the museum “in defiance of the Plaintiff’s rights.”
Frost’s amended lawsuit states the museum has been “deprived of tens of thousands of dollars in antiques and memorabilia,” and the defendants “are guilty of willful misconduct, recklessness and fraud.”
The filing requests punitive damages to punish the board members “for their wrongdoing and to deter similar conduct in the future.”
The operators of the New Mexico Route 66 Museum closed it in late July and removed its contents after the city determined its lease had expired. The museum also hadn’t paid rent for years for its space at the Tucumcari Convention Center.
The operators canceled two meetings with the city commission, where they would have discussed a new lease.
The Internal Revenue Service also revoked the museum’s federal nonprofit status in 2014 because it failed to submit its annual required documentation.
Frost is negotiating with the Mesalands Community College Foundation to move the museum — plus a planned New Mexico State Police Museum — into a vacant building on Tucumcari’s west side that once was occupied by the defunct Alco retail chain.
(Image from the New Mexico Route 66 Museum in Tucumcari in 2018)