Ballys and LAFitness

Jurisdiction
New York
I was reading another person's frustration with the whole Ballys gym which was sold to LAFitness some years ago. I too had a lifetime Ballys gym membership that was transferred to me from my parents back in the 1990's. They originally purchased this membership from Holiday Spa in the 1970's. I kept the membership active by paying my annual fee of $24 until I heard that Ballys was going out of business and phone calls were not being returned when I inquired about my membership. I tried numerous times and got no where. They would either have a voicemail or someone would take my name and I never received a return call. I honestly didn't know who else to call. I even went so far as to go to my local LA Fitness gym 2-3 times speaking to different managers and got nowhere. They said the membership wasn't being honored or they would look into it and never get back to me. I also called LA Fitness and kept getting the run around. It was a joke. I even wrote a letter and nothing! At the time my mom was sick and dying then had I a major car accident and I didn't have the time to keep pursuing this issue but it has always bothered me. It's wrong what they did. I am wondering if I have any recourse or if there was a class action suit ever raised? Id love some advice. Thank you. Liz
 
I was reading another person's frustration with the whole Ballys gym which was sold to LAFitness some years ago. I too had a lifetime Ballys gym membership that was transferred to me from my parents back in the 1990's. They originally purchased this membership from Holiday Spa in the 1970's. I kept the membership active by paying my annual fee of $24 until I heard that Ballys was going out of business and phone calls were not being returned when I inquired about my membership. I tried numerous times and got no where. They would either have a voicemail or someone would take my name and I never received a return call. I honestly didn't know who else to call. I even went so far as to go to my local LA Fitness gym 2-3 times speaking to different managers and got nowhere. They said the membership wasn't being honored or they would look into it and never get back to me. I also called LA Fitness and kept getting the run around. It was a joke. I even wrote a letter and nothing! At the time my mom was sick and dying then had I a major car accident and I didn't have the time to keep pursuing this issue but it has always bothered me. It's wrong what they did. I am wondering if I have any recourse or if there was a class action suit ever raised? Id love some advice. Thank you. Liz
This happened in 2011...the SOL is expired.
 
Not only that, but I doubt that you continued paying the annual fee.
 
I kept the membership active by paying my annual fee of $24 until I heard that Ballys was going out of business and phone calls were not being returned when I inquired about my membership.

When exactly was this? Keep in mind the following timeline (according to the Wikipedia article about Bally Total Fitness): the company filed for bankruptcy in August 2007 and then a second time in December 2008. By November 2011, it had sold 171 of its clubs to an affiliate of LA Fitness. Clubs continued to be sold off, with the last club closing in 2016.

They said the membership wasn't being honored or they would look into it and never get back to me.

Are you suggesting that LA Fitness or some other entity should have honored a lifetime membership sold 40+ years ago by some company I couldn't even find information about by googling? I don't know why Bally honored the "Holiday Spa" lifetime membership, but nothing in your post or that I was able to discern from the above article and a couple Google searches gives me any reason to believe any other company should have or have had any legal obligation to honor it.

It's wrong what they did.

Who are "they"? Bally? LA Fitness? And why do you think what "they" did was wrong?

I am wondering if I have any recourse

Recourse for what? The company went out of business.

or if there was a class action suit ever raised?

You can, presumably, google "bally fitness class action" as well as I can.
 
What was sold? This is the most important question to ask - the business or the assets? The ostensible successor (LA Fitness) may have simply engaged in an asset purchase. As a result, the only liability of LA Fitness was to pay for the purchase of the assets of Bally's (gym equipment, any buildings owned, leases they wanted to assume, etc.) with the proceeds going to the debt holders. I doubt that LA Fitness assumed all the liabilities of Bally's to keep it going as an entity / going concern. Often this is what occurs.
 
What was sold? This is the most important question to ask - the business or the assets? The ostensible successor (LA Fitness) may have simply engaged in an asset purchase.

The information I found indicates that the clubs (i.e., assets) were sold. I found nothing that indicated that the buyer assumed any obligations of the seller, including the obligation to honor existing membership plans.
 
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