NASHVILLE, TN. (Top40 Charts/ Merle Haggard PR Team) - Country
Music legend Merle Haggard has filed a lawsuit in Nashville, Tennessee against the World Freedom Train, Inc., also known as the Green Train, and its founder Robert K. Wolf. The lawsuit claims that the Green
Train represents itself as a 501c3, non-profit educational organization dedicated to protecting the environment, even though the Internal Revenue Service has not recognized it as such.
According to the lawsuit, Defendants have used misleading and illegal tactics to raise contributions in Mr. Haggard's name. The suit charges that the Defendants repeatedly forged Mr. Haggard's signature, including on so-called "personal" letters to Mr. Haggard's music industry colleagues, and otherwise misused Mr. Haggard's name to raise contributions for the Green Train.
The lawsuit also says that the Green Train raised contributions without being qualified to do so in the State of Tennessee. According to the complaint, contributions raised by the Green Train using Mr. Haggard's name and identity were used for the personal purposes of the organization's founder.
The lawsuit also claims that the Defendants greatly exaggerated the limited support that Mr. Haggard gave to the Green Train, and, among other things, repeatedly misstated that Mr. Haggard was personally involved in running the organization.
Mr. Haggard claims Defendants misused Mr. Haggard's name and identity as a symbol of the working man who has overcome adversity through honesty and perseverance, by linking it to a project that Mr. Haggard will not support given the actual facts.
The lawsuit asks the Court to order the Green Train and Mr. Wolf to immediately stop using Mr. Haggard's name and likeness in connection with the Green Train project and asks that they be ordered to account for all monies raised in Mr. Haggard's name. The Court also will be asked to prohibit Defendants from keeping contributions illegally raised in Mr. Haggard's name without making full and complete disclosure of all relevant facts to the Green Train's donors.
According to Mr. Haggard's lawyer Anthony Kornarens: "Mr. Haggard determined to take legal action when it became clear that the Green Train would not voluntarily take the necessary action to notify its contributors of the true facts. Mr. Haggard felt he could not sit back and do nothing, once he concluded that people had been misled by the use of his name and identity."
