Lawsuit-apalooza for Live: Band members, associates trade accusations in blitz of filings

One of York-bred rock band Live's biggest songs was "Selling the Drama," but now some of the band members and associates such as Bill Hynes are just giving the drama away in a seemingly endless litany of lawsuits and court filings.

The fallout has been between former Live band members Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer, Chad Gracey, and business partner Bill Hynes, after the implosion of their plans for United Fiber and Data, a telecommunications company at the Think Loud building in York.

Hynes has since stepped down from United Fiber and Data with the businesses and LLCs scattered among Hynes and the former band members.

Despite closing five lawsuits this year, the band members and others continue filing increasingly pointed legal documents.

As of Nov. 1, there have been multiple filings in four cases. Here is a rundown of those developments:

Promissories, promissories

Hynes has brought a lawsuit against Taylor, Dahlheimer and Gracey for promissory notes for $482,000 he claims he processed for them early in his and the former band members' business partnership.

In the lawsuit filed Nov. 11 of this year, Hynes alleges he paid out loans to Taylor, Dahlheimer and Gracey in 2011, and they have not paid them back.

The loans are listed to purchase membership in Builders East, LLC, one of the companies Hynes owns, located in his home in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

In the lawsuit, Hynes focuses in particular on Taylor and Dahlheimer, saying they inflated their projected net worth to Hynes, who based his decision to lend the money partially on that information. The suit characterizes Gracey differently.

“Defendant Gracey, whose promissory note was essentially identical to the other Defendants, acknowledged the validity of this note and expressed appreciation for the generous forbearance period when Plaintiff informed the promisors that it was ending,” the lawsuit reads.

Attached to the lawsuit are some of Taylor’s personal documents showing defaults in bank accounts and credit card debt from 2010.

Among the documents attached are letters Taylor sent to his debtors describing the details of his hardships, citing the dissolution of Live at the time and the financial hardships of his funding The Gracious Few, a music group he recorded with in late 2009.

“In short, Defendant Taylor, who was unable to even pay his gardener, convinced Plaintiff that he could repay a $482,000 promissory note,” the lawsuit alleges.

Hynes is requesting judgment on four counts, one breach of contract, two fraud and one more for conspiracy. In addition to the repayment of the $482,000 individual notes for each member, he is seeking more than $150,000 from all the defendants and an additional $50,000 plus from Taylor.

Taylor and Dahlheimer filed a counterclaim on Dec. 12, alleging Hynes is fabricating the loans and is exhibiting predatory behavior.

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“This lawsuit is the latest and hopefully last chapter in Hynes’ ugly history of falsifying documents, impersonating others, and projecting his own past and behavioral tendencies on others to distract from who he is,” the suit reads.

Taylor and Dahlheimer accuse Hynes of running a check kiting scheme with his Builders East LLC and forging the loan notes, as they both claim to have never signed notes and never received the funds.

Taylor also said Hynes found his old documents of financial trouble from 2010. But Taylor claimed he has been locked out of the building by the new owners, Invictus One LLC, so any records Hynes found was done so illegitimately by rummaging through Taylor's former office.

Taylor also said Invictus One might have just given him access to the records as the new building owner.

Taylor and Dahlheimer also gave examples of Hynes threatening former colleagues and partners, and forging similar documents. One case they cited was a recently resolved issue in which Hynes was accused of stalking and physically assaulting a former employee of United Fiber and Data with whom he was in a relationship.

They attach a memo Hynes sent to the former employee when she tried to sell her house to get away from him, saying she owed him $60,000 for a “second mortgage … which was not recorded at closing or while we were in a relationship, which was my option. You may not remember these, however that doesn’t excuse you from that obligation.”

The victim accused Hynes of forging her signature on the fake second mortgage.

Hynes has since pleaded no contest to five of the 13 charges brought against him and is serving his sentence of six months’ probation in what once was the Think Loud building.

Taylor and Dahlheimer are asking for $50,000 or more in restitution and for the notes to be dismissed as fraud.

The initial lawsuit:

Taylor and Dahlheimer’s response:

Musical gear left in Think Loud building disputed

The new owner of 210 York, Invictus One LLC, initially brought a lawsuit in August against Hynes, Taylor, Dahlheimer and Gracey collectively over ownership of gear, art and furnishings in the building.

Invictus One, based in Camden, Delaware, purchased the $6 million 53,000-square-foot Think Loud building from Kinsley Construction in December of 2021.

Before the purchase, Kinsley received the building and almost all property inside with a bankruptcy settlement valued at nearly $14 million against the original owners of the building, 120 York LLC, run by the former Live members and Hynes.

The lawsuit alleges the group left the building in spring of 2021 without removing any personal property, including guitars, recording session tapes and a drum set. It is seeking to determine what is considered property of Invictus One and what belongs to the “third party,” referencing Taylor, Dahlheimer, Gracey and Hynes.

Invictus also attached a document that says the gear inside the former Think Loud building should be signed over to Invictus One, with Gracey and Hynes signing on Oct. 26, 2021.

The lawsuit was unanswered until Nov. 10, when Hynes filed a response pointing the lawsuit solely against Taylor, saying he benefited from the bankruptcy and requested the court prevent him from challenging any of the charges in the lawsuit and Hynes be excused from the filing.

Hynes agreed the gear should be signed over to Invictus from the document he signed with Gracey in October 2021.

He also alleged Taylor acted as the sole manager of the company that owned the former Think Loud building and for financial relief from the filing.

Hynes asked the court to recognize he “at all times acted within the scope of his authority as an officer and/or manager of 120 York,” and award him fees and costs in the filing against Taylor.

Taylor responded and filed another cross-claim, alleging Hynes and Gracey did not have authority to reach over him and Dahlheimer to sign over the gear, saying Hynes was not a member of the LLC managing the building, “120 York,” at the time of signing.

Gracey then filed an answer to the claim on Dec. 7, saying Taylor was retroactively challenging transactions, backing Hynes up in the filings.

Taylor filed another counterclaim Dec. 9, saying when Kinsley took possession of the former Think Loud building, all it received was the estate, not the gear inside. It also emphasized that Hynes was not managing 120 York at the time of the signing so, once again, he could not sign over anything as he had no standing to do so.

He accuses Invictus of coordinating with Hynes and trying to secure the assets under Hynes’ instructions to gain a “potential windfall.”

Taylor filed four claims against Invictus, asking the court to enter a judgment for more than $100,000 and for arrangements to be worked out over the property in question that would be supervised by the court.

He also brings three cross claims against Hynes that would bar him from laying any sort of claim to the property in addition to more than $100,000 in claims from him.

Most recently, Hynes filed another crossclaim on Dec. 19, demanding a jury trial and essentially denying any claims Taylor has made in his filings.

There have been no further filings so far.

The initial lawsuit:

Hynes' first response:

Taylor's first response:

Gracey's response:

Taylor's second response:

Hynes' second response:

Chad v. Chad

Gracey recently filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates Taylor and Dahlheimer, alleging that he and Dahlheimer had signed away one half of their shares of Think Loud Holdings, one of the many companies associated with their enterprise, for $50,000 a piece, leaving Taylor as the sole manager.

Gracey alleges Taylor did not provide the necessary paperwork and documentation to the other two as members for them to keep abreast of the company’s filings. He also said Taylor did not release tax returns for 2021 to him, making him late on his latest return.

He further cites the company losing 100,000 shares of UFD stock, which he calculated at a total loss of $8,529,000, Gracey’s share being $1,421,500. Gracey said Dahlheimer may have been involved in the transactions, as he was added as a manager to the company at an unknown point.

Gracey is suing Taylor and Dahlheimer for two counts, one for breach of fiduciary duty and one for breach of contract. He has requested $1,731,988.14 plus damages for each count.

The suit remains unanswered.

The lawsuit:

Mechanic's lien over crypto mining equipment

York electric utility company I.B. Abel recently brought a lien against Hynes with his 240 Arch LLC for work the lien claims was done on the former Think Loud building that is now owned by Invictus.

Abel claims it was not compensated for its work setting up cryptocurrency mining technology in 2021, with a total value owed at $49,956.87.

The lien was submitted Dec. 9, 2022, and has remained unanswered.

The lien:

Jack Panyard is a reporter at the York Daily Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Contact him at jpanyard@ydr.com, 717-850-5935 or on Twitter @JackPanyard.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Live band members, associates trade accusations in blitz of suits