After the Plantiffs submitted the (initial) Verified Complaint of 2020-09-29, the Defense moved to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the four LCA members (K. Bandmann, V. Bandmann, R. Stadnyk, and M. Farrell) did not have standing to file a lawsuit against the Board of Directors. The Defense cited Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) pertaining to entities such as home owners associations that Boards may only be sued if the Plaintiffs comprise either (a) 5% of the members, (b) 50 members, or (c) a Board Director. The Plaintiffs attempted, but failed, to convince 46 other members of the LCA to join them in their lawsuit. Therefore, by Hawaii law, they did not have standing and a judge could not rule on the substance of the complaint.

Before the judge ruled on the validity of the Defense's argument, the Plaintiffs then attempted to keep the lawsuit alive using condition (c) above by adding Philip A. Denney as a Plaintiff. Denney was a LCA Board Director at the time. Adding Denney was formally accomplished by the Plaintiffs by creating a new Verified Complaint called the 1st Amended Complaint with Plaintiffs Denney and the original 4 individual member Plaintiffs. The Defense objected again to the inclusion of Bandmann, Bandmann, Stadnyk, and Farrell as they did not have standing. The Defense also objected to Denney as a Plaintiff. There followed a long series of responses and counter-responses between the Defense and the Plaintiffs. Ultimately, the judge ruled that the 4 members did not have standing, but that Denney could act as a Plaintiff. Denney then created a 2nd Amended Complaint that included only Philip A. Denney, thereby excusing the original four from any financial responsiblility for legal fees. These moves were only maneuvers to keep the original lawsuit alive; there were few changes to the original list of substantive allegations in the Original Verified Complaint of 2020-09-29.