It may not necessarily be a "white elephant"; the new owners did pay US$90,000, but do stand to make a profit and , quite possibly, a sizable one, indeed; neither party, the new owners nor the Residents Association, really have much of an incentive to engage in costly and lengthy legal proceedings, and the City and County most likely have no appetite to become a party to the issue(s). I foresee a negotiated settlement where the Association opts to buy out the new owners, for a premium, obviating what could be an even more expensive set of legal bills. The City and County would, no doubt, be more than willing to sign off on any negotiated settlement in lieu of also running up expensive legal bills of their own. Think of it: would you rather pay say, $US180,000, to buy out the street owners (giving them a tidy 100% on their investment), possibly expend many more times that amount in legal fees and court costs? I'm using the 100% return as a low-ball figure; it is quite possible the new owners could get a much better settlement...
This situation reminded me of another case back in the mid-70s where an activist group, The People's Lobby (TPL) failed to file a renewal of their corporate name and a Sacramento bar owner happened to see a listing showing the name as up for grabs, so, as a lark, he paid the required fee and bought the name; he actually was joking that he was going to open another bar nearer to the State Capitol Buildings and name the bar "The People's Lobby". This is sort of analogous to buying a domain name on the Web. TPL protested to the state and were unsuccessful in getting back the name so they, in turn, filed to acquire a bunch of other names that had lapsed, among them the famed cosmetics company, Helena Rubinstein. The Rubinstein company was not amused and sought legal recourse against TPL to regain their name and TPL fought back on the principle the administration of the law regarding corporate name registration was flawed. Two years and a lot of legal back and forth later, the matter was settled as described in this Los Angele Times article:
Quote:
PEOPLE'S LOBBY GETS ITS OLD NAME BACK
BY CLAUDIA LUTHER
Times Stall Writer
Nov 18, 1977
Helena Rubinstein International can have its name back.
The People's Lobby, which used the famous cosmetic firm's corporate name while it fought a legal battle to retrieve its own from a Sacramento bartender, Thursday won its old name back. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Norman R. Dowds successfully negotiated a pretrial settlement conference involving People's Lobby and Gilbert Rosales, the man who snatched up the People's Lobby name two years ago when the citizen-activist group was "temporarily" suspended by the state Franchise Tax Board for failure to file an annual information form. Rosales, who paid a $6 fee for the name, has since used it to sponsor golf tournaments to benefit handicapped persons. The settlement reached with attorneys Roger Jon Diamond for People's Lobby and Alfred D. Freis for Rosales will allow Rosales to continue to use the name People's Lobby for his tournaments as long as he says he is not connected with any group. But the official name "People's Lobby. Inc." will revert back to the citizens organization. "We never felt any different," said People's Lobby executive director Joyce Koupal. "But I guess Helena Rubinstein will be happy."
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I suspect the same result of a negotiated settlement will occur, and I doubt the matter will even make to actual court proceedings...
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