VH Properties Successfully Resolves Dispute With Palos Verdes Unified School District

Represented VH Properties, a real estate company owned by Donald Trump, in a lawsuit against the Palos Verdes Unified School District arising out of rental income from the Ocean Trails golf club allegedly owed by VH Properties to the School District. The original owners of the course bought it in 1995 and signed a 99-year lease with the school district. The lease had an “equity participation rent” clause that would be calculated using revenue figures a least a year after the course attained economic stabilization. In June 1999, a landslide caused 16 acres of the course (three holes) to slide into the Pacific Ocean. The course was run as a 15 hole course before VH Properties bought it in November 2002 and renamed it Trump National Golf Club. We successfully argued that the lease required that an 18 hole golf course operate for at least a year before the school district’s additional rent could be calculated so no rent was immediately owed. *