metnews.com/
California - The California Supreme Court yesterday denied
review of a ruling by this district's Court of Appeal barring a motorcycle club
from suing the City of Lancaster because the club had abandoned its corporate
status and said it had no assets.
The justices, at their weekly conference in San Francisco, unanimously left
standing Div. Three's Aug. 2 decision in Mongols Nation Motorcycle Club, Inc. v.
City of Lancaster, but ordered the opinion by Presiding Justice Joan Dempsey
Klein depublished.
Mongols Nation Motorcycle Club, Inc. sued the city and its officials, including Mayor R. Rex Parris, who described the group as "domestic terrorists" in a television interview.
Parris, a prominent Antelope Valley attorney, also said in the interview that the hotel where the group was planning to hold its convention "will be closed forever tomorrow," and proclaimed:
"I don't care about the civil rights of gang members."
The following day, a chain was wrapped around the Desert Inn Hotel, precluding use of the facility. Mongols Inc. had already paid it about $14,000 to reserve more than 100 rooms, plus about $2,500 by way of a food and beverage guarantee.
The group sued under civil rights statutes and for negligent and intentional interference with contractual relationships, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and libel per se and slander per se.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey denied the defendants' anti-SLAPP motion, and they appealed. But the appellate panel said the appeal was moot because the corporation had filed a certificate of dissolution and did not list the litigation as an asset.
Mongols Nation Motorcycle Club, Inc. sued the city and its officials, including Mayor R. Rex Parris, who described the group as "domestic terrorists" in a television interview.
Parris, a prominent Antelope Valley attorney, also said in the interview that the hotel where the group was planning to hold its convention "will be closed forever tomorrow," and proclaimed:
"I don't care about the civil rights of gang members."
The following day, a chain was wrapped around the Desert Inn Hotel, precluding use of the facility. Mongols Inc. had already paid it about $14,000 to reserve more than 100 rooms, plus about $2,500 by way of a food and beverage guarantee.
The group sued under civil rights statutes and for negligent and intentional interference with contractual relationships, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and libel per se and slander per se.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey denied the defendants' anti-SLAPP motion, and they appealed. But the appellate panel said the appeal was moot because the corporation had filed a certificate of dissolution and did not list the litigation as an asset.