Attorney, mayor target of dispute over land

Bill Gang

Thursday, Nov. 13, 1997 | 11:04 a.m.

An attempt is being made to add Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and City Attorney Brad Jerbic personally to the legal battle over Pappas family property seized by the city for part of the red parking garage on Fourth Street.

Pappas attorney Grant Gerber filed court documents Wednesday seeking permission to reinstate counterclaims that could result in punitive damages being collected from the pair of city officials and the Fremont Street Experience company, which is being given the garage by the city.

For four years, the Pappas family has been entrenched in a legal feud over the city Downtown Redevelopment Agency's snatching of its property at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Carson Avenue through the use of eminent domain powers.

A decision by District Judge Don Chairez a year ago returned the corner property to the Pappas family, but the city is still battling for possession of the land where it spent millions building the garage.

A Nevada Supreme Court decision already has rejected an appeal by the city's redevelopment agency because it was premature.

The family opposed the city's seizure of the property because the garage was to be given by the city of Las Vegas to a group of downtown casino owners -- the Fremont Street Experience Ltd. Liability Co.

The proposed counterclaims allege fraud, deceit, oppression, bad faith, misrepresentation, infliction of emotional distress and trespass.

The counterclaims were filed previously in the case but were tossed out by District Judge Stephen Huffaker, who presided over the case at the time.

The motion to reinstate the counterclaims states that the action is justified because of Chairez's decision on July 3, 1996, that seemingly verified the allegations in the counterclaims. In addition, new information that has surfaced as the case has plodded through the system for four years, Gerber said.

Gerber noted that in Chairez's decision returning the property to the Pappas family, the judge concluded that the city had acted in bad faith, was guilty of misrepresentation and acted in an unconscionable manner.

Gerber said if the Pappas family cannot pursue Jones, Jerbic, Deputy City Attorney Robert Sylvain and the Fremont Street Experience company legally, "it will result not only in great personal loss and harm to the Pappases, but will also diminish the rights of all Nevadans."

No date has been set for a hearing on the issue.

While the plot of land holding up the southeast corner of the garage technically is again owned by the Pappas family, the city still wants it to keep the garage intact.

But the redevelopment agency's California attorney, Mark Wasser, has complained that the family is demanding more than fair market value for the property.

The next step is a trial to determine what the city owes for the four years that it has had possession of the property and to compensate the family for having torn down the two-story commercial building that was the source of much of the family's income.

Harry Pappas has complained that the family has been without the income that the property generated while the case has plodded through the courts.

As part of that trial, Gerber hopes a jury also would tack on perhaps millions in punitive damages as a result of the counterclaims.