Polo Towers owners win suit

Tuesday, March 19, 2002 | 11:22 a.m.

The Cloobeck family, which developed the Jockey Club on the Las Vegas Strip and owns the Polo Towers timeshare property across the street, was awarded $486,250 last week after a jury in Orange County, Calif., found the Jockey Club's management company violated a contract to not compete against Polo Towers.

The Cloobecks' Polo Resorts Inc. had sued Orange County, Calif.-based Tricom Management Inc. in Orange County Superior Court in March 2000.

"Tricom had access to our Jockey Club customer lists for limited purposes including managing the club and performing timeshare (week) exchanges," said Richard Cloobeck, Polo Towers' general counsel. "But we alleged Tricom exceeded those purposes and used the lists to market rentals and resell timeshare properties, activities that require a brokers' license."

Separately, Polo Towers, which filed a defamation lawsuit in 1999 against an Orlando rival, Fairfield Communities Inc., quietly settled the case out of court in 2000.

Polo Towers had accused Fairfield of using false and misleading statements to scare customers and employees away and claiming that it is on the verge of acquiring Polo Towers.

Cloobeck, who said both companies reached a "professional, amicable understanding," said "it is (his) understanding that Fairfield agreed to conduct business in a professional manner in accordance with its own company policies."