Legal experts analyze suit over land sale

Sito Negron

Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.

The legal premise upon which Ross Goodman and Louis Palazzo are suing an 85-year-old woman to force her to sell her property places a heavy burden on the pair, a few local land use lawyers agreed.

However, the lawyers, said that every case depends on the specific facts.

"The general rule is that contracts for the sale of real property have to be in writing and that's enforced under what we call the statute of frauds," said University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Professor Ngai Pindell, who teaches land use and property law at the William S. Boyd School of Law.

Ross Goodman, son of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, and Palazzo claim they had a legitimate contract with Christina Von Sturm, the property owner of 511 and 515 Las Vegas Boulevard South, to buy her land. They claim she verbally agreed to modify the contract to extend escrow until January, and have referred to a witness to the agreement.

Ross Goodman and Palazzo have refused to talk to the Sun about the case.

Von Sturm's daughter, Christina De Musee, and her lawyer, Ted Cohen, say Von Sturm is not competent to conduct her own financial affairs. They allege that Goodman and Palazzo took advantage of her in the initial contract, and that Goodman and Palazzo then falsely claimed the oral extension of escrow agreement.

Pindell said that the statute of frauds "expresses the general rule that the law is wary regarding oral agreements over land. One reason we would be more concerned about oral agreements in land -- that's the only evidence you have of the transaction."

For example, he said, in an agreement over personal property, "possession is often a great indicator the transaction took place, and you can't do that with real property."

Pindell said there are exceptions. One is called partial performance.

"Examples of partial performance may be moving on to the land and improving it," Pindell said. "The facts matter, and since the facts are unclear it's hard to speculate what exactly would be partial performance or estoppal."

He said another factor is "the principal of unjustness. You could imagine a purchaser paying a lot of money and relying on representations by the seller and the purchaser is unable to get out of those -- maybe they've improved the property, maybe they have sold their other house.

"It would be important for the purchasers to demonstrate facts that failing this agreement would somehow be unjust," Pindell said.

He said the burden would be on them to prove that.

"I don't want to opine on the (Von Sturm) case, because I have no idea about the facts," Pindell said.

However, he said, in general, when determining unjustness, "it's the intangible of what would be fair to the parties, and for sophisticated business people you may demand a high level of compliance with the law before they acquire business loans or somehow go through with a larger project.

"A judge will expect a high level of sophistication from experienced business people in its consideration of the justness of the transaction."

Ted Cohen, Von Sturm's Beverly Hills-based lawyer, said even if the original contract is valid, which he says it isn't -- "Our position is it was obtained fraudulently in a dark hotel room," he said -- they didn't come up with the money in time to seal the deal.

"All of a sudden they came up with this business," he said.

Cohen said that not only does the Statute of Frauds frown upon oral land sale agreements, a basic legal tenet, but common law says that if you have a contract in writing, any modification or extension must also be in writing."

He said there are many possible resolutions to the case.

"I don't want to speak for our Nevada counsel but I would expect we intend to file a cross complaint against a lot of people, and I won't mention any names now, charging conspiracy (to commit fraud) and elder abuse. This woman was totally incapable of entering into an agreement."

Police, in fact, are investigating the transaction.

In addition, there is a city government angle to the issue. Von Sturm's land borders a city-owned lot to her north, and the former Boulevard Motel at 525 Las Vegas Boulevard South, which is owned by Palazzo and Goodman.

The city is working with The Related Companies and Cherry Development on a condominium project for the site.

Stephanie Boixo, the mayor's chief of staff and the fiancee of another of the mayor's sons, Eric Goodman, resigned from a committee recommending projects on the site Aug. 18.

On Tuesday, she turned in her resignation, effective January, which is just prior to her wedding date.