I always love the SNWA commercials where the spokes person assures us that the water complies with "all Federal drinking water regulations".

That's because there are tons of chemicals in the water which are not on the Federal list.

When Nevada adopts California's Proposition 65 and its drinking water standards, then I'll ingest. Meanwhile, I just have to keep buying new paint brushes because our water is so sticky, when I wash my brushes the water glues the brush bristles together. Eeew!

This fellow William Grounds, who signed Infinity World's form letter to the Nevada legislators, is either crazy or not reading what other people write for him to sign.

In the Delaware lawsuit, Grounds verifies the Complaint, under penalty of perjury, saying that its contents are true and correct. In particular, that Complaint says that all Infinity World wants are money damages, a judicial declaration that MGM Mirage is in default under an unseen joint venture agreement, and a judicial declaration that Infinity World does not have to put any more money in the project.

Yet contradicting that statement made under penalty of perjury, Infinity World/Grounds' letter to the legislators say that Infinity World wants the City Center completed.

Apparently Mr. Grounds doesn't understand that Infinity World not putting more money in the project, and Infinity World wanting the project completed, are two statements which are 180 degrees contradictory, in the practical, real world.

Who is this Mr. Grounds anyway, and where did the Emir and his staff find this clown?

Is it really possible that we are going to be treated to two to five years of contradictory rhetoric from Infinity World and its minions, a level of rhetoric far surpassing that of Governor Gibbons, in terms of its absurdity?

bdover: You are the first person in Las Vegas who I have seen comment on what you apparently know and what I know about Tuscany. If you run the word "Rhodes" through The Sun's archives, and read the stories going back 10 years, you get to see the amazing history of that piece of land and its relationship with the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection.

However, I've never read anything saying that Lake Las Vegas has any toxics problems, so it's not a good idea to confuse the discussion about LLV with Tuscany.

Houstonjac: You say "By aiming for a "breach" in the Partnership agreement, Dubai World seeks to position itself for "damages" , which could, if awarded, place Dubai World in the position of a creditor."

I did a lot of partnership litigation in my time, and the rule is that one partner cannot get a judgment for damages against another partner. The only remedies are (1) a court supervised accounting for all money going in and out of the partnership, including any ripped off by either partner and (2) dissolution of the partnership.

I agree with the commenters who have said that Dubai World filed this lawsuit to provide cover for its decision not to put any more money in the project. The lawsuit will become entirely irrelevant when somebody decides to put the 50/50 City Center joint venture into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The case will automatically move into the bankruptcy court's jurisdiction, and he or she will react to it the way bankruptcy judges commonly do with respect to "partnership litigation"...by treating the plaintiff as a cry baby.

HappyHomeowner:

Who has the votes to run your homeowners association, you 20 homeowners or the home builder?

Obviously, you 20 homeowners should try to take over the home owners association...but if you don't have the votes, you should go to one of the local lawyers who handle litigation against home builders.

If your builder controls the HOA, your builder has fiduciary duties to all of you, and if the management company people are acting like jerks the home builder can be held responsible.

So I read the complaint. It can be characterized as a royal hissy fit, because the only remedy which the plaintiff asks for is a declaration by the Delaware court that the plaintiff does not have to contribute more money to the project.

The complaint doesn't ask for the usual remedies when the plaintiff is complaining about mismanagement, misrepresentation and the future prospect that the managing partner will not be able to perform financially. When those facts are alleged to exist, the "innocent, wounded partner" usually asks that control of the project be taken away from the defendant managing partner, that an accounting (aka audit) be done by an independent party to show mispending by the partner with control of day to day operations, and that the court order the defendant to "give plaintiff's money back". Curiously, this plaintiff doesn't ask for those remedies.

Instead, the only remedy the plaintiff asks for is a declaration that they don't have to put more money into the project. That certainly shows us the plaintiff's focus...their own cash flow.

From the overall tenor of the complaint, it is clear that the plaintiff wants to shove the City Center joint venture into bankruptcy earlier rather than later.

And yes, I think the plaintiff's intention is for the complaint to indirectly force MGM Mirage into bankruptcy rather than allowing MGM Mirage and its lenders to operate in the way they think best, which now seems to be outside of the bankruptcy court. On that account, it will be interesting to see what MGM Mirage's management decides to do.

According to the complaint, MGM Mirage and the plaintiff's joint venture agreement specifies that all litigation between the parties is to be conducted in state or federal court in Delaware. Of course, if MGM Mirage's management now thinks they would receive a friendlier audience from a "hometown" bankruptcy court, they only have to find three friendly creditors of the City Center joint venture to file an involuntary bankruptcy petition in the bankruptcy court here in Las Vegas.

John, thanks for posting the complaint in the lawsuit. I was hoping to read it, as the source of my amusement for the day.

I immediately looked at the complaint to see who the Dubai had hired for their lawyers. I was expecting to see the name of some amazing New York, Washington or Delaware powerhouse which could probably grind MGM Mirage and Mr. Kerkorian into the dust.

The Dubai plaintiff's lawyers? Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges of downtown Los Angeles.
I scratched my head and though "I've heard of them before". To find their website, I went to Google. When it popped up, this was the humble tag line the firm had placed on its web link: "Quinn Emanuel is known as the premier business litigation firm in the United States."

Reading that claim, I could visualize Mr. Kerkorian quaking in his boots.

Then, immediately below the Google listing for that law firm's website came the funny punchline: "Law.com - Quinn Emanuel Hit With Malpractice Lawsuit Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges has been hit with a malpractice lawsuit that claims the firm botched a $48.8 million settlement even as it took in ...
www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=120242688...

I couldn't resist clicking on the story. That ... was so tantalizing. The end of the lead sentence was "even as it took in some $12 million in contingency fees."

Could it be that like the Pope and his staff who recommended reinstating the Holocaust denying bishop, Emir Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his minions do not Google?

Personally, if I were the Emir, I would have hired "The Heavy Hitter".

One other word of wisdom to the homeowners:

The residents of Lake Las Vegas interviewed by the Sun are very naive in "reaching out to the City of Henderson and asking city officials to act as mediators for the parties involved." The residents have to understand that they are delusional on that point.

The City of Henderson is a municipal corporation and its officers and employees have only one party whose interests they really serve: The municipal corporation. Not the Henderson "voters and taxpayers". The city is not a beneficent or charitable institution, and the City Attorney does not represent the public.

While the Mayor may say nice things about "helping" the residents, that will not be the reality if it is too costly or strategically inconvenient for the city to do so. The city is not going to be, in effect, a free lawyer for the Lake Las Vegas residents in dealing with bankruptcy court, the debtors and the creditors. The city attorney has only one client: the municipal corporation.

I'm sorry to say that the Lake Las Vegas residents who were interviewed by The Sun are acting like "la la la airheads". The Lake Las Vegas residents need to pay for and consult their own bankruptcy lawyer. If they don't have one, I guarantee they will be severely harmed by some party or another, by the time this case is over. That's how Chapter ll bankruptcy cases turn out all the time.

Residents of Lake Las Vegas should be aware that there is a free-view website where they can see the actual content of every document which is filed with the bankruptcy court. See:

http://www.kccllc.net/llv

The "Court Documents" can be located by clicking on a tab at the left hand of the page. Other interesting information can be found under the tabs called Schedules/SOFA, Claims Register and Adversary Case Proceedings.

This website exists pursuant to the order of the Bankruptcy Court judge in the case. Members of the public should be thankful that she signed the order, because in more recently filed "big bankruptcies" the bankrupt companies do not want this sort of information to be easily available to the public.

The one interesting fact that exists in exhibits to "Declarations" filed with the court by Credit Suisse, but which is rarely mentioned, is that the former owners of the development signed an "assignment in lieu of foreclosure", essentially handing over ownership and control of Lake Las Vegas to Credit Suisse as of January 1, 2008. The funny thing is that the former owners handed that assignment in lieu of foreclosure to the lawyers for Credit Suisse Cayman Islands, signed by the former owners, but with the name of the "assignee" blank. A copy of the actual assignment, with the assignee left blank, is an exhibit to one of the early Credit Suisse employee Declarations. That assignment in blank was kind of like handing over a deed to your house to your bank, but leaving the name of the "buyer" blank. That procedure was very unusual.

There have never been any documents disclosed in the court files which show exactly how "The Atalon Group" got Credit Suisse Cayman Islands to fill in the name of Atalon's subsidiary entity on that "assignment in lieu of foreclosure". The Atalon Group's principals have been very opposed to making any public disclosure of the amount of their "down payment", if any, paid to Credit Suisse, or the sale price they paid to Credit Suisse, or whether they are just a "straw man" for Credit Suisse.

So far, the bankruptcy court files show that Credit Suisse has been very kind and gentle in dealing with The Atalon Group, which is a rarity in bankruptcy cases when bankrupt borrowers deal with their mortgage lenders owed millions of dollars. So if the homeowners are ever told by The Atalon Group that "Credit Suisse is being tough on us" such a claim should, perhaps, be taken with a grain of salt.

Comment Part 3

Back in the days of Watergate, as the White House's senior lawyers were being indicted, the White House legal fraternity protected their young from public scrutiny and indictment, by hiding them in obscure Federal agency legal departments. As the Bush Administration's legal team came under increasing scrutiny in private Big Law circles, the White House did not try to hide its legal miscreants in obscure Federal agencies. Instead, they were nominated for Federal judgeships providing "life time tenure" which could not be eliminated except by impeachment.

Jay Bybee was rewarded for his cooperation with the White House's legal strategy by his appointment to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the Federal judiciary's own circle of Big Law members, Nevada is considered the armpit of the illustrious Ninth Circuit. No self respecting Big Law-yer would associate with a Brigham Young Law School educated lawyer who had been a UNLV law professor. Such a pedigree is simply too tasteless, just too close to the 99 Cents Store. In the view of Big Law, no lawyer or judge with such a pedigree deserves to be a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal Judge.

Thus, Jay Bybee's appointment to the Ninth Circuit was yet another "flipping of the bird at Big Law" by David Addington and his fellow lawyers in the Bush White House.

And God bless Harry Reid, in his youthful naivete, he picked the wrong law school, missing the mark, in terms of joining Big Law, by the mere two miles between Georgetown and the far-less-esteemed George Washington Law School. As a result, Senator Reid did not share Big Law's academic sensibilities, and he did not oppose Jay Bybee's nomination.

As a result, Jay Bybee's mere presence as a Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is, to Big Law, an outrage. Jay Bybee has not been successfully hidden or protected from scrutiny for his activities at the Justice Department. Instead, he grabbed the golden ring, and took his Ninth Circuit appointment as a reward for his work on behalf of the Bush White House.

Big Law will ultimately work to insure that Judge Bybee resigns. If he refuses to comport himself in a "tasteful manner" by resigning, Big Law will insure that he is impeached.

Big Law exists because it does represent the most intellectually gifted lawyers in the United States. Big Law is now a meritocracy. Jay Bybee privately plugged the holes in his own self esteem by taking a sacred legal office that is rightly reserved for those with the intellectual capacity to become part of Big Law. Ultimately Jay Bybee will pay a very big price for his presumptuousness and intellectual sloth. Big Law's Washington connections will make sure of that.