Landscaping Firm Sues Owners of Ritz-Carlton, Claims Bill Unpaid

An El Toro landscaping firm that worked on the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Laguna Niguel sued the hotel’s owners and their lender Friday for failing to pay $20,758.21 it claims the hotel owner owes.

Industrial Turf Inc.’s suit is the eighth to be filed against Monarch at Laguna Beach, an Atlanta-based partnership that owns the building, and W.B. Johnson Properties Inc., Monarch’s principal partner. The suit also names as a defendant Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. of New York, Monarch’s financial backer.

Unlike suits by the general contractor and other subcontractors filed since November, Industrial Turf does not claim that the defendants ordered changes in specifications that pushed up the cost of materials and labor.

Instead, Industrial Turf claims that the hotel simply failed to pay all of the $719,171 price agreed upon in a March 30, 1984, contract.