LOS ANGELES : School District Sued by Trump for $100 Million
Entrepreneur Donald Trump, owner of the Ambassador Hotel site, sued the Los Angeles Unified School District for $100 million Tuesday, claiming that the district unfairly tied up the land while considering it as a site for a high school.
The suit alleges that the land has been devalued because Trump lost opportunities to commercially develop the site after the district began eminent domain proceedings in 1990. The district took the action after failing to reach agreement with Trump on a sales price.
School district lawyer Richard Mason said the Trump suit has “no legal merit. We are not responsible for the decline in the real estate market.”
The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, comes on the heels of a district decision to drop its bid to buy the land, citing its own tight finances.
Trump is also seeking to keep a $48-million deposit the district paid him while the issue is settled in court, said Bert Fields, attorney for Trump-Wilshire Associates.
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