Irvine Co. Files Suit to Evict Tenant at Disputed Property

Orange County’s most visible landlord-tenant dispute got a little nastier Wednesday as the Irvine Co. moved to evict businessman Harry Shuster from a parcel of land that both parties claim to control.

In a lawsuit filed late Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court, the Irvine Co. accused Shuster of refusing to relinquish possession of the property after its lease expired Feb. 28.

The Irvine Co., which owns the 300-acre parcel near the El Toro Y in Irvine, wants the court to declare its right to control the premises in order to get Shuster off the property.

“His lease expired Feb. 28, and we did not extend it,” Irvine Co. spokesman Larry Thomas said. Shuster “is not entitled to be on our property.”

Shuster, who had been battling for months for the right to tear down the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre and the neighboring Wild Rivers water park rather than turn over those two profitable subtenants to the Irvine Co. at the end of his lease, so far has refused to relinquish control of the site to his old nemesis.

Last week, Shuster filed a lawsuit claiming the right to extend the ground lease with the Irvine Co. another 26 years and continue collecting rent from the amphitheater and water park.

Shuster’s attorneys said that an Irvine Co. negotiator made oral promises to extend the lease when it expired if the property continued to be used for leisure or recreational purposes. The attorneys said that the Irvine Co. is attempting to swipe two profitable tenants without compensating Shuster for bringing them to the property.

“We have the right to remain on the property for another 26 years,” Shuster attorney Wayne Call said. “We look forward to presenting our case to a jury.”

Irvine Co. attorneys have dismissed those claims as “pure fiction” but said they need to get a court’s blessing before they can evict Shuster from the site.

Shuster’s main offices are in Los Angeles, but his company operates the Camp Frasier day camp on the leased parcel and maintains about a dozen administrative employees there in the off-season.

“We can’t just go out and lock the gates and throw Shuster’s property on the 405 Freeway,” Irvine Co. attorney Linda Schilling said. “The law doesn’t encourage that kind of self-help. We need to go to court and let them make that decision.”