Mission Viejo Wins Lawsuit Against Minor League Team That Left Town

The city of Mission Viejo beat its old minor league baseball team in court last week, when an Orange County Superior Court judge declared the city a winner by default in its $135,000 lawsuit against the not-so-dearly departed Vigilantes.

Judge Tam Nomoto Schumann also threw out the Vigilantes’ $400,000 countersuit against the city. The city can now ask the judge to approve an itemized list of damages and authorize their collection, attorney Douglas J. Evertz said Monday.

“People like this are very good at hiding their assets,” Evertz said. “Our next step will be to try to find out what they own and where it is.”

The Vigilantes disbanded in 1998 after their second season in Mission Viejo, owing money to the city, local merchants and even their manager. The city sued the team, citing failure to pay more than $135,000 in rent and utilities. The team then sued the city, claiming Mission Viejo “fraudulently induced” the team to move from Long Beach by promising but not delivering a new stadium to replace the makeshift one at Saddleback College.

However, the team barely pursued its own suit or defended itself against the one filed by the city, according to court documents. The Vigilantes did not respond to court orders to produce documents, did not pay court fines for their failure to respond and did not cooperate in scheduling depositions for Patrick Elster and Paula Pyers, the managing partners of the team, according to the default motion granted by Schumann.

“I can’t explain what’s occurred here,” Evertz said. “They have essentially taken no actions in this case.”

Neither Elster nor Rene Sanz, the attorney representing the Vigilantes, returned calls Monday.

The Vigilantes sold the rights to their Western League franchise to an investment group from Yuma, Ariz. The team did not operate last season, but the new owners plan to open in Yuma next summer. Elster moved to St. George, Utah, where he worked--but not in an ownership capacity--for another Western League franchise, the Utah Pioneerzz.

“It’s unfortunate those we were dealing with determined it was better to leave town and leave the state than to pay their debts to the city of Mission Viejo,” Deputy City Manager Rick Howard said.