

Eventually we met with the Tribe, who announced that they were planning to
solicit lessees from a Wall Street
Journal ad, and we could submit our offer along with them. Through our
attorney, we began working with an international company that prepared
proposals. After submitting our proposal, we were eventually informed that
we were not among the finalist, we later learned there was only one other
applicant….it was the group whose proposal contained our documents, and they
were the group that was awarded a lease, Havasu Ventures. Unlike us,
they did obtain a long-term lease.
The Tribe and
the new lessees reopened the store and began selling Havasu Palms'
merchandise. Although the local sheriff eventually arrived, their position
was not to get involved and they told us we could actively take our property
back, and if violence ensued, they would intervene. Our attorney told
us to handle the issue in the courts.
Even if our
lease had ended on May 2, the seizure violated the terms of our lease.
Something I repeatedly reminded Christine Lowe (the Tribe's realty officer)
during the following weeks. Our lease with the tribe stipulated we could
remove our property from the site if we paid a daily ground rent. We had
prepaid enough ground rent to cover about 45 days.
Early in the
initial takeover, officers and an attorney for the new lessee repeatedly
demanded Havasu Palms Inc. turn over its tenant list, which was a
proprietary customer list of Havasu Palms Inc. Havasu Palms Inc. had leased
a tract of land from the Tribe, not a business. The business was the
property of Havasu Palms, Inc. For example, if I lease a building in
town, that a similar business rented before me, I might benefit from the
location or the goodwill they had established, yet it would not give me a
right to demand that previous business turn over to me their customer list,
or allow me to use their business name, logo or pitch a product the prior
business created, as my own. Yet this is what happened to Havasu
Palms, Inc.
In mid-May
1999, Christine Lowe, the realty officer for the Tribe gave Havasu Palms
permission to begin retrieving our property. Yet, when we began removing the
property, this same individual said we must turn over our tenant’s list
before Havasu Palms could remove anything. Finally, she recanted her demand
and gave us permission to remove the items.
When tribal
representatives met with Havasu Palms' tenants to discuss the new lessee
they assured the tenants that no one would be evicted. Technically speaking,
Havasu Palms would become tenants, as we owned three mobile homes in the
park. About a year after the takeover, the shareholders of Havasu
Palms Inc. still owned one lake front mobile home in the park, and they had
paid timely monthly rent to the new landlords. In spite of the fact that the
rent was current, they seized the mobile home, with the sanction of the
tribe.
When the new
park management first seized the mobile home (they broke into it and had the
locks changed), I went to the park and called the local sheriff’s office.
The reporting officer ordered the mobile home keys immediately returned to
me. Later that week, the officer returned, and arrested the manager of the
mobile home park, Bill Cotton; removing him from the premises. The
District Attorney refused to press charges, as the incident occurred on the
reservation.
At first, the
attorney for the new lessees agreed his clients would not attempt a retake
of the mobile home, agreeing to let the court’s settle the matter.
Yet, the matter never made it to the courts, as the
Havasu Palms’
lease with the Tribe held a clause for arbitration to settle lease disputes
between Havasu Palms and the Tribe under the rules of the American
Arbitration Association. We filed for arbitration and finally in 2002, an
arbitration hearing was held in
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Photo: The Havasu Palms store Walt Johnson built, circa 1998






