When You Need to Name Names...in a Lawsuit

Majestic Realty asked a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge to terminate a key obstacle to its plans for an NFL stadium in California’s San Gabriel Valley. An affiliate of Majestic Realty—Industry East Business Center LLC—has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit by Shiuh-Ming Ellis and Howard Wang and a group called Citizens for Communities Preservation, Inc. The Ellis and Wang lawsuit was filed in an effort to block the Industry Business Center project, which includes commercial uses and the proposed stadium, in the eastern portion of the City of Industry.

The motion to dismiss the case sought to have the entire lawsuit dismissed and the case ended because the Ellis and Wang lawsuit violated California law, which requires all indispensable parties to be named as parties to the lawsuit. The Ellis and Wang lawsuit failed to name the landowner and the lessor of the property, the Industry Urban Development Agency (IUDA) as party to the case. The case involving the development approvals for the Industry Business Center cannot go forward without the landowner IUDA as part of the lawsuit.

The attorney for Ellis and Wang “apparently gambled that he could just ignore the IUDA, even though they are the landowner for the project, received the approvals from the City of Industry, and have a key role in the development,” commented Chris Garrett of Latham & Watkins, who is representing Industry East. Because the 30-day statute of limitations expired at the end of March, it was too late for Ellis and Wang to fix the error made in their lawsuit.