Friday, May 2, 2014
In battle over Palmer casino land, Mohegan Sun plans counterclaim
By James F. Russell CORRESPONDENT
PALMER — The multimillion-dollar legal wrangling continues between Mohegan Sun and Northeast Realty Associates, with a $25 million lawsuit already filed by the Palmer landowner and a $22 million counterclaim expected soon by the casino company.
Mohegan Sun planned to build a $1 billion casino in Palmer, but voters rejected the idea in November.
Northeast Realty Associates, which owns the 152-acre proposed casino site, filed a $25 million lawsuit against Mohegan Sun in February at Hampden Superior Court alleging the entertainment company ran a lackluster campaign in Palmer and blaming it for the outcome.
The landowner also alleges Mohegan Sun was more interested in building a casino at Suffolk Downs.
That action, according to Northeast's complaint, violated an exclusivity agreement the parties signed that bars Mohegan Sun from building a casino "anywhere within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, other than the Palmer property."
Whether Mohegan Sun filed its counterclaim in court was in question this week.
A lawyer for Northeast Realty said the casino company served Northeast with paperwork recently, indicating Mohegan planned to file a $22 million counterclaim.
The lawyer, James Kavanaugh of the Boston firm Conn Kavanaugh Rosenthal Peisch & Ford, said that when a law firm is served, that usually means an action has been filed or that one is imminent.
Contacted on Tuesday afternoon, Cathy Soper, a spokeswoman for Mohegan, said: "There has been a complaint a filed with Hampden Superior, outside of that no additional comment."
Yet the clerk magistrates' office in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield confirmed Thursday afternoon that no $22 million action has been filed by Mohegan Sun against the realty company.
Mr. Kavanaugh expressed surprise that the counterclaim had not yet been filed in court. He declined to discuss specifics of the case.
Paul Robbins, a spokesman for Northeast, said the potential Mohegan Sun counterclaim "further erodes their credibility in Massachusetts."
"Blaming others for their failures is a typical Mohegan Sun Massachusetts response," Mr. Robbins added.
"They blamed the two-year delay in sharing details of the Palmer project with the public on their debt restructuring and then blamed the host community process in stalling the Palmer agreement for more than 12 months, negotiations that took Mohegan only about 12 days to complete in Revere for their Suffolk Downs partnership."
Mohegan Sun planned to build a $1 billion casino in Palmer, but voters rejected the idea in November.
Northeast Realty Associates, which owns the 152-acre proposed casino site, filed a $25 million lawsuit against Mohegan Sun in February at Hampden Superior Court alleging the entertainment company ran a lackluster campaign in Palmer and blaming it for the outcome.
The landowner also alleges Mohegan Sun was more interested in building a casino at Suffolk Downs.
That action, according to Northeast's complaint, violated an exclusivity agreement the parties signed that bars Mohegan Sun from building a casino "anywhere within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, other than the Palmer property."
Whether Mohegan Sun filed its counterclaim in court was in question this week.
A lawyer for Northeast Realty said the casino company served Northeast with paperwork recently, indicating Mohegan planned to file a $22 million counterclaim.
The lawyer, James Kavanaugh of the Boston firm Conn Kavanaugh Rosenthal Peisch & Ford, said that when a law firm is served, that usually means an action has been filed or that one is imminent.
Contacted on Tuesday afternoon, Cathy Soper, a spokeswoman for Mohegan, said: "There has been a complaint a filed with Hampden Superior, outside of that no additional comment."
Yet the clerk magistrates' office in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield confirmed Thursday afternoon that no $22 million action has been filed by Mohegan Sun against the realty company.
Mr. Kavanaugh expressed surprise that the counterclaim had not yet been filed in court. He declined to discuss specifics of the case.
Paul Robbins, a spokesman for Northeast, said the potential Mohegan Sun counterclaim "further erodes their credibility in Massachusetts."
"Blaming others for their failures is a typical Mohegan Sun Massachusetts response," Mr. Robbins added.
"They blamed the two-year delay in sharing details of the Palmer project with the public on their debt restructuring and then blamed the host community process in stalling the Palmer agreement for more than 12 months, negotiations that took Mohegan only about 12 days to complete in Revere for their Suffolk Downs partnership."
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