UPDATE: Bush Library Lawsuit
Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 2:50 pmBy LORI STAHL / The Dallas Morning News
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The deal to end a lawsuit over land at the Bush presidential library was tossed aside today by a judge who said Southern Methodist University and its legal foe never had a clear agreement on the terms.
After listening to arguments for more than an hour from SMU and Gary Vodicka, a former owner of condominiums near the library site, State District Judge John L. McCraw Jr. ruled that a July settlement agreement between the parties was unenforceable.
McCraw's ruling seemed to dim the prospect of an immediate resolution of the case.
Lawyers for SMU insist that they need full title to the disputed land in order for the George W. Bush presidential library to proceed.
The Bush Foundation recently asked the University Park City Council to rezone the library site, and details of the library’s design are expected to be released later this month.
“They need to know what land they’ve got title to and what land they don’t so they can make the best possible decisions,’’ Mark Lanier, a Houston lawyer representing SMU, said in oral arguments before the ruling.
SMU and Vodicka have been at odds over when and how title was to be transferred. SMU wants Vodicka to agree to a judgment saying that his four units were included in the SMU’s purchase of the University Gardens Condominiums several years ago.
For his part, Vodicka insisted that the agreement struck in July didn’t call for the title to be conveyed that way. After he filed the lawsuit in 2005, Vodicka gave fractional ownerships to three different people, some of whom later declared bankruptcy.
It has been unclear whether those people can assert their own claim on tiny portions of the disputed land, even if Vodicka resolves his dispute now.
By agreeing to accept the judgment SMU seeks, Vodicka would essentially be saying that he didn’t own the property at the time when he gave away those fractional ownerships.
That, in turn, would enable SMU to get the clear title its lawyers say it needs to develop the property as landscaped grounds for the Bush library.
Another condo owner who was a party to the case, Dr. Robert Tafel, settled with SMU last month for an undisclosed sum.
[email protected]
The deal to end a lawsuit over land at the Bush presidential library was tossed aside today by a judge who said Southern Methodist University and its legal foe never had a clear agreement on the terms.
After listening to arguments for more than an hour from SMU and Gary Vodicka, a former owner of condominiums near the library site, State District Judge John L. McCraw Jr. ruled that a July settlement agreement between the parties was unenforceable.
McCraw's ruling seemed to dim the prospect of an immediate resolution of the case.
Lawyers for SMU insist that they need full title to the disputed land in order for the George W. Bush presidential library to proceed.
The Bush Foundation recently asked the University Park City Council to rezone the library site, and details of the library’s design are expected to be released later this month.
“They need to know what land they’ve got title to and what land they don’t so they can make the best possible decisions,’’ Mark Lanier, a Houston lawyer representing SMU, said in oral arguments before the ruling.
SMU and Vodicka have been at odds over when and how title was to be transferred. SMU wants Vodicka to agree to a judgment saying that his four units were included in the SMU’s purchase of the University Gardens Condominiums several years ago.
For his part, Vodicka insisted that the agreement struck in July didn’t call for the title to be conveyed that way. After he filed the lawsuit in 2005, Vodicka gave fractional ownerships to three different people, some of whom later declared bankruptcy.
It has been unclear whether those people can assert their own claim on tiny portions of the disputed land, even if Vodicka resolves his dispute now.
By agreeing to accept the judgment SMU seeks, Vodicka would essentially be saying that he didn’t own the property at the time when he gave away those fractional ownerships.
That, in turn, would enable SMU to get the clear title its lawyers say it needs to develop the property as landscaped grounds for the Bush library.
Another condo owner who was a party to the case, Dr. Robert Tafel, settled with SMU last month for an undisclosed sum.