The legal wrangling in the White Flint Mall case continues as Lord & Taylor is now asking for additional damages.
The retailer filed an appeal brief on Dec. 23 in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Bethesda Magazine reports. Lord & Taylor claims that a lower court failed to consider the value of its property rights under a 1975 easement agreement, which lawyers claim could be worth between $6.5M and $15.1M.
This continues the battle between Lord & Taylor and White Flint’s owners, Lerner Enterprises and Tower Cos. The JV disputed an August award of $31M in damages to Lord & Taylor, which had filed suit against the owners claiming they were in violation of a decades-old contract by taking steps to redevelop the mall.
Under the agreement, the mall’s owners agreed to maintain the mall as a “first-class” enclosed shopping center. The $31M award represents what the store would lose in profits with the loss of the mall and subsequent construction.
The Lord & Taylor store remains intact at the Rockville Pike site, but the mall itself has been demolished. Attorneys for the mall’s owners have previously stated that the estimated $800M redevelopment plan will not move forward until appeals are settled and may be shelved entirely if the jury’s verdict is not reversed. [BM]
