A lawsuit filed in April 2024 by City 2.0, the corporate that deliberate to reopen the favored LGBTQ nightclub City in a former church on North Capitol Avenue that accused its landlord of failing to renovate the constructing as required by a lease settlement was dismissed in a little-noticed improvement on Sept. 6, 2024.
A doc filed in D.C. Superior Court docket, the place the lawsuit was filed in opposition to Jemal’s Sanctuary LLC, the corporate that owns the church constructing, exhibits {that a} “Stipulation of Dismissal With Prejudice” was collectively filed by the attorneys representing the 2 events within the lawsuit and permitted by the choose.
Jemal’s Sanctuary is a subsidiary of the Douglas Improvement Company, one of many metropolis’s largest actual property improvement corporations.
An lawyer conversant in civil litigation who spoke to the Washington Blade on situation of not being recognized mentioned a stipulation of dismissal signifies the 2 events reached a settlement to terminate the lawsuit on situations which are all the time confidential and never included in court docket data.
The lawyer who spoke with the Blade mentioned the time period “with prejudice” means the lawsuit can’t be re-filed once more by both of the 2 events.
The general public court docket data for this case don’t embody any details about a settlement or the phrases of such a settlement. Nonetheless, the one-sentence Stipulation Of Dismissal With Prejudice addresses the problem of fee of authorized charges.
“Pursuant to Rule 41(a) of the District of Columbia Superior Court docket Civil Guidelines, Plaintiff City 2.0 LLC and Defendant Jemal’s Sanctuary LLC, by and thru their undersigned counsel, hereby stipulate that the lawsuit be dismissed in its entirety, with prejudice, as to any and all claims and counterclaims asserted therein, with every celebration to bear its personal charges and prices, together with attorneys’ charges.”
The City 2.0 lawsuit referred to as for the termination of the lease and not less than $450,000 in damages on grounds that Jemal’s Sanctuary violated the phrases of the lease by failing to finish renovation work on the constructing that was required to be accomplished by a Sept. 1, 2020 “supply date.”
In response to the lawsuit, attorneys for Jemal’s Sanctuary filed court docket papers denying the corporate violated the phrases of the lease and later filed a countersuit charging City 2.0 with violating its necessities below the lease, which the countersuit claimed included doing its personal required a part of the renovation work within the constructing, which is greater than 100 years previous.
Court docket data present Decide Maurice A. Ross, who presided over the case, dismissed the countersuit on the request of City 2.0 on Aug. 20, 2024, on grounds that it was filed previous the deadline of a three-year statute of limitations for submitting such a declare.
Neither the homeowners of City 2.0, their lawyer, nor the lawyer representing Jemal’s Sanctuary responded to a request by the Washington Blade for touch upon the mutual dismissal of the lawsuit.
City 2.0 co-owner John Guggenmos, who additionally owns along with his two enterprise companions the D.C. homosexual bars Commerce and Quantity 9, didn’t reply to a query asking if he and his companions plan to open City 2.0 at one other location.
What was initially often called City Danceboutique operated from 2007 to 2018 in a big, transformed warehouse constructing on eighth Avenue, N.W., simply off Florida Avenue. It was pressured to shut when the constructing’s proprietor offered it to a developer who constructed a residential constructing instead.
It was the final of the town’s massive LGBTQ dance corridor nightclubs that when drew massive crowds, included stay leisure, and sometimes hosted fundraising occasions for LGBTQ group organizations and causes.
