Retro Metro struck out in its attempt to enforce its Metrocenter lease against the City of Jackson at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals August 7.
Jackson leased the old McRae's building at the Metrocenter Mall from Retro Metro, LLC for over a decade. Mold, air conditioning, plumbing, and pothole problems bedeviled the employees who worked there in the building. The Jackson City Council voted in May 2023 to move its employees out of the building and terminate the lease.
Retro Metro didn't like the Council's decision and sued for breach of lease and racial discrimination in federal court in September 2023.The Court dismissed the breach of lease claims in August as it held the lease was invalid since it was never posted on the minutes.Earlier post on decision and case history.
From reviewing the minutes, the public only knows that the City Council (1) authorized the mayor to lease the property, subject to certain limitations, and (2) more than 12 years later, sought to terminate that lease. Even though the written lease mirrored the approved limitations, one cannot determine the liabilities and obligations of the parties by reviewing the minutes.....Even if the public could surmise from the minutes that a lease existed, neither the public nor the City Council could determine the parties’ obligations. At best, the minutes reflect that the City may have an obligation to pay up to $487,000 a year for 20 years.....
Retro Metro also argued estoppel should apply since while Jackson replied judicial estoppel can not override the minutes rule. The Court agreed with Jackson:
The Mississippi Supreme Court recognizes that “[t]he minutes rule produces harsh results.” Singing River MOB, 342 So. 3d at 153 n.14. It nonetheless requires strict adherence. See Colle Towing Co., 57 So. 2d at 172–73 (“[W]e are of the opinion that the public interest requires adherence [to precedent enforcing the minutes rule], notwithstanding the fact that in some instances the rule may work an apparent injustice.”). Following the Missis-sippi Supreme Court’s lead, we conclude that judicial estoppel cannot bind the City to a contract that did not satisfy the minutes rule.
Jackson businessmen Socrates Garrett and Leroy Walker own Retro Metro. Earlier post on Metrocenter lease and termination of lease. .
17 comments:
Bad news!
Socrates Garrett and Leroy Walker lost their appeal. They aren't getting paid!
Oh No!
Anyway
What did the court rule on the racial discrimination claim?
Garrett and Walker are shameless at best. They wanted to enforce the lease of an uninhabitable property having not made it habitable. And at least as shameful is their claim of racial discrimination. God almighty, how much longer will that card still be played in Jackson? I go back in my mind to the early 60s, when the current state of Jackson politics was unimaginable, and measure how wrong it is in so many ways for a Black Jacksonian to cry foul based on a presumption of white racism. These days that misguided energy should be spent on ending the sorrows of so many Black families as too many of their children are living in war zones.
Socrates Garrett needs a pseudonym and a new city to work his magic in.
Good opinion. Maybe this will finally end.
Leroy is on enough boards & just like maintaining upkeep at McDonalds, so must that property be maintained according to Health Department & Federal Laws. Socrates knew better also. Let their families live there.
I laugh every time I hear a Jacksonian praise "Socrates Garrett".
He's done more harm to his brutha's an sista''s than the average Jxn voter will ever realize.
When is the Ferris Wheel getting installed?
Taking out personalities and race, the contractor can't control if the contract is posted. Can the City continue to not post these contracts to the minutes and then claim that they don't owe anything to the contractor?
When will Widow Watson’s reopen….
Tear the damn thing down and build a real coliseum with real entertainment. The area would flourish and people would come from all over the South. It would be a five-year project but failing to do so wouldn’t mean five more years of decay and blight.
Garrett and Walker are both black. The administration of the city of Jackson was and is 95% black.
Enter racial discrimination charge from two black men against the black administration of Jackson.
Hope me makes since wit dis.
When will Electronics Boutique reopen?
I’m still wondering what Randy Travis was thinking buying part of that.
@8:40. He wasn't thinking.
This is racist.
"Taking out personalities and race, the contractor can't control if the contract is posted. Can the City continue to not post these contracts to the minutes and then claim that they don't owe anything to the contractor?"
Basic business sense dictates that it is up to the contractor to ensure the contract is "spread upon the minutes." Since the whole point is "public record," there is nothing preventing the contractor from verifying it. It amazes me that, a) it is not a standard contract term and the "spreading" made an attachment to the contract, b) the contractor does any work prior to the "spreading" being done, c) failing a. and b., the contractor does not follow up in the next meeting to address the failure. The MSSC has repeatedly made the law on the subject clear. It has also made clear that once an otherwise-legal contract is "spread upon the minutes," it is a binding contract.
But when there are people with little or no business sense or experience on both sides of a contract, things sometimes go wrong and end up in court. When there are idiots on both sides, things often do. I do not know every contractor in every industry nor every entity that contracts with them, but I'd make an educated guess that there are numerous competent and qualified contractors out there who will not bid on jobs for certain entities because of the "inexperience" or idiocy at the entity.
As to entities trying to pull something like that, it wouldn't take long for the decent companies to stop bidding on projects for such entities. And if an entity did something deliberate and "underhanded" - like attempting to "retract" the minutes - to avoid paying on a contract that it ratified, the MSSC would likely consider such action in a quantum meruit claim. Never say never, but there are myriad reasons why entities would not attempt, and be disincentivized, to do such things.
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