Texas’ Bayside Land Partners wins lawsuit over Lake Ray Hubbard marina

(DALLAS – September 7, 2016) A Dallas County district judge has issued a summary judgment in favor of Bayside Land Partners, LLC, disposing of all of the claims brought by an operator of a marina at Lake Ray Hubbard in Rowlett, Texas. The ruling will pave the way for the company to continue construction on its billion-dollar lake development, which had been partially held up for almost a year due to the marina operator’s lawsuit.

Fish & Richardson’s Tom Melsheimer, managing principal of the firm’s Dallas office, and Dallas principal John Sanders represented Bayside in the lawsuit filed by Waterside Corp., which operated the marina on the south side of Interstate 30 on Lake Ray Hubbard.

For the last 25 years, Waterside owner James M. Rosenberg ran the marina under a City of Dallas concession agreement that he purchased from another company in 1993. The original agreement expired in 2010 and was briefly extended by two one-year extensions to 2012 without either Waterside or Dallas addressing it further until the property was sold to the City of Rowlett in 2015.

Bayside bought the property from the City of Rowlett and announced the pending development of a world-class hotel and resort to be accompanied by retail shops, residential units and recreational facilities. The development will include an eight-acre Crystal Lagoon with turquoise waters, beaches and a 280-foot fountain, which will be the largest in the United States.

After acquiring the land, Bayside informed Waterside that it would be terminating the then-expired concession agreement. Waterside responded with a lawsuit seeking to prevent Bayside from removing the marina operator from the property. In December, the court granted a temporary injunction that allowed Waterside to continue operating the marina.

Soon after the injunction was issued, Bayside retained Mr. Melsheimer and Mr. Sanders to work on the case alongside attorney Timothy Woods, a shareholder at Dallas’ Higier Allen & Lautin, P.C. Together, the litigation team responded with a series of legal moves over the course of the next six months aimed at getting the injunction dissolved and the lawsuit dismissed.

On Sept 2, their efforts paid off when Judge Ken Molberg in Dallas County’s 95^th District Court issued an order granting Bayside’s motion for summary judgment, dissolving the earlier temporary injunction, and denying Waterside’s pending motions. The Court’s order dismissed all of Waterside’s claims and ordered the company to pay Bayside’s court costs.

“This is a victory for the citizens of North Texas who will enjoy the tremendous benefits of a world-class recreational, retail and housing development for years,” said Mr. Melsheimer.

Bayside’s win allows the development to continue, which is projected to result in the creation of hundreds of new jobs in Dallas County.

The case is Waterside Corp, et al. v. Bayside Land Partners, LLC, No. DC-15-09833.

Fish & Richardson is a global patent, intellectual property (IP) litigation, and commercial litigation law firm with more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists across the U.S. and Europe. Fish has been named the #1 patent litigation firm in the U.S. for 13 consecutive years and is one of the busiest post-grant firms, representing more petitioners at the PTAB than any other firm. Fish has been winning cases worth billions in controversy – often by making new law – for the most innovative clients and influential industry leaders since 1878. For more information, visit www.fr.com.