The decade-long legal dispute over the Roslyn Country Club is down to one lawsuit, according to lawyers for both sides.
The lawsuit dating back to 2006 reached the Nassau County Supreme Court for jury selection, the furthest in the legal process the case has been.
“This is the end of the line,” said lawyer Elizabeth Eilender, of Jaroslawicz & Jaros PLC., who represents country club owner Manouchehr Malekan.
The litigation has blocked a plan by the Town of North Hempstead to purchase the country club from Malekan, renovate the park facilities and create a park district for residents.
Since the case has gone back-and-forth for years without results, it was moved that the case be brought to a judge to fashion a solution that will “automatically dismiss all counterclaims with prejudice without costs,” according to court documents.
The legal dispute involves an easement which dictated that residents surrounding the Roslyn Country Club site would have access to the amenities for an annual fee.
After Manouchehr Malekan took ownership of the club property under his company Corona Realty Holdings, he brought a suit against residents in an attempt to extinguish their rights to the club, which was eventually thrown out. The club was then shuttered by Malekan in 2008.
In response to the closure, hundreds of residents countersued Malekan for damages, including the one case currently pending by Andrew Rothstein, a Roslyn Heights resident and lawyer. The counterclaims sought monetary compensation for the closure and the decrease of home values due to the lack of recreational facilities.
In 2011, the Town of North Hempstead stepped in by attempting to broker a $7 million deal with Malekan to purchase the property. A contract was submitted to the court promising the deal would go through on the condition that all of the suing residents dropped their cases.
Malekan’s attorneys submitted a notice of issue, which requires both parties in each case to exchange information from the discovery process for the trial to move forward.
Only two of the hundreds of residents involved in the suit responded, effectively dismissing the other cases, Eilender said.
Eventually one of the cases was thrown out after the resident didn’t show up to court, and the single suit left was the one currently pending by Rothstein. He said he is still in litigation because he hasn’t seen the contract promising the sale of the land, and believes it is no longer valid.
“I know there had been a contingent contract years ago, but my understanding is that the contract expired,” Rothstein said.
“It’s my belief that Corona wants to have the lawsuit dropped and has no intention of selling the property,” he said.
Malekan would have no obligation to sell without an active contract, and Rothstein said that is why he continues to hold out in court.
“It’s amazing to me in this day and age that one person can clog up the works for an entire community,” Eilender said. “If I was living in this town I would be furious.”
Eilender has been on the case as counsel to Malekan for nearly eight years, she said.
“No one else was in court today. No one else has come to court to try and block him,” Eilender said. “Perhaps he knows something that these hundreds of other families don’t.”
A town spokeswoman, Carole Trottere, issued a statement about the contract saying, “The contract has not been terminated, although the closing deadlines have passed.”
The Roslyn Country Club is a housing development created by Levitt and Sons in the 1940s. The development offered amenities like a pool and tennis courts, for which the easement came about guaranteeing resident use.
Since Malekan closed the club, the pool and courts have fallen into disrepair.
If the club is reopened, neighborhood residents would have first access to membership. If a membership cap isn’t reached, membership would then be open to residents from neighboring communities, according to officials of the Roslyn Country Club Civic Association.
Attempts to reach Malekan were unavailing.
