Lawsuits won’t be combined

Attorneys for three stores in Costa Mesa’s struggling South Coast Home Furnishing Centre are looking to combine their lawsuits against the property owner.

Owners of the White Orchid Gallery, Elegant Openings and LAMF — a lighting store — argued in court Friday that their three separate lawsuits against their former and current property owners, including Birtcher Development and Investments LLC and Burnham USA Equities Inc., are similar and should be combined for efficiency’s sake.

The stores’ lawsuits all claim they were suckered into signing leases on the 20-acre property with hollow promises of widespread advertising and promises of the center becoming the premier home furnishing center in the county. Instead, they claim, Birtcher Development “flipped,� or sold, the property for a $50-million profit once enough businesses had signed on as tenants.

Where Birtcher fell short, Burnham was supposed to come in and rescue the center from utter failure, according to the suit. Instead, the lawsuits claim, the center remains a skeleton of what they were sold on. The center has done some visible advertising, such as having people stand on street corners twirling signs.

Attorneys for the property owners argued the cases are all different outside of being on the same property and should not be combined.

In court Friday, attorneys for the stores painted themselves as the little people versus the big-bad corporate lawyers, who they claim are burying them in redundant, pointless motions and demurrers.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Nancy Stock yielded the point that the lawsuits are at least related and will be handled simultaneously, but stopped short of combining all three and streamlining the process for the businesses. Stock said she will consider linking them further during a later conference. Attorneys for everyone involved are scheduled to be back in court Aug. 21 to argue motions on throwing the cases out.