NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The battle for the decaying remains of the CBGB is finally over, three years after the club's closure.
The legendary New York nightspot had been a fixture in the punk scene for years but made little profit as a club, eventually closing in 2006 after a long rent dispute with their landlord. After it closed, the club's founder Hilly Kristal sold the company to his daughter for, Lisa Kristal Burgman for $3.5 million and while the club made little profit, its iconic logo has been the source of considerable gelt from a wide variety of merch.
After the death of the club's founder, Hilly Kristal, in August 2007 though, things took a disharmonious turn and his former wife Karen and son Dana filed a suit against his estate, contesting the ownership and claiming that she had been tricked into signing away her rightful claim to the business by her former husband.
On June 3rd, a settlement in the suit was reached and while the terms of the agreement were not disclosed, sources close to the matter intimated that it wasn't very favorable for Karen and Dana who suggested to the Village Voice that they chose to settle after lawyers for Bergman threatened to impose legal guardianship over Karen.
"The thing that I'm mad about is the guardianship," Dana told the Voice "That's why we felt we had to agree…You never know what's going to happen in a guardianship, and I didn't want that threat over my mother."
Lisa Kristal Burgman's lawyers did not return requests for comment from the Voice. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
