FAYETTEVILLE, NC (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — North Carolina’s Cumberland County has won a lawsuit against a promoter who complained he lost money over a fizzled deal to rent space at the Crown Center.
Rodney Nichols, owner of Arena Productions Inc., wanted to hold a trade show at the Crown Expo Center in 2003, and sued the county after the deal fell apart.
Nichols claimed that Rick Reno, CEO of the Crown Center, did not allow him to hold the show September 5-7, 2003, according to the Fayetteville Observer. County Attorney Grainger Barrett argued that Nichols never signed a lease or paid his deposit for that weekend. Both were necessary to secure the Crown.
Nichols admitted that he hadn’t signed a lease, but said it was common practice to begin preparing for a show before the date has been secured. He claimed that it was standard to do so before Reno arrived in 2001.
Nichols claimed that he had incurred expenses preparing for the failed trade show and was seeking damages in excess of $10,000.
Barrett told the court that Reno brought with him a new business style to the job, with tighter control over how contracts were negotiated, when he arrived. Barrett said Reno made that clear to Nichols.
“There was a lot of money being lost, and he needed to come in and tighten up the procedures, the way they did business, and he did that,” Barrett told the jurors, according to the paper.
The court ruled that while Nichols thought he had a secure location and date, Reno was not in agreement, and had not received the signed documents to make the contract valid. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
