Tweet
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM LOSES APPEAL
Courthouse News Service
July 17 2014
By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN
(CN) - A historic property in Washington, D.C., must be returned to
its donor because of the failure to open an Armenian Genocide Museum
there, the D.C. Circuit ruled.
Armenian Assembly of America joined several other organizations 20
years ago to create an Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial (AGM&M)
in Washington D.C.
The genocide was carried out by the Ottoman government in modern Turkey
against its Armenian citizens. Beginning in 1915, a genocidal policy
of massacre, forced labor and death marches killed an estimated 1
million to 1.5 million people, and drove the Armenians out of their
historic homeland in eastern Anatolia.
To make their museum a reality, the Armenian Assembly and others
purchased a historic building, the National Bank of Washington building
at 14th and G Streets, just blocks from the White House.
A benefactor, Gerard Cafesjian, also purchased the buildings adjacent
to the Bank Building to expand the museum effort.
After these property purchases, however, the philanthropists made
little progress toward developing the museum.
Eventually irreconcilable differences arose between major donor
Cafesjian and one of the assembly's founders, Hirair Hovnanian.
This split entered the courts when both parties laid claim to the
museum-related properties Cafesjian purchased, and the assembly
accused Cafesjian of mismanaging the project.
The D.C. Circuit affirmed a ruling for Cafesjian on Tuesday, finding
that the grant agreement provided Cafesjian the right to seek transfer
of the properties granted for the museum's use because the museum's
development foundered.
There is no support for the assembly's view that equity should not
permit Cafesjian to benefit from AGM&M's failure to meet its deadline
"because Cafesjian's actions were the very reason AGM&M could not
develop the museum by the end of 2010," according to the ruling.
"As the District Court interpreted the evidence below, it was the
'lack of funding' that caused AGM&M to put the brakes on the museum
project, 'and the record [did] not clearly show that any actions by
Cafesjian ... caused AGM&M to lose donors,'" Judge Robert Wilkins
wrote for the three-judge panel.
The grant agreement provided that, if the museum was not substantially
completed by 2010, Cafesjian could seek either the return of the
grant funds or the transfer of the property, without regard for the
property's appreciation at the time of reversion.
"With the benefit of hindsight, appellants may now think this deal
improvident, but no sense of buyer's remorse can empower us to rewrite
the plain terms of the contract to which they agreed," Wilkins said.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/07/17/69601.htm
Courthouse News Service
July 17 2014
By JACK BOUBOUSHIAN
(CN) - A historic property in Washington, D.C., must be returned to
its donor because of the failure to open an Armenian Genocide Museum
there, the D.C. Circuit ruled.
Armenian Assembly of America joined several other organizations 20
years ago to create an Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial (AGM&M)
in Washington D.C.
The genocide was carried out by the Ottoman government in modern Turkey
against its Armenian citizens. Beginning in 1915, a genocidal policy
of massacre, forced labor and death marches killed an estimated 1
million to 1.5 million people, and drove the Armenians out of their
historic homeland in eastern Anatolia.
To make their museum a reality, the Armenian Assembly and others
purchased a historic building, the National Bank of Washington building
at 14th and G Streets, just blocks from the White House.
A benefactor, Gerard Cafesjian, also purchased the buildings adjacent
to the Bank Building to expand the museum effort.
After these property purchases, however, the philanthropists made
little progress toward developing the museum.
Eventually irreconcilable differences arose between major donor
Cafesjian and one of the assembly's founders, Hirair Hovnanian.
This split entered the courts when both parties laid claim to the
museum-related properties Cafesjian purchased, and the assembly
accused Cafesjian of mismanaging the project.
The D.C. Circuit affirmed a ruling for Cafesjian on Tuesday, finding
that the grant agreement provided Cafesjian the right to seek transfer
of the properties granted for the museum's use because the museum's
development foundered.
There is no support for the assembly's view that equity should not
permit Cafesjian to benefit from AGM&M's failure to meet its deadline
"because Cafesjian's actions were the very reason AGM&M could not
develop the museum by the end of 2010," according to the ruling.
"As the District Court interpreted the evidence below, it was the
'lack of funding' that caused AGM&M to put the brakes on the museum
project, 'and the record [did] not clearly show that any actions by
Cafesjian ... caused AGM&M to lose donors,'" Judge Robert Wilkins
wrote for the three-judge panel.
The grant agreement provided that, if the museum was not substantially
completed by 2010, Cafesjian could seek either the return of the
grant funds or the transfer of the property, without regard for the
property's appreciation at the time of reversion.
"With the benefit of hindsight, appellants may now think this deal
improvident, but no sense of buyer's remorse can empower us to rewrite
the plain terms of the contract to which they agreed," Wilkins said.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/07/17/69601.htm