Los Angeles Superior Court rejects request to deny sale of UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden
By Kylie Reynolds
May 18, 2012 1:27 p.m.
A judge on Thursday declined to grant an immediate effort to halt the sale of the UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Bel Air, according to a university statement.
Hannah Carter’s heirs filed a lawsuit against the UC Board of Regents on May 7, which alleges UCLA’s plans to sell the garden and its removal of items from the garden is a breach of a 1964 contract between the regents and former UC Regents Chair Edward Carter.
On Thursday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied a temporary restraining order filed to block the sale, citing that “the plaintiffs did not have a likelihood of success on the merits of the lawsuit,” according to a university statement released Thursday.
Walter Moore, an attorney representing the heirs in the suit, said attorneys filed for the temporary restraining order because they understood the university planned to open bids for the garden and nearby piece of land this upcoming Tuesday.
After it was filed, however, the regents said no immediate action was going to be taken with the garden, Moore said.
He said they plan on filing a motion to stop the garden’s sale, which the judge will have more time to review in the future.
“It’s important that people not get discouraged or think the judge didn’t think the garden should be preserved,” Moore said. “It’s not a matter of whether the garden should be preserved, it’s a matter of whether it needed to be preserved immediately.”
The university, which announced its plans to sell the garden in November 2011, will extend the period for submitting bids for the land until Aug. 15, according to the statement.
“Even though we are confident that all appropriate steps have been followed and that the meritless lawsuit will be dismissed, it is important that we minimize any legal impediments before we complete the bidding and sale process,” said Administrative Vice Chancellor Jack Powazek in the university statement.
In a February editorial in the Daily Bruin, Chancellor Gene Block said the garden does not serve a teaching or research purpose, and has been accompanied by increasing maintenance costs and issues surrounding parking availability.
An Alameda Superior Court judge approved the sale of the garden in 2010.
