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Re: Armenian Genocide Museum of America
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.
APPEALS COURT ENDS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL CHALLENGE
Modesto Bee, CA
July 17 2014
By Michael Doyle
WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court may have ended, once and for all,
an extraordinarily protracted legal fight over a proposed Armenian
Genocide Museum and Memorial.
In a 37-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
unanimously upheld a 2011 trial judge's order awarding the property
intended for the museum to the Cafesjian Family Foundation.
The three-judge panel's decision rejected competing claims by the
Armenian Assembly of America, which had sought a new trial. Most
poignantly, though, the appeals court voiced dismay over what it
called the "morass of litigation" that has entangled museum plans.
"More than seven years and millions of dollars in legal fees later,
much of the parties' work to achieve their dream of a museum appears
to have been for naught, which is regrettable," Judge Robert L.
Wilkins wrote. "Whatever happens next, hopefully our decision today
can at least serve as the last word on this dispute's protracted
journey through the courts."
Hirair Hovnanian, chairman of the Armenian Genocide Museum and
Memorial, said in a statement following release of the ruling Tuesday
that "we hope the Cafesjian heirs keep the promise Gerry (Cafesjian)
made to the courts, which was to use this property to build a museum."
At one time, the late Cafesjian Family Foundation founder Gerald
Cafesjian was a benefactor of the Armenian Assembly. Together, they
planned the museum and memorial marking the period from 1915 to 1923,
when by some estimates upward of 1.5 million Armenians died at the
hands of the Ottoman Empire.
In downtown Washington, project supporters bought a four-story National
Bank of Washington building in 2000. Cafesjian provided funding and
bought adjacent properties, with a clause that the properties would
revert to his control if the project wasn't finished by Dec. 31, 2010.
Cafesjian and the Armenian Assembly subsequently had a falling out,
leading to the seemingly endless court battles over control of the
property.
"With the benefit of hindsight, (the Armenian Assembly) 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 wrote.
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.
APPEALS COURT ENDS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL CHALLENGE
Modesto Bee, CA
July 17 2014
By Michael Doyle
WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court may have ended, once and for all,
an extraordinarily protracted legal fight over a proposed Armenian
Genocide Museum and Memorial.
In a 37-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
unanimously upheld a 2011 trial judge's order awarding the property
intended for the museum to the Cafesjian Family Foundation.
The three-judge panel's decision rejected competing claims by the
Armenian Assembly of America, which had sought a new trial. Most
poignantly, though, the appeals court voiced dismay over what it
called the "morass of litigation" that has entangled museum plans.
"More than seven years and millions of dollars in legal fees later,
much of the parties' work to achieve their dream of a museum appears
to have been for naught, which is regrettable," Judge Robert L.
Wilkins wrote. "Whatever happens next, hopefully our decision today
can at least serve as the last word on this dispute's protracted
journey through the courts."
Hirair Hovnanian, chairman of the Armenian Genocide Museum and
Memorial, said in a statement following release of the ruling Tuesday
that "we hope the Cafesjian heirs keep the promise Gerry (Cafesjian)
made to the courts, which was to use this property to build a museum."
At one time, the late Cafesjian Family Foundation founder Gerald
Cafesjian was a benefactor of the Armenian Assembly. Together, they
planned the museum and memorial marking the period from 1915 to 1923,
when by some estimates upward of 1.5 million Armenians died at the
hands of the Ottoman Empire.
In downtown Washington, project supporters bought a four-story National
Bank of Washington building in 2000. Cafesjian provided funding and
bought adjacent properties, with a clause that the properties would
revert to his control if the project wasn't finished by Dec. 31, 2010.
Cafesjian and the Armenian Assembly subsequently had a falling out,
leading to the seemingly endless court battles over control of the
property.
"With the benefit of hindsight, (the Armenian Assembly) 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 wrote.
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