THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996 TAG: 9603290456
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
When it comes to Christmas cheer, there is only so much wattage to go around.
So says the Norfolk Botanical Garden, which refuses to pay the bill for its splashy $254,935 Christmas light show.
Garden officials say the company that sold them the Christmas lights voided their contract by helping Virginia Beach set up a competing light show on the Boardwalk last year.
The competition caused ticket sales at the Norfolk light show to plummet by $100,000, or about one-third, the garden claims.
Bah-humbug, says the company that provided the lights: A contract is a contract. We sold you lights, you used them, customers paid you to see them. Pay up.
The two sides - Mosca Design Inc. of Raleigh and the Norfolk Botanical Garden Society - are now facing off in Norfolk Circuit Court.
Mosca has sued the garden for $92,065, or the amount of the latest unpaid installment. The garden, in turn, promises to countersue Mosca for lost revenue.
``This is not a dispute between the botanical garden and Virginia Beach,'' said the garden's attorney, Walter D. Kelley Jr. ``We don't begrudge the Beach anything. Our dispute is with Mosca.''
The light company has a different view.
``They owe us for the balance of that contract,'' said Mosca's attorney, William C. Bischoff. ``They have the gate receipts. They used the products. They're supposed to pay us. And they haven't.''
It all began in Newport News.
In 1993, the Peninsula city started an unusual holiday spectacular: a splashy light show along a meandering car trail through woods and ponds in Newport News Park. Revelers ate it up. About 200,000 drove through.
A year later, Norfolk Botanical Garden got its own show with 13 miles of lights, about 150,000 glittering little bulbs.
To do it, the garden signed up Mosca Design, the same company that designed the Peninsula show. The contract called for payments in three installments of up to $81,666 each, depending on gate receipts, or a total of $245,000.
The show was a wild success. About 42,000 cars, carrying about 200,000 people, drove through the garden that Christmas, paying about $7 each. Ticket sales were $294,000. The garden kept $60,000 in profits. ``This is our biggest money-maker,'' Jill Doczi, garden public relations coordinator, said at the time.
Then competition arrived.
Last year, Virginia Beach approved its own big Christmas light show costing $750,000. The Beach signed up another North Carolina outfit, Carpenter Decorating Co., to gussy up a 24-block stretch of boardwalk.
Garden officials were furious. Their contract with Mosca includes a non-compete clause. It bars Mosca from setting up any other Christmas display in South Hampton Roads.
At the heart of the dispute is one issue: Is Mosca Design the same company as Carpenter Decorating? Or are they separate entities?
Mosca's lawyer says his company did not break the contract. He says Carpenter is a different company, a supplier of lights, while Mosca is a design firm. Carpenter is based in Hickory, about 150 miles west of Raleigh.
``Our contract is with the botanical garden,'' Bischoff said Thursday. ``Carpenter Decorating has contracted with Virginia Beach.''
Not true, the garden says. The garden's lawyer says he has a letter on Carpenter stationery signed by George Mosca, proving the link between the two companies.
``I don't think he's going to avoid responsibility by playing a little game of who's-on-first,'' Kelley said.
Mosca sued March 18. The garden will file its reply and counterclaim next week, Kelley said. He said ticket sales at the garden dropped from $294,000 to $187,000 last year.
The competition ``just slammed the botanical garden's revenue from that show,'' Kelley said. ``They lost $100,000 last year and it's going to just keep doing that year after year.''
Garden officials stressed that they are not angry at Virginia Beach.
``We are not in any way upset about the competition,'' Doczi said. ``We have no animosity with the Beach. The Beach could have gotten anybody to come in and do their light show.''
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT CHRISTMAS LIGHTS by CNB