THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170328
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 62 lines
The light fight is growing.
A feud between two competing Christmas light shows in Norfolk and Virginia Beach has spawned a second lawsuit, this time from Norfolk Botanical Garden against the company that designed its show.
This is the second lawsuit this year over the annual holiday fund-raising shows. The first was filed in March against the botanical garden for allegedly not paying its bills.
Now, the garden is suing Carpenter Decorating Co., the country's leading designer of holiday light shows. The lawsuit accuses Carpenter of setting up a competing light show last year on the Virginia Beach Boardwalk.
The garden says this was a breach of its 1994 contract, which gives the garden veto power over any competition in South Hampton Roads for four years. The garden says it lost about 88,000 visitors and $100,000 in ticket sales last year after the Beach started its competing show.
The lawsuit seeks $350,000 in punitive damages from Carpenter and two sales agents, plus unspecified compensatory damages.
Carpenter, however, says the garden is wrong. Carpenter says two different companies created the light shows in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and there was no breach of contract.
The garden is being sued for $92,065, the amount it refused to pay this year for its holiday display because of the alleged breach of contract.
To add to the confusion, the two lawsuits are pending in different courts. The garden sued last week in federal court in Norfolk. The earlier lawsuit against the garden was filed in Norfolk Circuit Court. That case is scheduled for trial in February, long after the Boardwalk show's second season.
At the heart of the dispute is a simple question: Did the same company set up the competing shows in Norfolk and Virginia Beach? That's what the botanical garden claims.
Or are there really two different companies: Mosca Design Co., which contracted for the garden show, and Carpenter Decorating Co., which contracted for the Beach show? That's what Mosca claims.
Meanwhile, both shows are scheduled to open this year on Nov. 22 and close Jan. 5. Spokesmen for both shows say they will be bigger and better than last year.
A lawyer for the botanical garden said the lawsuits should not affect either show.
``We'll try to make the best of a bad situation,'' said the attorney, Walter D. Kelley Jr. ``We hope a lot of people turn out.''
Mosca's attorney, however, hinted there may be more legal action. Asked if he will seek a court order to stop the garden's light show, lawyer William C. Bischoff said, ``We're exploring all options at this point.''
Peter Lawrence, the garden's director of marketing and development, said the garden show will include new displays created by in-house staff, rather than by an outside design company.
The light show at Norfolk Botanical Garden began in 1994. It attracted about 200,000 people in 40,000 cars. Ticket sales were nearly $300,000.
But in 1995, with new competition from the Virginia Beach show, attendance dropped drastically.
A third holiday light show in Newport News Park, which started in 1993 - one year before the botanical garden's show - will run this season from Nov. 22 to Jan. 1.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUITS NORFOLK BOTANICAL GARDEN by CNB