Eastlake group sues yacht club

Chagrin Harbor Beach Home Association claims club has gone ‘rogue’

The Chagrin Harbor Beach Association is accusing a private Eastlake yacht club of going “rogue” and illegally allowing trespassers onto private property for profit.

The association, made up of all landowners who own real estate in the Chagrin Harbor Beach Subdivision, is the title owner of the subdivision’s common area real estate.

The Chagrin Harbor Beach Yacht Club, also known as the Fishing Club, originally was a permitted “activity group” made up of association members.

According to a lawsuit filed recently in Lake County Common Pleas Court by association attorney Gerald Patronite:

• In the past, the Yacht Club was permitted to use the common areas for meetings in the association’s clubhouse, for fishing from docks and slips, and to hold fundraisers. However, the Fishing Club “went rogue” when its members started claiming it has exclusive physical possession and control of the common areas.

• The Fishing Club began charging dues

“This is legally like, in a nonpejorative sense, the Mickey Mouse Club seceding from Disneyland and seizing the Tiki Room.” —Chagrin Harbor Beach Association attorney Gerald Patronite, told The NewsHerald

to association members to access their own common property, encouraging public trespassing and conducting commercial, money-raising activities on the association’s land.

• The Yacht Club illegally erected a fence on common property that restricts landowners’ and service contractors’ access

to and from common areas.

• The confusion created by the Fishing Club about the subdivision has injured the association’s social reputation.

The association is asking Judge John P. O’Donnell to order the Fishing Club off the River Drive property, restore the land and fixtures to their original condition, and to cease and desist from making oral or written untruthful statements against the association.

In addition, the association is seeking more than $90,000 in damages, plus attorney fees and court costs.

“This is legally like, in a nonpejorative sense, the Mickey Mouse Club seceding from Disneyland and seizing the Tiki Room,” Patronite told The NewsHerald.

Yacht Club CEO Kolin Van Winkle declined comment because he had not yet seen the lawsuit.