Popejoy slander suit against Bay Club allowed to go forward

Mathis Winkler

SANTA ANA -- William J. Popejoy may proceed with a lawsuit alleging

slander against David C. Wooten, a managing executive of the Balboa Bay

Club, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

Popejoy, who worked as Orange County’s chief executive officer after

the 1994 bankruptcy, filed the suit June 9, after Wooten was quoted in a

June 2 Daily Pilot article as saying Popejoy was trying to extort the

company.

Popejoy claims the remarks damaged his reputation in the Newport-Mesa

area, the Pilot’s circulation area, where he resides and conducts

business.

Wooten’s comment appeared in an article reporting that Popejoy and

club executives had filed lawsuits over refinancing deals between the two

parties to renovate the club.

Popejoy’s $50-million lawsuit alleges that club owner Beverly Ray had

backed out of a deal to let him buy the $73.5-million property for her

own financial gain.

The counter suit, filed by Ray and Wooten, seeks a ruling that Ray

performed her contractual obligations and owes the banker nothing.

Club executives and Popejoy began to negotiate the club’s sale in

October 1999. When the relationship soured five months later, Popejoy

demanded a $4-million payment for his services to find financial backers

for the club’s renovation.

The renovation project, now underway, is a condition of the club’s

50-year lease extension with the city. Opening up parts of the exclusive

complex to the public is also required, because the club sits on publicly

owned tidelands.

In his tentative ruling on the slander lawsuit, Judge Ronald C. Kline

said that because Wooten did not refer to the financing lawsuit in his

comments, it was unclear whether he specifically referred to the suit or

just talked about Popejoy in general.

“One cannot conclude as a matter of law that Wooten’s statement in the

article is from the lawsuit which is referenced three paragraphs

earlier,” in the Pilot article, Kline wrote.

Wooten’s attorneys had tried to get the slander lawsuit thrown out,

arguing that Wooten’s comments referred to the financing lawsuit, which

formed part of the public record. While Kline denied that motion, Wooten

may still file an appeal on the decision.

Legal experts described the ruling as “interesting,” adding that a

section of the civil code protected statements made by parties to a

lawsuit as long as they directly related to the case.

“You’d think that this is the kind of statement designed to be

protected,” said Tom Newton, general counsel for the California Newspaper

Publishers Assn. “It seems like [the judge’s ruling] could have gone the

other way as well.”

Wooten declined to comment on the ruling Monday. His lawyer could not

be reached for comment. Popejoy’s lawyer declined to comment.

No trial date has been set for either lawsuit.