Clash of Bay Club titans ends

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- The last of four lawsuits over a botched deal to

purchase the Balboa Bay Club has been settled, ending a pitched battle

between a longtime member of the exclusive club and its owner.

After two days in the courtroom trial over the aborted $73.5-million

transaction, former Orange County Chief Executive William Popejoy and Bay

Club owner Beverly Ray reached a settlement that brought the trial to an

early close.

“All matters in the dispute have been settled,” Ron Rus, attorney for

Popejoy, said in a prepared statement. “We are happy all the matters have

been resolved without further court proceedings.”

Terms of the settlement, Rus said, are confidential.

Ray’s suit against Popejoy, which alleged that he had issued

statements damaging to her, was dismissed by the court after the first

day of testimony.

Ray is out of town. She and other Bay Club officials could not be

reached or would not comment for this story.

In October 1999, Popejoy, a financier who stepped in to run county

government during the crisis of the mid-1990s bankruptcy and later the

California Lottery, began assembling investors to purchase the famed

club.

But by June 2000, the deal had fallen through, and Popejoy and Ray

both took to court their claim that the other was responsible for the

aborted sale.

Popejoy alleged that Ray and Balboa Bay Club executive David Wooten

conspired and defrauded him out of the chance to buy the property. Wooten

and Ray accused Popejoy and his colleagues of using inappropriate tactics

in the deal.

The dispute worsened when Popejoy filed a lawsuit accusing Wooten of

slander, based on remarks the Balboa Bay Club executive made to the Daily

Pilot.

Ray, too, sued Popejoy for allegedly harmful comments made during the

proceedings.

Last week’s settlement agreement brings to a close the last of the

lawsuits over the transaction attempt.