April 27, 2001 -– A "For Sale" sign has appeared at the Drake's Seat overlook just beyond the wall where vendors used to hawk their tourist goods from folding tables.
Earlier this week, District Court Judge Thomas K. Moore ruled against the vendors in one aspect of the court battle over control of the overlook but said it is too early to decide some other questions. He gave the vendors until May 7 to replace their attorney and said the case will proceed to trial on an "expedited basis" after that.
Attempts failed Friday to reach the real estate agent handling the sale or a representative of the seller. However, the move was not totally unexpected, since representatives of the Homer Wheaton estate suggested months ago that some of the property might be put up for sale.
The litigation revolves around a 1948 easement granted by Homer Wheaton to the V.I. government with the stipulation that the land not be used for commercial purposes.
Moore's decision this week closely followed one he made earlier in the month.
On April 12, Moore said the vendors were not denied due process when they were ordered to stop selling in the pullover parking area across from the bench that marks Drake's Seat — because they did not have valid permits allowing them to sell in that location.
If they had no rights to violate, he reasoned, their charge that various government representatives conspired to deprive them of their rights "cannot survive."
However, he wrote in an opinion accompanying his latest order that "with respect to Trustees' assertions that the plaintiffs fail to state any other claim with respect to alleged violations of their rights under the First or Fourteenth Amendments, the court finds that a ruling on these questions would be premature at this early stage of the case."
He therefore did not grant the motion of the United States Trust Co., Sonia Kim and Christine S. Wheaton, co-trustees, to dismiss the case.
One wrinkle of the case is that the V.I. government is now split on its position — the executive branch having removed the vendors from the site and the Legislature recently having passed legislation, over Gov. Charles Turnbull's veto, to allow the vendors to return to Drake's Seat.
The Wheaton trust, therefore, has now filed a motion making the government a defendant in the trust's counterclaim against the vendors.
The vendors need a new attorney because the Licensing and Consumer Affairs Department advised the court that their former attorney was operating without a business license. Moore has barred him from the court, at least temporarily.
