Mount Vernon has agreed to a $5.5 million settlement with Kela Tennis over a legal fight that began in 2018, when the city's contractor tore down the tennis bubble at Memorial Field in the dead of night. The agreement still has one more hurdle before it's final: formal sign-off from the city's own Board of Estimate and Contract.
According to lohud.com, the board is scheduled to vote on the settlement Tuesday, Nov. 17. The city said in a statement that the agreement lets it move past the uncertainty of continued litigation, framing the payout as a way to finally close the book on a dispute that has stretched across two mayoral administrations and multiple rounds of litigation.
The origins of the case trace back to the early morning hours of June 1, 2018, when contractor Michael Figueroa and his crew dismantled the tennis bubble covering Memorial Field's courts. Per lohud's reporting, the structure was damaged in the process because it wasn't taken down properly, setting off a legal battle that would consume years of court time.
A Verdict, an Adjustment, and a Reversal
The case's damages history has been anything but straightforward. The station's report states that a jury found in April 2023 that the city had breached its contract with Kela Tennis and awarded the company $9.3 million, which would total about $15 million after required annual interest of 9% was calculated. A separate account from News12 New Jersey instead reports that the jury's award to the tennis center operator was $12 million, a figure that does not match lohud's numbers for the same verdict.
That wasn't the end of it. An appellate court later upheld the city's liability for the bubble's destruction but threw out the damages portion of the case entirely, finding that Lubell had erred by excluding testimony from the city's own financial expert. That ruling sent the case back for a new look at how much the city actually owed, and per the same lohud account, the newly reported $5.5 million settlement is less than half of what Kela Tennis had been seeking at a retrial on damages.
Court Record Details Original Approval Process
Separate from the damages dispute, a court record from the New York State Unified Court System notes that the underlying license agreement for the tennis center had been executed in accordance with relevant City Charter provisions, and had been approved by both the Mount Vernon City Council and the Board of Estimate and Contract at the time it was put in place.
Not everyone involved in the case is talking. James Borkowski, the lawyer representing Kela Tennis, declined to comment on the settlement, according to lohud. News12 similarly reported that the attorney for Kela Tennis did not return its calls for comment, leaving the company's own account of the outcome unheard publicly so far.
A Dispute Years in the Making
The fight over the Memorial Field tennis center has deep roots. lohud's own coverage from June 2018 detailed how the bubble's destruction became part of a $27 million lawsuit filed against the city, and the publication's April 2023 report chronicled the jury verdict that followed nearly five years later. Now, with a settlement on the table pending next week's board vote, the city appears closer than it has been in years to putting the long-running case to rest.
