NEW ORLEANS -- An Orleans Parish judge on Wednesday delivered a victory to Morning Call in its legal fight against City Park, ruling that the contract it signed with Cafe du Monde was void, allowing the beignet stand to stay in the park for the time being.
“I’m ecstatic,” co-owner Bob Hennessey said when WWL-TV broke the news to him. “That’s great news.”
The decision comes after a contentious five-hour hearing last week that pitted the nearly 150-year-old business against City Park and Cafe du Monde.
The two sides will now likely head back to court for a trial on a permanent injunction which would permanently void the contract between City Park and Cafe du Monde and possibly restart the bid process, said WWL-TV legal analyst Pauline Hardin.
City Park declined to comment Wednesday afternoon.
"While we are disappointed in the judge’s decision, he made it clear that this case was between City Park and Morning Call," Jay Roman, one of Cafe du Monde's owners, said. "Now, all we can do is wait and see what the future brings."
Morning Call’s owners filed a lawsuit against the two after the park’s board awarded a 10-year lease to Cafe du Monde after the board tossed out Morning Call’s bid.
The lawsuit sought an injunction that would stop the park from signing a 10-year lease with Cafe du Monde, prohibit them from moving into the space and stopping the park from evicting Morning Call.
The park said Morning Call’s owners missed a mandatory pre-bid conference on April 27 ahead of the bid openings on May 9.
Morning Call’s owners have maintained that they were late to the meeting.
Judge Christopher Bruno noted in his judgement that the bid specifications said the lease would be awarded "solely" on the amount of money the park would earn.
Morning Call's bid offered $10,000 a month in rent with an additional 10.5 percent of its gross revenue. Cafe du Monde offered the $10,000 monthly rent and an additional 10.25 percent of its gross revenue.
Hennessey testified last week that a “glitch” on his iPhone affected its calendar and deleted the entry for the pre-bid conference. He said that he immediately called his brother after the park called him to ask if anyone from Morning Call would attend the meeting.
Hennessey said his brother arrived minutes later but by that time the meeting had ended.
Morning Call has argued that state law does not require attendance at the pre-bid conference and said their offer was the most lucrative for City Park.
But City Park has argued that the missed meeting means Morning Call was “unresponsive” to the bid, which justified the board tossing out the bid.
"NOCPIA (New Orleans City Park Improvement Association) was aware that Morning Call was on its way, yet adjourned the pre-bid meeting before they arrived," Bruno wrote.
Bruno also noted that none of the three bids from Morning Call, Cafe du Monde or Cafe Beignet were perfect.
"The NOCPIA (New Orleans City Park Improvement Association) was presented with three bids, none of which complied completely with the bid specifications," Bruno wrote in his judgement.
Morning Call lost out on the lease for its home in City Park within weeks of closing its Metairie location.
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The Hennessey brothers said business at the store on Severn Avenue had fallen off in recent years while the park was doing a bustling business, leading them to focus only on that store.
Bob Hennessey has said he and his brother are searching for another location in which to open a store, but so far they have not yet signed a lease anywhere.
Hennessey said that process continues.
WWL-TV reporter Jade Cunningham contributed to this report.
Danny Monteverde can be reached at danny@wwltv.com.