Dismissed stadium claims appealed: Legal saga persists with Forest Hills Gardens Corp., West Side Tennis Club

The Forest Hills Gardens Corp. last Thursday announced that it has appealed a judge’s decision to dismiss all but two of its claims against the West Side Tennis Club, the home of Forest Hills Stadium.

The FHGC filed its complaint last May in response to the stadium’s increase in its number of concerts, alleging that the shows cause harm to nearby residents.

Queens State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Esposito in October dismissed five of the group’s seven causes of action, leaving the plaintiff to pursue its public and private nuisance claims.

“No New York City residents should be subjected to the intolerable noise and nuisances created by these concerts that are taking place immediately next to residents’ homes and apartments,” FHGC President Anthony Oprisiu said in a press release. “We cannot allow any business to undermine the well-being of our residential community.”

The appeal argues that the stadium’s use of the FHGC’s private streets for concert operations constitutes trespassing; that the stadium violates the city’s Zoning Resolution and inflicts “special damages” on the FHGC, which owns the streets around it, by operating as a concert venue; and that concerts are neither a club purpose nor a residential purpose, the only permitted uses of the club’s property under the restrictive covenant governing Forest Hills Gardens.

“The evidence clearly shows that the concert operations are infringing on the peace, safety, and property rights of our community,” Oprisiu said.

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