One Count Down

One of the five counts in a $2.9 million lawsuit filed against the Northwest Arkansas Mall by Hall of Fame Inc., which owns Sports Page, was thrown out Jan. 22 by Washington County Circuit Judge Kim Smith.

Gail Segers, who owns Hall of Fame Inc. and operates Sports Page, an athletic apparel store at Fiesta Square, filed the suit last May claiming the mall evicted her shop in 1995 to make room for national chain stores like Victoria’s Secret. Segers says she was informed the previous year that she would be allowed to renew her lease at the mall.

Other defendants include the Rouse Co., which owns the mall, and former mall manager Ed Pilarz.

After a motion by Robert Still, a Fayetteville attorney representing the mall, Smith dismissed a tort of outrage filed by Segers. He also dismissed Segers as an individual in the suit since the contract was between the mall and Seger’s business.

Segers says Smith denied motions to dismiss a charge regarding fraud, misrepresentation and deceit, as well as charges of “interference with business expectancy and advantage” and “detrimental reliance,” in which Segers claimed she relied on oral statements from the mall manager that her lease would be renewed. Segers says there was an oral commitment for renewal of the lease.

Still says he will now enter the discovery phase of the case and take depositions pertaining to the remaining counts.

“We still deny there’s any validity to these allegations,” says Still. Segers opened her store in the mall in 1972. n