The owner and the operator of a bankrupt downtown San Jose, Calif., hotel are now locked in widening and increasingly bitter legal hostilities after the filing of a lawsuit tied to the bankruptcy proceeding, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The conflict between the owner of the Fairmont San Jose hotel has morphed into a full-scale battle after the launch of the litigation, which was filed as a sibling proceeding arising from the ongoing chapter 11 case involving the landmark lodging. SC SJ Holdings, the affiliate led by business executive Sam Hirbod that owns the Fairmont San Jose, filed a lawsuit on June 29 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court against Accor Management U.S., a large company that manages and operates hotels. The lawsuit is asking the court to find that the operator Accor Management has illegally interfered with the owner’s efforts to stabilize and protect the hotel, which has been closed since March 5, 2021, the day that the hotel filed for bankruptcy. The legal battle makes it clear that the hotel’s owner and the facility’s operator have become full-fledged adversaries at a time when the lodging stays closed and its reopening remains in limbo. The lawsuit also disclosed that the hotel’s finances and operations were already wobbly even ahead of the outbreak of the coronavirus that triggered business shutdowns to combat the deadly bug.
