The new owners of the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas are keeping attorneys busy dealing with legal issues that arose under the prior ownership.
Lenders led by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. of New York took over the property in March after it defaulted on loans and was threatened with foreclosure.
Among the issues the company is now dealing with is an April 7 order by the National Labor Relations Board finding the hotel-casino engaged in unfair labor practices by failing to recognize and bargain with the Teamsters Union representing all full-time and part-time valet parking employees.
The NLRB order said that after a Nov. 6, 2009, election of the approximately 35 valet parking workers, the union was certified in September 2010 as their exclusive collective-bargaining agent.
Attorneys for the Hard Rock appealed that order in April to the District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Hard Rock is disputing the results of the election, saying certain challenged ballots should be opened and counted and that the election should be set aside because of voting irregularities and misconduct.
The NLRB, however, asked the same court on May 9 to sustain its decision that ordered the Hard Rock to recognize and bargain with the Teamsters.
Another legal issue inherited by the new owners was a suit filed last year by Orlando-based Hard Rock Cafe International (USA) Inc., the owner of the international Hard Rock brand, over claims the now-canceled "Rehab: Party at the Hard Rock Hotel" show on truTV was disparaging the Hard Rock brand's reputation.
The international Hard Rock brand also charged its image was tarnished when the Las Vegas hotel-casino was fined $650,000 last year by Nevada regulators over problems including drug dealing by employees at the property.
Court records show the new owners of the Hard Rock have agreed to try to settle that lawsuit.