Music school to offer lessons in American Canyon to settle case

By KERANA TODOROV
Register Staff Writer

A local school of music will offer 400 hours of free lessons as part of a legal settlement with the city of American Canyon, American Canyon City Attorney Bill Ross said this week.

American Canyon sued the Napa School of Music in November 2007 for breach of contract after the business moved out of the future City Hall building on Highway 29, across from the Wal-Mart Supercenter. Owners of the school said the city’s failure to place prominent signage outside the building hurt business.

The school left the $4,700 a-month, 26,000-square-foot suite in the fall of 2007, about four months after the city purchased the two-story building from Cabernet Village LLC. When it moved out, the music school owed the city about $73,000, including $33,000 in rent.

As part of the settlement, Ross said the school of music will have to give 400 hours of lessons at the gym on Benton Way and pay $5,000 to the city. Each one-hour lesson is valued at $100, Ross said.

Each party is responsible for its legal fees, Ross said. As of early September, the city had spent more than $47,000 on the case, according to city documents.

In court papers, school’s owners Peter and Victoria Sykes claimed their American Canyon business generated only 10 percent of what they earned at their Napa school because they could not place a permanent sign on the premises.

The Sykes counter-sued the city and John Cochran of Cabernet Village LLC, the company that constructed and sold the building to the city. Under the settlement, Cochran will have to pay the Sykes $2,500, Cochran and Ross said. Cochran said he settled to avoid more legal bills.

The Sykes’ attorney could not be reached for comment this week.

The American Canyon Planning Commission this summer approved a monument sign for the building, with the names of the businesses that rent in the building, including a real estate company and a law firm, visible from the highway.

The city plans to move its offices and city council chambers into the new building in a few months.

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