Yosemite National Park Concessioner Sues NPS for Damages

The incumbent concessioner at Yosemite National Park, DNC Parks & Resorts, filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service for damages resulting from NPS’s alleged breach of its concession contract.  In the lawsuit, DNC claimed that its current contract with NPS required any successor concessioner to purchase and pay for certain property which DNC owned and used in connection with its concession operations at Yosemite National Park.  DNC further alleged that, when NPS selected a new concessioner for the succeeding contract, Aramark, NPS breached its contract with DNC by not requiring Aramark to purchase certain items of DNC’s property.  The items included DNC’s “fixed capitalized assets” and its “intangible property,” which consisted of DNC’s registered and unregistered trademarks, servicemarks and logos used in its concession operations.  DNC stated that this property included its Half-Dome logo design and “The Awhanee” [sic] hotel name, as well as other marks.

DNC also alleged that NPS made a material change to the terms of the proposed new contract after selecting Aramark for award of the contract when NPS did not require the successor concessioner to purchase all of DNC’s property.  The new contract also required the successor to transfer all such property to NPS at the end of the contract at no cost.  DNC asserted that it would have submitted a “materially more attractive” proposal for the new contract had the new contract not required the successor to transfer this property to NPS at no cost.

DNC is seeking an unspecified amount of damages pursuant to the lawsuit.  DNC stated that its damages include the dollar amounts it would have received from Aramark for the property at issue had Aramark been required to purchase it.