The city of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against a Los Angeles Zoo nonprofit established more than 60 years ago to help the city operate and develop the attraction, alleging that it has recently prioritized its own interests over those of the zoo and canceled a key fundraising event it was obligated to oversee.
The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit against the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA) alleges breach of contract and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, conversion, as well breach of fiduciary duty, while also seeking an accounting and a judge’s declaration of the rights and duties of the parties.
“GLAZA must stand on its own two feet moving forward, without money it raised on the city’s behalf and without the benefit of the city’s other assets,” the suit states.
A GLAZA representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Friday. GLAZA was founded in 1963.
In late May, the parties entered an interim agreement to run through June 30, 2025, designed to ensure the continuity of critical programs and services while the city completes the proposal process for the zoo’s long-term management, the suit states.
But GLAZA subsequently amended its articles to divide its loyalties and reserve the right to distribute assets other than the zoo if GLAZA winds down or dissolves, even though the organization was “effectively only ever permitted to raise funds on behalf of the city for the benefit of the zoo,” the suit states.
GLAZA also wrote the city a letter that “appeared to claim some exclusive interest over the zoo’s endowment” and asserted, among other things, that if anyone from the city believed that the city maintains any authority over the allocation of GLAZA’s endowment, they are “grossly mistaken,” the suit states.
GLAZA did not reply when the city sent the group a July letter reminding its members that the organization’s “very formation was for the exclusive purpose of assisting and aiding the city to benefit the zoo,” according to the suit.
On Oct. 17, GLAZA advised the city that the parties’ relationship would end on June 30, 2025, and that GLAZA would continue to exist in some capacity separate from the city after the interim agreement expires, according to the suit, which further alleges that GLAZA engaged in a “rapid succession of acts in breach of its contractual, good faith and fiduciary obligations to the detriment of the city and the zoo.”
GLAZA “seemingly began to devote resources to engage in fundraising efforts for purposes other than for the benefit of the zoo,” the suit alleges.
GLAZA unilaterally canceled the 2025 Beastly Ball, the zoo’s largest and most important annual fundraising event, which GLAZA is under contract to stage, according to the suit, which also alleges GLAZA used the city’s own intellectual property to spread communications criticizing the city and the zoo.
GLAZA also refused to provide member, donor, volunteer and other data, even though the city is the exclusive owner of all such information, the suit states.