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SANTA ANA — A Superior Court judge granted a preliminary injunction Thursday to Clothestime Inc. to prevent a competing store in a Costa Mesa shopping center from selling discount women’s
clothes. A Clothestime attorney said the case may be the first of a half-dozen in Southern California aimed at cracking down on retailers who violate clauses in Clothestime’s leases granting
exclusive right to sell women’s off-price clothes. The ruling by Judge Robert A. Knox temporarily bars Jae Joon Kim and Jai June Rhee from selling discount women’s clothes at a store
scheduled to open soon at the Costa Mesa Courtyards, at Harbor and Newport boulevards. The suit, filed April 4, alleges that Kim and Rhee are violating a clause in Clothestime’s lease, which
gives Clothestime exclusive rights to sell discount women’s apparel at the shopping center, said Richard Grabowski, an Irvine attorney representing the Anaheim-based women’s clothing chain.
The suit also names a chain of Fashionland stores as a defendant, Grabowski said. Fashionland has opened in other shopping centers in direct competition with Clothestime, he said. Michael
T. Sinkov, a Los Angeles lawyer representing Kim and Rhee, said his clients have invested $100,000 in the Costa Mesa store. He said that their store would be named Expo Casuals, not
Fashionland, and that Rhee is a part owner in other Fashionland stores but does not plan to manage the Expo Casuals shop. MORE TO READ