By BECKY THOMAS
Staff Reporter
A Cheney daycare center was forced to close last week after a judge ruled the business owners were in default of their rent. This week, dozens of families scrambled to find care for their children.
John and Jessica Jacobsen owned the Highlind Learning Center, 1420 First St. from March 2009 until a 72-hour eviction notice ordered them to close their doors April 2. The Jacobsens say they were caught in a fight between the building's owner and a couple who rented the building to the Jacobsens.
Jessica Jacobsen said she and her husband signed a contract with Keldon and Marianne Pavlish in January 2009 to rent and operate the previously vacant building as a daycare. Jessica Jacobsen had previously worked for the Pavlishes at their 30th Street daycare center in Spokane, Pavlish Playhouse and Preschool.
“(Marianne Pavlish) was somebody I felt I had built a good relationship with, somebody that I trusted and who encouraged me to come out here and open my own business,” Jacobsen said. She said the Pavlishes told the Jacobsens they owned the building, which they had purchased as part of a lease-to-own contract with Cheney area resident Elden Sorensen.
The Highlind Learning Center opened March 23, 2009 and Jacobsen said they gained more students as time went on, through word of mouth and advertising. Jacobsen and a staff of eight cared for 46 children when the business closed.
“We were running our business, paying our rent, everything was good,” she said.
Then, in September, Sorensen told the Jacobsens that the Pavlishes did not own the building and had stopped paying him as part of the contract.
Sorensen, who is now involved in a lawsuit against the Pavlishes, said they paid less than half what they owed him as manager of the trust that owns the building.
“The contract states if you miss two payments you've breached the contract,” Sorensen said.
Sorensen came to the Jacobsens for rent money, Jacobsen said. The Jacobsens then approached the Pavlishes with Sorensen's claims.
“They admitted that they had broken their contract with Elden Sorensen, but that they still wanted rent money from us because we had signed a contract with them and we were to pay them,” Jacobsen said. “So John and I were like, what do we do?”
She said they asked five different attorneys for help, and each advised them to write joint checks to both Sorensen and the Pavlishes. The Jacobsens began writing cashier's checks—“So they knew there was money in the bank,” Jessica Jacobsen said—and began depositing them into the court registry in December, where they could be claimed by whoever won in a lawsuit between the Pavlishes and Sorensen.
“We did what our attorney told us to do, which is pay the rent to the court to prove we were paying,” Jacobsen said.
The Pavlishes then sued the Jacobsens, claiming they couldn't cash the rent checks, and the judge ruled in favor of the Pavlishes March 26.
According to court documents, Judge Annette Plese ruled that since the Jacobsens had a contract with the Pavlishes and the Jacobsens failed to directly pay the Pavlishes rent, they had technically defaulted, and were ordered to vacate the building in 72 hours.
Jacobsen said she was shocked by the ruling, and said she felt like they were innocent bystanders who were just trying to do the right thing.
“We didn't want to pay the wrong party and get sued by the other party,” she said. “We just wanted to know who to pay.”
Jacobsen said they attempted to settle with the Pavlishes to keep their business in the building, but that the couple wouldn't accept the offers.
The Pavlishes' attorney refused to accept the checks in the court registry, and Jacobsen said she still didn't know the Pavlishes' intentions.
Sorensen expressed confusion as well, saying that the Pavlishes were charging the Jacobsens more for rent than they were paying him for the building.
“Why they took those people out I cannot tell you. It's insane,” he said. “I think the public should know that the Jacobsens have been abused by these people without any logical reason.”
The Pavlishes' attorney did not return a request for comment.
Without any recourse, the Jacobsens sent letters to parents, telling them they had lost their lease and had to shut down.
One parent, Sarah McConahy Ziemer, said she was shocked to hear the center was closing.
“There's already a shortage of daycare in Cheney,” she said. McConahy Ziemer said her son attended Highlind part-time, and was supposed to start attending full-time when she started a new job.
“I'll just have to figure something out,” she said. “It's just so sudden.”
Angela Burks has two children who attended Highlind for the past three months while Burks attended school. She said that her children enjoyed their time at the center.
“Her daycare is clean. The teachers are nice,” she said. “(Jessica Jacobsen) put her own money into that center.”
The Jacobsens moved their equipment, toys, books and furniture out of the building on April 3. Jessica Jacobsen said most of the 46 children from Highlind were taken in by Noah's Ark daycare at the Cheney Church of the Nazarene. Several members of the former Highlind staff are temporarily caring for some children in their homes until parents can find permanent daycare, she said.
The Jacobsens would like to find a new location, but the financial burden of their lawsuit has put plans on hold for now.
“I loved it,” Jacobsen said of her year with Highlind Learning Center. “I love being here and I love these kids. I love running my own business, but I regret going into business with Marianne. I wish we had found somewhere else to rent.”
Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].
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