The increasingly bizarre litigation over the World Trade Center  building appeared to quickly unravel Monday (Nov. 7) when neither the man behind the lawsuit nor any lawyers representing his company showed up in court to pursue the case.

Two Canal Street Investors’ case against the city of New Orleans challenges the lease of the 33-story building to a Four Seasons hotel development team with plans for a $360 million renovation after a competitive bid process last year.

Stuart “Neil” Fisher, the Florida real estate investor who owns Two Canal Street Investors, didn’t show up in Orleans Civil District Court for a hearing on whether the case should be dismissed — 14 days before the case is scheduled for trial.

The hearing comes after Fisher, who has a track record of failed deals and bankruptcies, claimed a Jordanian investor named either Amjed Abu Neil or Amjed Neel and a Florida man identified only “Mr. Ed” had joined the company, according to attorneys defending the case.

“Mr. Ed, like the horse?” said Judge Tiffany Chase on Monday, referring to the 1960s TV show featuring a talking horse named Mister Ed, drawing laughter from the courtroom.

“Some of the things that have happened in this case — you could not make it up,” Chase said.

Two Canal Street Investors also failed to turn over a list of witnesses the company plans to call at trial, which means the company can’t bring any witnesses to prove its case at the Nov. 21 trial, Chase ruled.

On Monday morning before the hearing, Fisher, who is not admitted to any bar association to practice law, faxed a 52-page document to Chase’s chambers — not to the Clerk of Court’s office — which the judge said was a violation of the rules.

Fisher has already skipped or ignored subpoenas for at least four depositions, attorneys defending the case said.

“This has been one of the most extreme intentional failure to comply with court orders that I’ve ever seen,” said Dirk Wegmann, an attorney representing the city.

As for the Jordanian investor, Wegmann said: “We don’t even know if he exists or doesn’t exist.”

“We have every reason to believe that Mr. Fisher has been manipulating the system in every way,” he said.

Carpenter & Co. of Cambridge, Mass., and Woodward Interests of New Orleans signed a 99-year lease of the building with a plan to develop a 350-room Four Seasons hotel and 76-hotel serviced condos. The companies intervened in the litigation, which has put the project on hold.

Fisher’s lawsuit came as a surprise attack on the lease. The original owners of Two Canal Street Investors sold the company to Fisher for $10 after the bid process was over. Fisher then filed the lawsuit.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration has defended the competitive bid process as open, fair and ending with the best deal for the city. Two Canal Street Investors, one of five finalists for the lease, says the process was biased and illegal.

Chase said she would rule on requests to throw out the case on Nov. 21, when the   trial is scheduled to begin.

Even though he didn’t appear in court, Fisher posted documents to his Facebook page as the hearing was happening. He posted photos of himself last week that show him in the French Quarter, although he commented that he wasn’t in the city at that time.

At one point last month, Fisher said in an email that he had resigned as president. He then posted a meme of the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger with the words “I’ll be back. Soon.”

Around the same time, Davillier Law Group, which had been representing Two Canal Street Investors, withdrew from the case. Attorneys with the firm explained their departure from the case to the judge in sealed documents.

Russ Herman, an attorney representing the Carpenter-Woodward team, told the judge that Fisher or companies he was affiliated with were involved in more than 30 bankruptcies, and he was twice convicted of civil fraud in past lawsuits.

Louisiana Secretary of State records listed Fisher as the only officer in Two Canal Street Investors as of Monday afternoon.