Norway Fails in Bid to Sell Soccer Field : Recreation: Country had declared it owned Rolling Hills parcel that was once set aside for visiting sailors to play on. But judge sides with a local charity organization.

Once again, it seems, David has defeated Goliath.

This time, the battle was over a soccer field in the upscale community of Rolling Hills.

The 8 1/2-acre parcel--now worth millions of dollars--originally was donated by a Southern California couple so that Norwegian seamen would have a place to relax while their ships were unloaded in San Pedro.

Because Norwegians seldom visit the property these days, the Norwegian government, which claims ownership of the property, decided to sell it. Opposing the sale was a nonprofit corporation--Seamen of Norway Inc., which said it took title to the place from the Norwegian government in 1952 and has been leasing the field in recent years to a local soccer club and allowing youth leagues to play on it.

Last year--acting under a 1989 Norwegian law mandating the sale of government-owned property in other lands--the Kingdom of Norway filed suit against the Seamen of Norway and Dr. Ragnar Amlie, the pediatrician who heads the nonprofit group.

Because Norwegian sailors no longer use the field for the purpose for which it was intended, title reverts to the kingdom and the property can be put up for sale, according to the lawsuit.

“It’s Goliath against David,” Amlie said after the lawsuit was filed. “The Norwegian government against me. It’s an unfair fight.”

But the Bible sets a powerful precedent.

Last Friday in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Harry L. Hupp decided in Amlie’s favor.

After ruling that the Seamen of Norway do, in fact, have title to the property, Hupp wrote that “at the time of the transfer of the property to the nonprofit corporation, there was an irrevocable dedication . . . of that property to charitable use.”

Deciding that Norway had no right to stack the nonprofit corporation’s board with directors of its own choosing--as it attempted in 1993--Hupp said Amlie and the other existing directors are obligated under U.S. law to use the property for charitable purposes.

“This is wholly inconsistent with the directions of the Norwegian government . . . to sell the property or make it available for sale,” Hupp said.

Back in the late 1940s, the property was owned by the Palos Verdes Corp. and its president, Kelvin Vanderlip, who 35 years earlier had married a young Norwegian woman, Elin Brekke. Vanderlip offered the land to the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in San Pedro for use by the Scandinavian sailors.

Eventually, Kaare Ingstad, then the Norwegian consul general in Los Angeles, took title to the property. When Ingstad returned to Norway, the title was transferred to the newly created Seamen of Norway.

After the Norwegian government adopted the law mandating the sale of its foreign properties, Amlie journeyed to Oslo in an effort to resolve the dispute over the soccer field. When his efforts failed, the lawsuit was filed.