Bank, hotel owners trade jabs in foreclosure suit. (Pacific First Bank F.S.B.; Renton Joint Venture)

A foreclosure action against the Holiday Inn-Renton has developed into a bizarre game of cat-and-mouse between the hotel owners and their lender, with claims of pilfered documents, misappropriated funds and bad faith on both sides littering the court file.

The legal battle between an ownership group known as Renton Joint Venture and the lender, Pacific First Bank, over a delinquent $5.5 million loan has yielded the following twists:

* A court-appointed receiver sent to take control of the hotel's finances contends that key financial records were removed from the hotel just before he began work.

* A principal in the ownership group stands accused of diverting $600,000 worth of hotel proceeds to a shell corporation in Texas -- and pretending not to know the bank …