 |
| Dyas Triangle/Village North PUD |
CITY'S DEFENSE LAWYER GIVES UPDATE
Attorney Caine O'rear updated the City Council on the 2008 Dyas vs City of Fairhope and Mayor Kant lawsuit alleging the city favored the development of their cousins' (Cortes) Fly Creek PUD over the nearby Village North PUD, situated on the so-called Dyas Triangle property at the city's northern entrance.
O'rear: "By summary judgement . . . all claims . . . but one small part of the case, breech of contract on traffic issues, have been dropped. Court threw out all claims that relate to the Fly Creek PUD as completely meritless . . . misguided . . . nonsense . . . ."
SAYS LAWSUIT FILED FOR IMPROPER MOTIVES
Orear said the evidence showed the lawsuit was really filed in bad faith with intent to "retaliate against the Cortes, Mayor Kant, and other elected officials" and mentioned political and financial support of Chris Warner by Eric Dyas during the 2008 Mayoral campaign.
O'rear: " E-mail evidence shows Dyases were trying to get a denial of their application to amend Village North PUD (for a Publix Grocery) so they could file another lawsuit against the city."
"Evidence of financial and political support of Chris Warner (2008 campaign) . . . Eric Dyas assisted him with attacks on the mayor."
SAYS DYASES PLOTTED TO CREATE A LAWSUIT NOT AVOID ONE
O'rear: "According to the evidence, they were trying to orchestrate events . . . in order to create a lawsuit . . . not avoid one."
SAYS DYASES SHOULD PAY CITY'S LEGAL FEES
O'rear: "Evidence shows Dyases' claims were frivolous, filed in bad faith for improper motives . . . (therefore) city is entitled to recover legal fees for having to defend itself against meritless claims."
MAYOR KANT SEES WIDER CONSPIRACY
Reading from a 2007 memo (a public record, part of the evidence gathered in the lawsuit) referring to a "plan of attack in place to get the (triangle) property rezoned," Mayor Kant identified what he called the conspirators' team: ". . . the Wallaces, Jeremy Billings, John Whitespuner, Danny Blackburn, Rebecca Byrne, Scott Hutchinson, Chris Baker . . . ."
Kant read on: "When you screw with us at every future opportunity we're going to screw with you and we know how to do it. We have the skill, not shy about spending a bunch of money to deal with this situation when folks have screwed us."
When he finished reading from the memo, Kant complained: "After 4 lawsuits and millions of dollars defending this city . . . its time for these people to be quiet. Eric Dyas financially supported Chris Warner . . . . He was meeting with one of our own council members . . . telling us what we were doing wrong (Note: reportedly Mike Ford) . . . conspiracy keeps growing . . . we haven't done anything wrong . . . this needs to stop."
[Publisher's Note: In subsequent newspaper reports O'rear said having the plaintiffs pay the city's legal expenses may discourage future such frivolous lawsuits. O'rear had been criticized by media last year, first for not revealing to the public how much his fees were--and then because they turned out to be higher than normal for the area.]
Comments