Stevens & Wilkinson will ask judge to reconsider

I wrote this story in today’s newspaper about how the city won a lawsuit filed against it by some companies who say the city did not pay them for their work on a failed 2003 publicly funded hotel project.

Basically, Judge George C. James Jr.  ruled the memorandum of understanding signed by the city and the companies in 2003 is not a contract, so the companies can’t say the city broke that contract.

Attorney Dick Harpootlian, who represents the architectural design firm Stevens & Wilkinson (one of the companies that sued the city), says he will ask Judge James to reconsider his order based on a ruling handed down by the state Court of Appeals last week.

The case is Plantation A.D., LLC v. Gerald Builders. Plantation A.D. owned some land in Horry County it was going to sell to Gerald Builders. Gerald Builders and Plantation A.D. signed a memorandum of understanding that said Plantation A.D. would sell to Gerald Builders, and Gerald Builders would sell the property to someone else and split the profits 50/50 with Plantation A.C. But while Gerald and Plantation were negotiating, SouthTrust Bank was foreclosing on the property.

Gerald bought the property for $2.3 million, then sold it for $6.8 million and did not split the profits with Plantation A.D. Plantation A.D. sued for lots of things, including breach of contract. The circuit court ruled in favor of Gerald Builders. But the Court of Appeals reversed that decision.

Harpootlian said because the Court of Appeals ruled that some MOUs are contracts, Judge James will reconsider his decision.

Will it work? Who knows. The only certain thing with this case is it doesn’t appear to be over.