Court Hearing 2/5/2010

On Friday a hearing was held in Somerset Court on a request for a monetary Bond by St. Clair Construction due to an appeal filed by attorney Ging on behalf of Mary Jo Takacs. The appeal was of a court decision upholding an Indian Lake Zoning Hearing Board decision which upheld an Indian Lake Council decision regarding construct of condominiums by St. Clair Construction. Yes you read that correctly, there have already been 3 decisions on the matter! Even though this request for the bond was filed by St. Clair Construction, which was represented by their attorney, the Borough and the Zoning Hearing Board were also represented by their respective attorneys. It was alleged by St. Clair Construction that the appeal filling was frivolous and intended only to delay St. Clair Construction's developments.

After hearing from all attorneys. and allowing for rebuttal by all attorneys, the judge ruled in favor of St. Clair Construction and ordered a Bond in the amount of $380,000 be put up by the plaintiff within 10 days.

Summation:

If this Bond is not posted within the 10 days, then the appeal is rendered null and void. Doing away with this appeal will not just be great news for St. Clair Construction, but also for the Borough. It is significant that the Judge only allowed 10 days rather than 30 days, and in his ruling stressed Rule 1023.1 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure, concern frivolous suites, which allows for court ordered sanctions including having the plaintiff libel for all legal and court costs.

Please note, this summation is the opinion of a lay person trying to interpret the legal jargon.