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Judge orders county to pay Airport Authority attorney fees
By Justin Goble and Lynn Hotaling
For the second time in two months, a judge has ruled in favor of Airport Authority members in their lawsuit with Jackson County Commissioners.
Superior Court Judge Zoro Guice decided Monday (April 9) that the county would have to pay $35,654 in attorney fees accrued by plaintiffs Tom McClure, Eldridge Painter and Jim Rowell in the case. Guice also ordered the county to pay $693.75 in court costs.
Both amounts were requested by the plaintiffs in the hearing.
“We were pleased, of course,” McClure said of the ruling. “We felt like the judge was going to rule in our favor due to the last ruling.”
Joe McGuire, attorney for the Authority members, urged Guice to award the requested amount since the violation of the North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law affected not only those involved in the suit but the public at large.
“There was a definite public interest at stake in the previous ruling,” McGuire said. “If you decide to award my clients this amount, you will be reinforcing that ruling.”
County attorney Paul Holt argued the amount being sought by Airport Authority members was more than the county should be expected to pay. He said the rate of $250 per hour that McGuire charged exceeded the average hourly charge for lawyers in the area. Holt also said the award should be lowered because the hourly fee included charges from other lawyers in McGuire’s firm who worked on the case.
“We’re just asking that the court go over this and award reasonable attorney fees,” Holt said.
In an affidavit filed with the court, McGuire said, “to the best of my knowledge, my standard rate of $250 per hour is consistent with the hourly rates charged by other litigators with similar experience in Western North Carolina.” He also claimed that delegating tasks to other lawyers in his firm was actually a money-saving measure that helped him avoid bringing in outside help with the lawsuit.
Because the case was more complex than most of those he dealt with, it also called for more time and effort, McGuire said.
“This was a difficult matter,” he said. “We were taking on the county commissioners. I had to do research at the law library at Emory University (in Atlanta) because I couldn’t find anything around here. I didn’t charge my clients for travel, just the time I spent in the library.”
Guice’s decision can still be appealed within 30 days, McGuire said. If no appeal is filed, the county must pay the fees.
“Once Judge Guice signs and enters an order awarding attorney fees and costs, the county will have to go ahead and pay those fees and costs, unless they appeal, since the prior notice of appeal was premature,” McGuire said. “A proper appeal would put the county’s obligation for the attorney fees on hold pending a ruling from the NC Court of Appeals.”
Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan said county officials would challenge the outcome.
“I’m disappointed by the ruling,” he said. “We are going to appeal, and that’s all I can say”
Guice signed an order Feb. 14 indicating that commissioners broke the law and denied McClure, then Airport Authority chairman, due process when they removed him from his post on Jan. 12, 2005.
McGuire successfully obtained commissioners’ closed-session minutes from Jan. 11 and 12, 2005, which prove officials considered McClure’s removal in closed session. Under North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law, it is illegal for elected officials to discuss the qualifications of a member of another public body during closed session. McGuire also successfully argued that McClure had been denied due process in that he was removed from his seat on the Airport Authority without advance notice and without an opportunity to be heard.
Superior Court Judge Ronald Payne reached a similar conclusion last April when he granted an injunction that restored McClure to his post pending the trial outcome. According to documents on file in the Jackson County Clerk of Court’s Office, Payne based that decision on the plaintiffs’ prospects of winning the trial.
The series of events that led to the lawsuit was set in motion by commissioners on Jan. 12, 2005, when – with no public discussion – they removed McClure from his Airport Authority seat as part of a complex, five-part motion that also sought to transfer Economic Development Commission activities back to the control of Jackson County.
Commissioners subsequently appointed Ed Riley to fill McClure’s seat, and during elections in February 2005, Gary Buchanan and Riley were elected chairman and secretary-treasurer, respectively. That Authority election was done despite the protests of then Secretary-Treasurer Rowell and member Painter.
McClure, Rowell and Painter filed suit March 21, 2005, seeking an injunction that would restore the Authority as it was prior to commissioners’ action to remove McClure, which would also reinstate Rowell as secretary-treasurer.
Judge Payne’s April 15 injunction restored McClure and Rowell to their former positions and ended Riley’s tenure, pending the resolution of the lawsuit.
Airport Authority members have met once since Guice ruled in their favor and established their legitimacy. During that March 6 session, Authority members indicated they were ready to make up for lost time and move ahead with a planned Airport expansion project.
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