Posted on 12/18/2007 9:14:30 PM PST by SmithL
The Half Moon Bay City Council was poised late Tuesday to hire a team of appellate lawyers and a financial adviser to help it address a potentially ruinous federal court order that the city pay $36.8 million to a developer in a property dispute.
The council planned to hire Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a San Francisco law firm that specializes in public finance and corporate law, and Piper Jaffray, a financial firm that has worked with cities across the state. They will work with the council on what to do about a court judgment that is more than three times the coastal city's $10 million annual budget.
"The very existence of our city government is threatened," the City Council said in a joint statement released last week.
Piper Jaffray told the city its advice would cost $22,500 over the next year. The costs for legal representation depend on several factors, including "the course of the appeal, the extent to which a settlement can be reached" and other issues, wrote John Knox, a partner at Orrick designated as the point person for the city.
The five attorneys expected to work on the case have hourly rates between $550 and $755, Knox wrote in a proposal to the city.
Those costs come as the City Council wrestles with its next course of action.
Filing an appeal to U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's Nov. 28 ruling might require Half Moon Bay to put up a multimillion-dollar bond, something the City Council said would mean "significant budget cuts across the board."
Other options include out-of-court settlement talks, arbitration once an appeal is filed and the unlikely scenario of dissolving the city through a complex legal process, officials said.
The city's dilemma arose from a dispute over a 24-acre parcel just east of Highway 1
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Sounds like the city tried to steamroll the owner/developer and it has blown up in their pompous faces.
They can hire me...I’m available for $1.2 million. My advise....pay.
Who do I send my bill to?
Un-freakin-believable.
The city is getting what it deserves.
hehehe, it did alot more than that......I love it.....
maybe they'll think twice now, before "taking" a person's property....it serves them right.
“If it costs us $36.6 million in legal fees to avoid paying that $36.8 million judgement, that saves us $200,000. Hand me the Rolodex!”
The cheapest solution would be to buy a comparable 25-acre parcel and give it to the developer they screwed.
25 acres of coastal land that can be fully developed is probably worth what the judgment was for.
As if by magic!
I read a long article about this and the city really thought they had this sewed up and were going to take this man’s land for little or nothing.
They were oh-so-wrong.
I seem to recall there is a provision in the CCP (or perhaps the government code) which permits municipalities to seek court approval to pay judgments over time.
To bad the guy can’t go after the city officers personally who tried to take away his property rights.
From the hourly rates and the total given, the lawyers intend to spend only about 34 hours on the case. Dividing that amoung 5 lawyers, gives less than a days work each. How much can they do for that much?
Oh. They are just getting their foot in the door.
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