‘Frivolous action’ may cost Conneaut $57,000

July 31--CONNEAUT -- The city of Conneaut will contest an Ashtabula County judge's ruling that it engaged in "frivolous conduct" stemming from years-old litigation involving a property dispute.

Law Director Carly Prather confirmed Wednesday the city plans to appeal the ruling issued by Common Pleas Court Judge Alfred Mackey that orders a $57,000 payment for attorney fees to John and Judith Peaspanen.

The city, meanwhile, is checking with its insurance carrier to see if the cost is covered, Finance Director John Williams said Wednesday. The city won't make payment until the appeal process is exhausted, he said.

At issue is legal action taken in 2008 regarding the status of a strip of lakefront land. What may have begun as a dispute between landowners in the Craytor Brothers Willow Beach Park eventually embroiled the city when the question arose whether the land was publicly or privately owned. A few years ago, a court ruled in favor of the Peaspanens on the land issue.

The couple then filed a claim for attorney fees, alleging the city and other defendants engaged in "frivolous conduct" when it pursued a specific legal course of action. Mackey, in his ruling, said the city's motive in filing the action was to have the court determine the rightful owner rather than spend money to do the research itself.

"The court finds the city of Conneaut did engage in frivolous conduct...by bringing this action for Declaratory Judgment to determine whether it was the owner of the property that is subject to this dispute by seeking to have the court declare it as the title owner without doing the necessary research to establish that fact because it did not wish to incur the expense thereof," Mackey wrote. "Instead, it passed that burden onto the defendants, John and Judith Peaspanen, who believed they could lose up to $500,000 in value of their property if there was public access.

The conduct of other defendants, including then-law director Lori Lamer, was found not to be frivolous, Mackey wrote in the ruling.

On the matter of the legal bill, Mackey noted the Peaspanen's spent considerable money in attorney fees over a period of more than two years to establish their case for ownership.

"Instead of choosing to do the legal and title research, or hiring it to be done, to determine the property rights of this disputed strip of land, the city of Conneaut chose to file this lawsuit and leave it up to the court and the parties to sort it out," according to the ruling. "If the law director (Lamer) felt she lacked the time or experience to conduct such research, the city could have -- and the court feels should have -- done so before it launched this lawsuit. While it may have appeared to Conneaut that this was initially a boundary line dispute between (two landowners), it brought this seeking a determination concerning Conneaut's rights to the disputed property.

"The court finds the frivolous conduct on the part of (the city) in not conducting proper research concerning the ownership of the property prior to filing its lawsuit led to considerable expenditure on the part of John Peaspanen and Judith Peaspanen of attorney's fees to establish their clear title to the property, along with Darlene Buck, sister of John Peaspanen," Mackey continued.

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