Airport insurer files to avoid paying damages from eviction procedings

May 22--YAKIMA, Wash. -- The insurance provider for Yakima Air Terminal has asked a U.S. District Court judge to rule that the company is not obligated to cover potential damages for the airport's wrongful eviction of M.A. West Rockies Corp. more than six years ago.

If the judge agrees with the insurance company, Yakima Air Terminal, which was co-owned by the city of Yakima and Yakima County at the time of the eviction, may be on the hook for potentially millions of dollars in damages for the March 2010 eviction.

M.A. West Rockies operated Noland Decoto Flying Service, a fixed-based operator that leased space at 2810 W. Washington Ave. and provided services such as hangar storage and fuel. The airport evicted the company and ended its access on the premise that it was frequently late on rent.

In December 2013, however, a state appeals court ruled that the airport had wrongfully evicted M.A. West Rockies, and the case was sent back to Yakima County Superior Court. A trial to determine damages for the now-defunct M.A. West Rockies and its creditors is scheduled to start in March 2017.

In a court document, Westchester Surplus Lines Insurance Co. outlined several reasons why the airport's insurance policy should not cover potential damages, including that the eviction occurred before the start of the policy in July 2010.

Attorneys for the airport counter that M.A. West Rockies and its creditors didn't seek damages until after the appeals court ruling, which was well after the airport's policy start date.

Judge Thomas O. Rice is scheduled to consider Westchester Surplus Lines Insurance Co.'s motion during a hearing May 26 in the Thomas S. Foley United States Courthouse in Spokane, but the hearing has been rescheduled several times already and could be rescheduled again.

If the judge doesn't grant Westchester's request for a summary judgment dismissing the case, a trial is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 12 in Yakima for a jury to settle the issue.

Meanwhile, the airport continues to assert that its former attorney was negligent in his duties during the M.A. West Rockies eviction proceedings. The airport is seeking to reverse an earlier dismissal of its malpractice lawsuit in Yakima County Superior Court against Yakima attorney Russell Gilbert and his firm Lyon, Weigand & Gustafson.

In dismissing the suit, Judge David A. Elofson found the airport had not provided sufficient evidence that Gilbert or the firm committed malpractice that led to the unfavorable appeals court ruling in 2013.

According to court records, attorneys for the airport asked Elofson to reconsider the decision, arguing there was evidence of negligence on the part of Gilbert and his firm. But Elofson denied the reconsideration request, prompting the airport to appeal his decision at the end of February. There has been little activity in the case since then.

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