Judge to hear $3M Millcreek fee case
“Millcreek Township goes to court Wednesday to try to avoid paying about $3 million in legal fees, and it is citing its budget as a defense.
If the township has to pay the fees, which resulted from its defeat in an eminent domain case, its finances would suffer, its lawyers wrote in a motion filed in Erie County Court on Friday.
“The budget of Millcreek Township in 2014 was $28.7 million,” the lawyers wrote. “A significant judgment … would have a significant impact on the finances of the township, likely causing the township to seek alternative options to raise the money.”
The lawyers are also arguing the fees are unreasonable. They outlined the township’s case in advance of Wednesday’s hearing before Senior Erie County Judge John A. Bozza.
The township is opposing the landowner in the eminent domain case. It is the Angela Cres Trust, whose trustee is Millcreek resident Laurel Hirt.
The trust incurred the fees to defeat the township’s attempt to take a small piece of the trust’s land in a flood-control project. Pennsylvania law allows winners in eminent domain cases to request reimbursement of legal fees from the loser.
The trust is arguing the fees are appropriate, and grew partly because of the township’s appeals. “Liability in this action is clear,” its lawyer said in a motion filed Friday.”
Palattella, Ed. Go Erie 27 September 2014.