5/17/07 - County faces second lawsuit over land deal

(As published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston reporting)

A second lawsuit related to Cortland County’s ill-fated south Main Street land deal was filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court, coming as county attorneys prepare arguments for the first such suit.

Syracuse attorney Dirk Oudemool, representing the owners of Robbins Vending — who had agreed to sell property at 159 Main St. and 7 Williams St. to the county for $300,000 before the county backed out of the deal — filed a complaint asking that the county either be compelled to move forward with the purchase as agreed, or pay $120,000 in damages.

“That’s the estimate my clients came up with, based on the loss of the benefit of the deal,” Oudemool said of the requested damages. “We’ve hired an appraiser and we’ll have a formal appraisal in hand (when the case goes to court), but that’s what we’re looking at right now.”

The Legislature voted to purchase the Robbins Vending property, owned by Charles and Michael Wood, along with properties from four other landowners for a total of $894,000 in December.

In January the Legislature revoked that decision, prompting a lengthy debate and the threat of legal challenges.

To date, the Moose Lodge and Robbins Vending are the only landowners to file suit, both saying that the county’s original vote in December represented a binding contract.

“When the county reconsidered, that was nothing more than changing one’s mind, and you can’t change your mind with a contract unless the other party agrees,” Oudemool said. “Quite simply, they breached, they unilaterally decided to officiate this contract.”

Oudemool said his argument will likely not differ much from the argument being offered by Russell Ruthig, attorney for the Moose Lodge, but he did include in the suit Cinquanti Real Estate broker Susan Briggs, who brokered the deal.

“The realtor was responsible for putting all of this together, as an agent for the county, so we believe they’re equally responsible,” Oudemool said. “It’s unbelievable, they paid the Realtor for negotiating these deals, but then didn’t close with us.”