Struggle endures in SilverWing suit

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County jury may have rendered a verdict in SilverWing at Sandpoint’s suit against Bonner County, but the struggle is not over yet.

A jury awarded $250,000 in damages to the developer of the fly-in residential development next to Sandpoint Airport last month, finding that it had detrimentally relied on county officials’ statements on the location of a taxiway and runway.

Attorneys for SilverWing are seeking $963,268 in attorneys fees from the county for prevailing on a claim of primary estoppel in 1st District Court and defending counterclaims filed by the county, which argued the developers had breached terms of a through-the-fence access agreement at the airport.

Attorneys representing SilverWing spent about 60 percent of its time pursuing the estoppel claim and 40 percent of its time defending counterclaims, according to memorandums and affidavits filed on Dec. 15.

County officials have acknowledged that it has spent upward of $1 million fending off SilverWing’s suit. Some have chided the county for the legal expenses it was racking up, although commissioners have defended the expenditures because an adverse judgment had the potential to bankrupt the county.

Counsel for the county, meanwhile, is moving for a judgment notwithstanding the jury’s verdict.

The county argues that the promissory estoppel claims are legally impossible because any promises at issue were made as part of the through-the-fence access agreement. Moreover, the county contends that agents who made the promises did not have the power to bind the county and SilverWing was unable to show it had incurred any out-of-pocket expenses.

SilverWing argues that it should be awarded damages as a matter of rule because of the language in the access agreement.

Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bauer said the location of the taxiway and runway were ultimately never moved and caused no harm to SilverWing.

“Since the airport was never altered to SilverWing’s detriment, this case has only to do with SilverWing’s claim of unrealized profits for the years of regulatory uncertainty surrounding its hanger-home development,” Bauer said in a 61-page motion to set aside the jury’s verdict and rescind the award of $250 damages.

A hearing on the motion is set for Feb. 9, 2017.