By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
The federal lawsuit that the owners of the North Hills Country Club filed against Sherwood for stopping the sale of the 106-acre green space, and Ron Campbell and Roy Marple, who didn’t follow through with the $5.1 million purchase, has been stayed, or put on hold.
Federal Judge G. Thomas Eisele decided recently to stay any ruling until a lower court has ruled on Sherwood’s condemnation of the property.
Sherwood, using eminent domain, condemned the property earlier this year and has filed the condemnation order, but the court must decide the fair market price of the land that the Sherwood will have to pay Club Properties, the golf course owners.
That issue will be heard in Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox’s court at the end of July.
Fox is the same judge who heard the lawsuit over electric rates between Sherwood, North Little Rock and First Electric. He issued a ruling earlier this year, but all three parties asked him for further clarification. He has not done so yet.
Sherwood City Attorney Stephen Cobb said Eisele’s stay doesn’t dismiss the lawsuit. It just means he’ll wait until the lower court determines the cost and other issues in the condemnation.
Club Properties filed the suit last year saying Sherwood’s moratorium and other actions by the city undermined its efforts to sell the property at a fair price. Club Properties included Campbell and Marple in the suit because they want the pair to stand by its $5.1 million offer on the property.
Campbell and Marple had offered early last year to buy the property for $5.1 million and develop it into a high-end gated residential community, but they say the six-month building moratorium that the city council slapped on the property killed the deal.
After the six-month moratorium expired in October, Club Properties went before the Sherwood Planning Commission with its own residential development plan for the property. The commission has delayed any action on those plans because the city is currently without a city engineer.
In the meantime, the city council voted to use its eminent domain powers and condemned the property. Under this type of condemnation, the city takes over the property and a judge decides at a later date what the fair market price for the property is. City figures showed the property to be worth as little as $1.5 million, while Club Properties has an appraisal showing the property is worth $5.5 million.
Club Properties, in its suit, has asked the court to grant “specific performance of the real estate sales contract, as amended, on which the buyers defaulted and require the buyers to fully perform under such contract by paying the plaintiffs the sum of $5.1 million, plus interest from April 27, 2007, or the contractual costs for the delay in closing plus an award of their attorney fees and costs incurred,” according to court filings.
