AED seeks decision reversal following bridge ownership court findings.
Newspapers based close to the disputed Bellaire Bridge are reporting that District Judge John T. Mitchell of Kootenai County, Idaho, issued a memorandum Monday stating a demolition agreement between Advanced Explosives Demolition and KDC Investments was an “illegal contract from AED’s standpoint.” The agreement was not valid since AED failed “to obtain a valid contractor’s license and procure the necessary permits before entering into the demolition agreement with KDC,” the memorandum continues.
But DemolitionNews can exclusively reveal that AED owner Eric Kelly is not taking this decision lying down and has appointed legal counsel to have the court’s decision overturned and, ultimately, to pursue an appeal.
We have been given access to a letter drawn up by AED’s legal counsel – Art Bistline – and it is reproduced verbatim below:
To Whom It May Concern:
In early 2010, AED and KDC agreed that once AED acquired the bridge from Roger Barak’s company, then AED would sell the bridge to KDC for $25,000 and KDC would then hire AED to perform the blasting work on the bridge. The parties reduced the sale’s agreement to writing on May 20th, 2010, and KDC failed to pay the purchase price as required by the parties’ agreement. AED then terminated the sales agreement.
AED and KDC continued to negotiate and agreed to go forward, provided KDC execute a written contract or AED to perform the blasting work, which KDC did. KDC then breached the blasting agreement by failing to make the first payment due under that contract.
AED sued KDC for damages and to rescind the sales contract based on the breach of the contract to perform the blasting work. The Court ruled that the parties’ agreement that AED perform the blasting work was illegal because AED did not have a West Virginia Contractor’s license at the time of the making of the agreement. In West Virginia, you cannot refuse to pay a contractor who has performed work because that contractor did not have a license, so the rationale for the Court’s ruling that the agreement for AED to perform the blasting work is illegal because AED did not have a contractor’s license will be challenged on appeal. While it may be illegal from a criminal law perspective to perform contracting work in West Virginia without a license, it is not “illegal” in a private contractual sense.
AED will be moving to modify the judgment on the grounds that if the agreement that AED blast the bridge was illegal and thus void, the entire agreement to sell the bridge is also void, and on other grounds. If the judgment is not reversed, the matter will be appealed.
Very truly yours,
Arthur M. Bistline
1423 N. Government Way
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83814
