Legal News

Family Court Developments: Money and Mediation

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

As settlement talks continue over the stymied Philadelphia family courthouse project, the campaigns for the two men running to be Pennsylvania's governor both refused to state this week whether they would follow in Gov. Edward G. Rendell's footsteps and release $200 million in capital funds to build the courthouse.

Press representatives for Democratic candidate Dan Onorato and Republican Tom Corbett were contacted multiple times over the past week on the question, but both campaigns kept mum on the issue.

Time is viewed as of the essence by the courthouse planners because of the possibility that Rendell's successor may not also release state funds for a county courthouse. John Estey, Rendell's former chief of staff and one of the First Judicial District's attorneys working on the deal, said in June that the project could be jeopardized if a binding legal agreement is not struck between the state Department of General Services, the court and the Philadelphia Parking Authority before Rendell's term ends in January.

Meanwhile, settlement talks over the structure of the courthouse deal continue between, among other parties, the court, the Philadelphia Parking Authority and the private developer initially scheduled to build the courthouse. Those talks have been going on for the last couple of weeks.

William H. Schorling, a shareholder with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and the FJD's counsel, said the talks are continuing but no deal has been finalized.

Mark Nevins, a spokesman for private developer Donald W. Pulver's Northwest 15th Street Associates, said, "it's fair to say the talks have been positive so far and they are ongoing."

Pulver's Northwest 15th Street Associates mortgaged the air and surface rights to the courthouse site at 15th and Arch streets from the original owner, the parking authority, and Northwest has filed bankruptcy in order to protect its real property rights at the courthouse site. The parking authority argues that Northwest breached the mortgage agreement under which Northwest was to build the parking authority a parking garage below ground and that the breach is not curable.

If a settlement is not struck, the lawsuit between the Philadelphia Parking Authority and Northwest is scheduled to go to trial the week after Thanksgiving over who owns the air and surface rights to the courthouse site. Each side will get two days to present testimony in front of Bankruptcy Judge Eric L. Frank.

In another development related to the family court, state Sen. Vincent J. Hughes, D-Philadelphia, has included a budget item in the state capital budget for public works that would allow the  Family  Court project to be built at another site besides 15th and Arch.

The item would allocate $250 million for the construction and development, as well as the rehabilitation of existing buildings, in order to potentially consolidate the  Family Court and the police administration headquarters into one site.

Hughes said he inserted the proposal into the bill because it is not clear if a courthouse at 15th and Arch streets will materialize.

Hughes said more flexible legislation is needed because the original legislation ties the courthouse construction money to a particular location and "in case 15th and Arch does not come to fruition, and everyone who is involved in the process can see that it's very possible that it might not come to fruition, especially in the time frame before Ed Rendell leaves the office."

Hughes would like to see the Family Court built at the city-owned 4601 Market St., which sits in his district. Hughes also argues that rehabilitating that existing structure would cost one-third of the projected costs of building a new courthouse building in Center City.

The capital budget has passed both the state Senate and the state House of Representatives, but the release of the capital funds is up to the governor's discretion.

The original structure for the Philadelphia family courthouse project unraveled in the wake of the revelation that the court's former tenant representative, Jeffrey B. Rotwitt, also struck a co-development deal with Pulver, who played a key role in the courthouse pre-development work. Pulver and Rotwitt have said that court leaders were aware of Rotwitt's involvement in both sides of the deal, while Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille said he did not know about the arrangement.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on October 08, 2010 (boomark / email).