Judge dissolves injunction on sale
A Washington County judge decided Monday to dissolve an injunction that temporarily rescinded the sale of a 125-year-old Charleroi theater to a nonprofit development group.
Senior Judge John C. Reed ruled opponents of the sale of Coyle Theater and two adjacent properties failed to show sufficient reason for continuing the temporary injunction he issued March 29, which barred any further sale or demolition of the property.
Richard Haft, who represents Charleroi Area Historical Society and two of its members, sought the injunction in an emergency motion he filed after the March 28 closing on the purchase of the theater by Fallowfield-based Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Association from Mid Mon Valley Cultural Trust.
Reed’s decision came following more than three hours of testimony and arguments. Reed granted a request from MIDA to intervene on the side of the trust in the pending lawsuit at the beginning of the hearing.
Haft pushed to keep the injunction in place, saying leaving it in place prevented the theater from being torn down in case that was the intention of the new owner.
“What’s the harm in allowing the injunction, just to make sure?” he said.
Todd Pappasergi, the attorney representing MIDA, argued the members of the historical society seeking the injunction hadn’t shown the sale poses irreparable harm.
When Pappasergi cross-examined Nikki Sheppick and Kenneth Thompson, the members of the historical society opposed to the sale, each agreed they hadn’t heard any representative from MIDA outline plans to tear down the building.
“Plaintiffs themselves testified that there is no immediate, irreparable harm to be done,” Pappasergi said.
Sheppick and Thompson resigned from the board of the cultural trust in January following a Dec. 6 special meeting in which the majority of the board voted to grant exclusive rights to buy the property to MIDA.
In exchange, MIDA agreed to pay the trust $7,500, which factored into the total sale price of $19,500 for the Coyle and two adjacent buildings.
Reed said a preliminary injunction of the type Haft was seeking requires a “heavy burden of proof” that certain criteria are met. In explaining his decision, he said he had concerns about whether some of those elements were there, including “serious reservations” about the merits of the plaintiffs’ case against the sale. He also had concerns about whether there was any “wrongful conduct” in the sale.
Haft filed a complaint in equity Feb. 8 against the cultural trust and Donna Vesely, chairman of its board, seeking to block the sale from moving forward. In the complaint, he argued the sale of the trust’s only asset to a third party whose goals doesn’t include preserving the theater was a violation of the trust’s bylaws.
Thompson said the “only project (of the trust) that has ever been carried on was the preservation of the Coyle Theater.”
Pappasergi said the only work that’s been done in the roughly 16 years was the painting of the outside of the theater and said almost all of the money now in the trust’s balance sheet is from the sale of the three buildings.
“This site has been put in the hands of an organization that can actually do something with it,” he said.
MIDA President John LaCarte testified at the hearing he’d never stated his intention was to tear down the theater. He noted it would be challenging to maintain the property as a theater.
“This property gives the ability for a large property to be developed in one project,” LaCarte said. “That’s very rare in these towns.”