YOUNGSTOWN — The city has an agreement in principle with the owner of the former Anthony’s on the River building who filed a lawsuit over the controversial demolition of the structure in 2020.

Attorneys for Two Bridges LLC, the property’s owner, and the city reached an agreement after a three-hour mediation Monday with U.S. District Court Magistrate Carmen E. Henderson, according to a federal court docket entry.

Charles Dunlap, attorney for Two Bridges, is to provide a draft settlement agreement to the city by next Tuesday with the court retaining jurisdiction over the case until the agreement between the two is finalized, according to the court docket.

Dunlap said the agreement “is fair to both parties.”

Dunlap said the settlement includes a “confidentiality, nondisclosure” provision so he couldn’t comment further Tuesday.

Lou D’Apolito, the city’s interim law director, said Tuesday: “We are working toward a resolution. We’re close. We agreed to the major issues. The major issues are resolved. I’m pretty confident we’re going to get it done, but we’re not done yet.”

D’Apolito said he has to get final approval for the agreement from Mayor Jamael Tito Brown.

D’Apolito said he was “not quite sure what it means by nondisclosure,” and was seeking to get an answer from attorneys handling the case.

That’s because any settlement of at least $25,000 would need to be approved by city council and then the board of control at public meetings. If the settlement is under $25,000, the board of control would need to approve it at a public meeting.

Also, if the city is covered by its insurance, it has a $50,000 deductible that would require the board of control approval, and the settlement is a public record. The board already has blanket approval on all settlements that cost only the deductible.

In its response to the lawsuit, the city argued it had “statutory immunity” from the 14th Amendment’s due process provision and couldn’t be sued for demolishing the building on Aug. 22, 2020, despite not first informing the owners, Two Bridges LLC.

U.S. District Court Judge Benita Y. Pearson denied that motion on May 10, 2022, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected the city’s appeal this past June 15, sending the case back to Pearson.

The demolition was done without first informing city council, which was going to vote four days later on paying for the emergency demolition. Several council members learned about the demolition after being contacted about it by a Vindicator reporter.

The issue so greatly upset council members that they refused to pay the $48,000 demolition cost until June 2, 2021, when Jeff Limbian, then the city’s law director, said Steel Valley Contractors, the Youngstown company that did the work, was going to sue over nonpayment.

LAWSUIT

Two Bridges was seeking $212,000 in damages — the value of the demolished building — along with attorney fees and costs in the lawsuit.

Two Bridges first sued on Nov. 13, 2020, in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The company contends the city’s emergency demolition ordinance, which allowed the building to be taken down, violates the Ohio Constitution and Youngstown deprived it of its property without due process in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

The case went from local court to federal court on Dec. 14, 2020.

Pearson dismissed the claim that the city’s emergency demolition ordinance violates state law, but refused in that same May 10, 2022, ruling to grant summary judgment to Youngstown on the federal due process claim.

That resulted in the city appealing that decision on June 2, 2022, to the 6th Circuit.

The appeals court agreed with Pearson in a June 15 ruling and sent it back to her for the trial to proceed in her court.

The city’s emergency demolition ordinance “deprived Two Bridges of its right to due process,” the decision read.

The city argued its law requires no notice to a property owner before an emergency demolition yet the U.S. Constitution states that no person shall be deprived of property without due process of law, the decision read.

It added: “Viewing these allegations in context, it is apparent that the claim focuses on Youngstown’s alleged failure to afford Two Bridges appropriate procedural safeguards before destroying its property.”

The city argued fire Chief Barry Finley, who issued the emergency demolition order, has that authority. Dunlap said the matter wasn’t an emergency, and the city should have held hearings to give property owners the right to appeal emergency demolition declarations.

Two Bridges owes $83,066 in delinquent property taxes. That includes $48,000 assessed against the company by city council on Jan. 5, 2022, for the demolition costs.

Dunlap has said the building wasn’t taken off the county property tax roll by the city, and the only property taxes owed are for the property and not the building.

The structure was built in 1910 and opened as Anthony’s on the River in 1997, closing about a decade later and stayed vacant. Two Bridges bought it for $100,000 on Feb. 20, 2019, contending it planned to use it for a restaurant, offices and housing.

In its lawsuit, Two Bridges said it had repaired the roof, removed debris from the building and moved an antique bar in before it was demolished.

By the time of the emergency demolition, several municipal code violations and related complaints were filed against Two Bridges, according to the appeals court decision. The city mailed multiple notices to Two Bridges in 2019 advising the building was in unacceptable condition, but sent them to the vacant building and no one from Two Bridges received any notices, the court decision reads.

Finley and Michael Durkin, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent, inspected the building on June 12, 2020, to determine if it posed a fire hazard.

They observed the roof had apparently sunk about 6 to 12 inches on all sides. Finley, on June 12, 2020, concluded it was a fire hazard and danger to human life.

It was demolished Aug. 22, 2020.

SIMILAR CASE

The tentative settlement on this property comes less than a week after city council and the board of control approved a $110,936.74 payment for a lost court case in which items were improperly removed and destroyed by a city-hired contractor from a South Avenue property in preparation for a demolition.

The items were removed from 905 South Ave., a storage warehouse owned by Carl A. and Patrice Ross, on Nov. 25, 2020, about three months after the emergency demolition of Anthony’s on the River.

In the South Avenue case, Finley also had declared an emergency demolition after Durkin requested he inspect it.

The couple filed a complaint Nov. 30, 2020, in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court against the city for “forcibly” entering the South Avenue location and removing several items including tools for their construction business, personal property, an antique automobile and a snowmobile.

In a June 6 court decision, Judge R. Scott Krichbaum upheld the March 14 ruling of Magistrate Timothy G. Welsh in favor of the Rosses and against the city, Finley and Durkin.

The decision gave the Rosses $54,588 for the property that was destroyed — the couple was seeking $126,940 — as well as $40,676.35 in legal fees and the rest — $15,672.39 — for 5% annual interest since Nov. 25, 2020, when the property was removed, as well as the cost of the court action.

City council agreed Dec. 6 to authorize the board of control to make the payment. The board voted Dec. 7 during an emergency meeting to approve the payment.

Because it took so long for the city to pay, an attorney for the Rosses filed notices of garnishment against the city on Nov. 6 that were approved Nov. 17 by a judge. An attorney for the city offered no defense to the garnishment at a Dec. 4 hearing but told the magistrate that the matter would be resolved by Dec. 7.

dskolnick@vindy.com