YOUNGSTOWN — The judge in yet another ongoing case against the owners of the stalled Chill-Can plant project on the city’s East Side permitted attorneys representing the company to withdraw as legal counsel.

Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Thursday granted the withdrawal motion from Justin Markota and Brian Kopp in a lawsuit filed by the city of Youngstown against the Chill-Can company.

The two attorneys had represented M.J. Joseph Development Corp., which owns the Chill-Can property, and affiliated companies, since legal action commenced in May 2021.

While a reason wasn’t publicly given for the withdrawal request, it is likely over M.J. Joseph owing money to the attorneys.

The two attorneys sought to withdraw Dec. 6 from three pending cases against M.J. Joseph.

Common pleas court Judge John M. Durkin granted the request Dec. 13 in a foreclosure case filed by MS Consultants Inc.

The 7th District Court of Appeals granted the request Dec. 22 in a $322,908 breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by MS Consultants. The court warned M.J. Joseph at the time that “failure to file the appellant’s brief by Jan. 26 may result in a dismissal of the appeal for failure to prosecute and failure to comply with the appellate rules.”

No court brief has been filed in that case as of Thursday and M.J. Joseph has failed to find legal counsel to date for any of the three pending local lawsuits it faces.

Luther L. Liggett Jr., an attorney representing MS, filed a request Jan. 27 with the appeals court to dismiss the case. A decision hadn’t been made as of Thursday.

Liggett wrote M.J. Joseph “failed to appear, let alone file a merit brief,” and given the company’s “entire absence from these proceedings,” the “appeal should be dismissed.”

In Sweeney’s Thursday decision, she made the withdrawal by the attorneys retroactive to Feb. 1 and stayed the case for the next 30 days to allow M.J. Joseph “the opportunity to obtain substitute counsel.”

Dennis J. Sarisky, Sweeney’s magistrate, ordered an in-person status hearing for March 14.

Attempts to reach Mitchell Joseph, owner of the Chill-Can companies, have been unsuccessful. The companies don’t seem to exist on anything but paper.

The companies still own 21 acres on Youngstown’s lower East Side that MS and the city are seeking to obtain through legal action.

The site was supposed to be the location of a proposed $18.8 million project that broke ground in November 2016 and was supposed to be in full operation by 2018, producing the world’s only self-chilling beverage can.

M.J. Joseph was required to construct four buildings and create 237 jobs by Aug. 31, 2021, according to its agreement with the city when it received $1.5 million in grants.

Three unfinished buildings are at the site and one employee at last count.

The city filed a $2.8 million breach-of-contract lawsuit June 17, 2021, contending the company failed to live up to its promises to develop the site.

Sweeney decided in the city’s case that the owners had to return $1.5 million from water and wastewater grants it received from Youngstown for the stalled project.

Dennis J. Sarisky, Sweeney’s magistrate, ruled July 20 that M.J. should be sanctioned $733,480.80: $414,948.09 the city spent on acquiring 15 properties bought for the project, which also included relocation expenses and $318,532.71 in demolition and abatement costs.

Markota and Kopp appealed that decision to Sweeney and asked that Sarisky be removed from the case. Sweeney hasn’t ruled on either as of Thursday.

In addition to the grant and the property and demolition / abatement costs, the city’s lawsuit contended it had lost at least $575,000 in income tax revenue from the project’s failure at the time of the court filing. That lawsuit said the “full amount of lost income tax revenue will be proven at trial,” but the city was losing about $18,333 a month. At that rate, the city would have lost about $550,000 in additional income tax revenue.

Knowing the city’s lawsuit was coming, M.J. Joseph and Joseph Manufacturing Co. Inc. filed a May 24, 2021, lawsuit against the city to stop it from reclaiming the $1.5 million in grants. That suit also contends the city doesn’t have any legal rights to money, property and buildings.

In a March 29, 2021, certified letter, the city informed Joseph he had 60 days to construct several buildings and hire about 150 workers or it would file a lawsuit. The city followed through June 17, 2021, with the lawsuit that was postponed because of Joseph’s legal action.

A Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge ruled Nov. 29 that the companies and Joseph owed $2.58 million to Richard A. Briskey, a Sunbury businessman, in a breach-of-contract lawsuit. Briskey won the case by default when the companies and Joseph never responded to the lawsuit. Briskey is now a party in the foreclosure lawsuit.