SilverWing: No $5M settlement offer

SANDPOINT — SilverWing at Sandpoint is shooting down a claim that it offered to settle its lawsuit against Bonner County for $5 million.

Mike Mileski of SilverWing said the company attempted to settle the federal litigation and avoid a trial, but said a settlement sum was never discussed.

“We never made a dollar-amount claim,” said Mileski.

Bonner County Commissioner Mike Nielsen said SilverWing offered to settle for $5 million last month. He said the county rejected the officer, which clears the way for a jury trial in U.S. District Court in April.

SilverWing, the developer of a fly-in housing development on the west side of Sandpoint Airport, sued the county in 2012. The suit alleged that it was misled about plans to relocate a runway and Federal Aviation Administration approval of through-the-fence access to airport grounds.

The suit accused the county of breaching the covenant of good-faith dealing, inverse condemnation and denial of equal protection under the law.

Judge Edward Lodge, however, dismissed those claims on a county motion for summary judgment last November.

But Lodge left standing a claim of promissory estoppel, also known as detrimental reliance. SilverWing argued that it reasonably relied — to its economic detriment — upon the county’s representation that there were no plans to change the runway’s location or FAA issues with airport access.

County officials have downplayed the surviving claim as lesser claim when compared to the claims that were dismissed. Mileski counters that the surviving claim is substantial.

“The judge really believed that we justly relied on some of the county’s representations and have been injured,” Mileski said.

Mileski also points out that significant sums of taxpayer money are being used to retain special legal counsel out of California.

The county spent approximately $1 million defending the suit in 2013 and set aside $900,000 in the 2014 budget to further sustain its defense. Commissioners have defended the expenditures because an adverse judgment could exceed $20 million.

Mileski said SilverWing officials are still willing to sit down with the county and have a meaningful discussion about settling the suit.

“From day one we’ve wanted to sit down with them. But their idea of sitting down is them saying, ‘You dismiss the claim and you pay the legal fees,’” Mileski said.