Court vacates SilverWing verdict

SANDPOINT — The Idaho Supreme Court is vacating a judgment a Bonner County jury awarded to SilverWing at Sandpoint.

The high court’s unanimous ruling remands the case back to 1st District Court for a redetermination of attorney costs and fees that were awarded in the case, according to a 20-page opinion released on Tuesday.

SilverWing, the developer of a 45-unit housing project on the west side of the Sandpoint Airport that featured hybrid aircraft hangars homes, sued the county for allegedly supplying the company with an airport layout plan in 2007 that had not been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. The county further indicated that it had no plans to change the runway’s location in a manner which would affect SilverWing’s property.

As a result of the assurances, SilverWing constructed a taxiway and other infrastructure, but subsequently discovered the placement of the taxiway was not approved by FAA. The company sued the county on claim of promissory, a legal principle which holds that a promise is enforceable by law and damages can be awarded if reliance on the promise proves detrimental.

A jury returned a verdict in favor of SilverWing following a six-day jury trial in 2016 and awarded $250,000 in damages. The trial court also awarded SilverWing $704,024 in attorney fees and nearly $49,000 in costs.

In the wake of the trial, the county moved for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, which gave the trial court the last opportunity or order a judgment the law requires. Judge Richard Christensen denied the motion.

The Supreme Court held that the dispositive issue for the appeal was whether the evidence before the jury showed SilverWing suffered a substantial economic detriment due to its reliance on the county’s promises. The court ruled that the jury’s award of $250,000 in reliance damages cannot sustained as a matter of law.

“The dearth of evidence of SilverWing’s ‘substantial economic detriment’ is such that we hold there is no substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict,” Justice Richard Bevan wrote.

As a result, Bevan said the judgment the law requires is one in favor of the county. Bevan also noted that FAA ultimately approved a layout plan that did not displace the taxiway.

“By the time of the trial, the county fully performed the promises that SilverWing alleges were made; those promises were never broken,” Bevan wrote.

The court further ruled that neither party is entitled to trial or appellate attorney fees in the case.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.