Company claims Sport Mart, lawyer interfered with property sale

WINFIELD -– A Putnam County company says Sport Mart Inc. and R. Brawley Tracy, a Charleston lawyer, interfered with the sale of a piece of property, effectively ruining the pending transaction.

Withrow-Wills LLC filed a lawsuit against Sport Mart Inc. and Tracy on Feb. 27 in Putnam Circuit Court.

The plaintiff says it holds the title to four lots in Poca. It got the land through a transfer from Gary Curtis Cullifer and Deborah L. Cullifer.

The Cullifers entered into a promissory note with the plaintiff for the property. The note was secured by a deed of trust, according the complaint.

The Cullifers only made two payments on the note in 1987 and then defaulted, the complaint says. The note and lien were then assigned to the defendants.

Around September 2008, the plaintiffs claim they entered into a contract to sell the property. Lawyer James Garvin, during preliminary examination of the title, found that the deed of trust and promissory note were potential clouds on the title.

Garvin then allegedly asked the defendants to release the note and deed of trust so the title could be clean, but have so far refused to do so.

As a result of this inaction, the plaintiffs claim the pending sale of the property fell through.

The plaintiffs want the note and deed of trust to be declared unenforceable, invalid and time-barred by a judge. The plaintiffs also want to be compensated for any losses they may have incurred, including punitive damages.

J. Robert Leslie is representing the plaintiffs.

Putnam Circuit Court case number: 09-C-70