HARRISVILLE – A Ritchie County jury has awarded the county’s Economic Development Authority nearly $1 million in damages in a trespassing case.
On December 7, a six-person jury awarded $942,400 in damages to the RCEDA from Ronald Lane Inc. of Clarksburg for wrongfully trespassing on its land.
We appreciate the jury’s dedicated service in this case,” said attorney Scott A. Windom, who represented the EDA. “They waded through a lot of evidence and deliberated carefully before reaching this verdict.”
According to the evidence, Ron Lane – as president of Ronald Lane Inc. – sought assistance from the EDA to obtain a public funds grand in July 2002 for the extension of water and sewer service to his property along U.S. 50 near Ellensboro.
He also asked for the authority’s help to gain Department of Transportation approval for a break in the controlled access of U.S. 50 and for the installation of a turn lane onto the property.
In exchange, Lane said he would develop commercial attractions on the property, including a hotel, swimming pool, restaurant, convenience store, gas station, fast food restaurant, car wash, retail strip mall and a tractor sales store.
According to documents, Lane and RCEDA Executive Director Kent R. Spellman negotiated a memorandum of understanding for the deal in January 2008. Lane agreed to deed 10.8 acres of the 23-acre tract of land to the EDA for the Ritchie County Industrial Park site. The EDA agreed to pledge that property as collateral for the government loan funding for the water and sewer extensions.
The EDA obtained a $1.1 million Appalachian Regional Commission grant in mid-2008 to pay for the water and sewage extension project. The balance of $261,000 was financed through a governmental loan made to the local Ellenboro Lamberton Public Service District and the EDA. Lane conveyed the 10.8 acres to the EDA in October 2008.
But, things didn’t go as planned. The 2008 recession led to an economic collapse, the prospective contracts for the project “just dried up, and the phones stopped ringing.”
“It (the project) never became the commercial center we were told it would be,” said Harrisville Mayor Alan R. Haught, who also is an EDA board member.
“Just calling a site an industrial park doesn’t make it so until there are committed projects,” Spellman said. “The state won’t put a road to nowhere. It was up to Lane and the EDA to solicit tenants.”
By 2011, trial witnesses testified that Lane’s company changed its focus to the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom. Instead of the commercial retail project, Lane developed the site into a pipeline storage yard that was leased to Dominion Energy. In addition, Lane sold water from the site to EQT for hydraulic fracking and developed a water trucking facility, concrete plant and campground for natural gas workers.
In 2016, Lane leased the 23-acre tract of land known as the Ritchie County Industrial Park site (which included the 10.8 acres deeded to the EDA) to Columbia Gas as a heavy equipment storage facility.
The lease said Lane would receive an advance payment of $3,000 per acre per month for a term of three years — more than $2.4 million — for the entire 23 acres.
Included in that total amount was $1.166 million paid to lease the 10.8 acres owned by the EDA, but Lane did not notify the EDA of the lease agreement or payment.
During the trial, Lane testified he needed the advance payment to pay the $3 million development costs required to make the Ritchie County Industrial Park site lease property usable by Columbia Gas. Lane also admitted his own company did the site development work, but he was unable to produce the paid invoices for the expenses.
After Lane’s attorneys unsuccessfully demanded the EDA revert the 10.8 acres back to him, the EDA filed a declaratory judgment action against Lane in July 2018. The EDA asked to confirm the deed transfer and award damages plus interest for the lease monies improperly paid to Lane.
“This is simply a case of Ron Lane wanting to eat his cake and have it, too,” Rod Windom said.
The EDA was represented by Rod and Scott Windom of Windom Law Offices in Harrisville. Ken Webb Jr., Chud Dollison and Evan Conard from Bowles Rice’s Charleston office represented Lane. Ritchie Circuit Judge Timothy Sweeney heard the case.
“The RCEDA has filed a post-trial motion for the award of pre-judgment interest on the amount of the jury verdict from 2017 until the verdict,” Scott Windom said. “That was the amount of time during which RLI enjoyed the use and benefit of the RCEDA’s money, and those dollars should be restored to the plaintiff.
“If granted, that interest will increase the total award to more than $1.2 million.”
Ritchie Circuit Court case number 18-C-17