Blackhorse lawsuit: Mayor claims ‘major legal victory’ after judge awards Robinsons only $30,000 in attorney fees

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Another milestone has been reached in the ongoing legal battle between the City of Clarksville and the owners of The Blackhorse Pub & Brewery, with a judge awarding the plaintiffs only $30,000 in attorney fees of the over $800,000 requested.

Jeff and Sherri Robinson, owners of The Blackhorse, have been engaged in a legal battle with the City of Clarksville related to the alley behind their Franklin Street establishment.

The city and the Robinsons have disagreed on whether in 2002 the city, then under Mayor Johnny Piper, promised to build an alley behind the business, and, if it did, whether later city administrations were obligated to keep that promise. Other related disputes have come up along the way.

The case so far

In 2016, the Robinsons sued the City, alleging six separate causes of action. These claims included breach of contract, violation of civil rights, promissory estoppel and inverse condemnation. Five of the six claims were dismissed by the court prior to trial.

In 2019, a Montgomery County jury returned a verdict in favor of the Robinsons’ Franklin Street Corp. on the final claim of inverse condemnation, which argued that the City had taken a portion of land owned by the plaintiffs when it installed a sewer line near the Blackhorse.

The jury awarded the Robinsons damages of $8,335 plus attorney fees.

Following that ruling, the Robinsons requested more than $800,000 in attorney fees for the ongoing suit.

Attempts have since been made to settle the matter, including a resolution in August by Councilman David Allen to settle the suit for $1.2 million, which failed to pass.

‘A reasonable rate’

Last week, Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Joseph P. Binkley Jr., who was assigned the case after local judges recused themselves, issued his ruling on the plaintiffs’ attorney fee request.

According to a city news release, Brinkley wrote that the Robinsons’ attorneys had not provided sufficient detail to show that the hours they claimed were “actually and reasonably spent in the prosecution of the inverse condemnation claim.”

“The court concludes that a reasonable fee award for attorneys Mark R. Olson and Taylor R. Dahl, which includes the time expended by both attorneys and their paralegals, is $30,000,” wrote Brinkley.

Brinkley arrived at the amount by considering what comparable attorneys would charge to for an inverse condemnation case.

“The Court finds that a reasonable hourly rate for Mr. Olson’s attorney time is $350; a reasonable hourly rate for Ms. Dahl’s attorney time is $200, and a reasonable hourly rate for their paralegals’ time is $75. The Court also finds that a reasonable amount of time to prepare and to try this inverse condemnation case to a jury verdict is approximately 100 hours,” the order said.

Mayor Pitts claims victory

Mayor Joe Pitts called the judge’s order “a major legal victory for the citizens of Clarksville.”

“The City has successfully defended itself against a torrent of legal claims and maneuvers seeking millions of dollars in damages and more than $800,000 in attorneys fees,” Mayor Pitts said in the news release.

“To date, the city has prevailed on five of six claims brought by the Robinsons. On the single count they won, a jury awarded the plaintiffs $8,335 in damages and the judge awarded them $30,000 in lawyers fees. These results vindicate the City’s decisions to protect taxpayers’ interests in court and adhere to the principle that the City should not pay off meritless claims, and should not pay more than a reasonable amount for legally valid claims.”

Robinson responds

Robinson responded to the city’s claim of victory with a promise to not back down, calling the ruling a “bump in the road.”

“The city has spend about $1.4 million on their own attorneys to not reach any resolution, to not have an alley, to basically be at the halfway point. While Judge Brinkley has issued this ruling on our attorney’s fees, to me, that is just another bump in the road. We are going to add that to the list of appeals we’ve already got from some other things we didn’t agree with from earlier in the trial,” said Robinson.

“The city of Clarksville continues to persevere on that path, and we are going to continue to fight for our rights.”

What’s next?

The Robinsons and the Franklin Street Corp. have filed a motion for a new trial on the inverse condemnation claim, as well as an appeal in the Tennessee Court of Appeals in which they argue their five other claims should not have been dismissed prior to trial, the release said.

The Franklin Street Corp. has also filed another lawsuit in federal court alleging the same claims as in the state court action. The City of Clarksville has filed a motion to dismiss that lawsuit.