Meadowlakes federal lawsuit dismissed

BY SETH GREEN • Daily Tribune Staff

MEADOWLAKES - A federal judge in Austin has dismissed former Meadowlakes Country Club owner Rick Lohr’s lawsuit against the city, the now-disbanded Meadowlakes Municipal Utility District and Mayor John Aaron.

In a nine-page order filed Monday, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks granted the defense motion to dismiss the suit for lack of subject matter, along with Lohr’s federal and state law claims and other legal motions.

“Judge Sparks dismissed the the whole case, so it’s up to the plaintiff now to re-file in (state) district court,” Aaron said.

The ruling does not affect a separate breach-of-contract lawsuit the city filed against Lohr. That suit alleges Lohr broke an agreement with the city, which stipulated Lohr would irrigate the Meadowlakes Country Club golf course with treated wastewater from the city’s effluent pond.

Lohr filed the original lawsuit in 33rd state District Court in Burnet, Aaron said, but since Lohr’s suit involved federal claims, the case was transferred to federal court. Lohr originally alleged the city, the MUD and Aaron interfered with his contract to sell the Meadowlakes Country Club to the city of Marble Falls for $3.3 million.

Those actions by the city and others, Lohr claimed, included lobbying Marble Falls not to complete the purchase; threatening to enforce a 1993 Meadowlakes ordinance that allows only the MUD, now the Meadowlakes Public Works Department, to discharge treated wastewater inside the city limits; passing a zoning ordinance; and pressuring the MUD, before its merger with the city, to agree to accept only effluent generated by Meadowlakes residents, according to federal court documents.

Marble Falls had planned to send effluent to the course.

Neither Lohr nor his attorney, Gary DeShazo, were available for comment.

Lohr’s federal suit included a “takings” claim, which Meadowlakes attorney Mick McKamie described as a case of eminent domain where the city does not compensate the landowner. Takings claims come in two varieties, he said, and Lohr’s claim fell under the umbrella of a “regulatory claim,” which means a government regulation destroyed the owner’s use of the land.

McKamie said the claim would only have merit if certain conditions were met, such as arbitrary enforcement of the ordinance.

“If the regulation does, in fact, destroy the use of the property, (the claim) could (have merit),” McKamie said. “But this ordinance is for public health.”

McKamie explained case law dictated the federal court could not decide the takings claim until after the state courts had a chance to review the case. Sparks dismissed the takings claim on that basis, McKamie said. The judge dismissed the rest of the case on the basis of another legal precedent, which held all the claims in the suit should be dismissed since they were part of the same case.

The suit included both state and federal claims, McKamie said, and the federal court does not usually hear state matters. But when a federal case includes state matters, he said, the federal court will hear the state matters as part of a federal case.

That being the situation, Sparks dismissed all of Lohr’s claims, both state and federal, without prejudice. That means Lohr is free to re-file the case in state district court, McKamie said.

“It means there’s no lawsuit against us this minute,” McKamie said.

Sparks also denied Lohr’s motion for legal fees.

The next fight, he explained, will likely deal with the statute of limitations. McKamie said the statute of limitations for a case like this is 10 years. McKamie said the defense believes that clock started ticking in 1993, when Meadowlakes originally enacted the effluent ordinance.

If not, Lohr may re-file his suit in state district court. The Meadowlakes country club and golf course has new owners and a new name, Hidden Falls.

seth@thepicayune.com

Back to main page

Meadowlakes federal lawsuit dismissed