Wishing for a Christmas miracle, Tooele County officials left a Salt Lake court room disappointed Tuesday.
Third District Court Judge Randall Skanchy denied pre-trial motions for summary judgment filed by Tooele County and the county’s redevelopment agency.
Those motions, if approved by the judge, would have given the county the green light to continue the sale of Utah Motorsports Campus without the time and expense of a trial.
A favorable ruling for the county was a long shot, according to Tooele County Commissioner Shawn Milne.
“But most of us were hoping for a Christmas miracle,” he said. “But that’s not what we got. I think we knew it would most likely go to trial.”
Center Point Management — whose bid of $22.5 million for the former Miller Motorsports Park was rejected by the county commission in 2015 for a $20 million bid by Mitime Investment and Development Group — filed a complaint with 3rd District Court in August after the commission’s decision to sell the racetrack facility, now known as the Utah Motorsports Campus, to the county’s redevelopment agency for $20 million.
That sale to the county’s RDA happened after Third District Court Judge Robert Adkins invalidated the county’s sale of the racetrack to Mitime.
In the complaint, Center Point Management’s attorneys asked the court to stop the sale of UMC to the county’s RDA and direct the county to sell the property to Center Point as the “highest, best and only qualifying offer” submitted in the 2015 bidding and sales process.
Center Point Management also filed pre-trial motions for summary judgment.
On Tuesday, Skanchy also denied Center Point’s request to direct the county commission to sell UMC to Center Point without a trial.
However, Skanchy said he would take under advisement a request from Center Point to enjoin, or put on hold, the sale of UMC to the RDA pending the outcome of the trial.
Skanchy also took under advisement a motion from Tooele County to require Center Point Management to post a bond to cover potential damages as a result of the lawsuit.
A judge may grant a motion for summary judgment, essentially settling the issues in the motion without a trial, if during the pre-trial hearing there are no genuine disputes over material facts and the law dictates a ruling in favor of the motion, according to a document explaining court procedures prepared by the Administrative Office of the Courts.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Skanchy indicated several times that he felt pertinent facts of the case were still in dispute, making him uncomfortable with summary judgment.
The whole concept of whether or not the sale of the racetrack property for less than an offered bid constitutes fairness to the citizens of Tooele County is a debatable argument, not an undisputed fact, according to Skanchy.
County officials will wait for Skanchy’s ruling on the two motions he took under advisement before planning their next course of action, according to Tooele County Attorney Scott Broadhead.
“We don’t know how long the judge will take to rule on those last issues,” he said. “It looks like we’re headed to a trial, but we’ll have to see his ruling to find out the direction the trial will take.”
Meanwhile, to keep UMC open for the 2017 racing season, the county is in the process of negotiating an extension of the current management agreement with UMC, according to Milne.
“We were pleased with how they managed the facility this year,” he said.