AS CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES,
OUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH
AND
OUR RIGHT TO PETITION OUR GOVERNMENT
MAY BE AT RISK!
READ ABOUT A LAWSUIT
AGAINST
THE NORTH AIRPORT DRIVE
CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Quoted from RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH ARTICLE , Thursday, August 3, 2006
A Henrico County landowner’s lawsuit against neighbors who opposed a
rezoning can proceed, a Henrico Circuit Court judge has ruled. The eastern Henrico
landowner wants more than $5 million from neighbors who opposed the rezoning, alleging the neighbors used a fraudulent petition
to persuade the Board of Supervisors to deny the zoning request…….
The case involved re-zoning of a 35.5 acre parcel generally between North Airport
Drive and N. Washington St.
The suit claims that neighbors falsely represented having a petition signed
by more than 100 residents in the Varina District who opposed the rezoning. The
landowner’s lawyer, Steven S. Biss, argues that the petition is “fictitious, fraudulent, phony and objectively
baseless” because it lists names more than once and signatures of people who did not actually sign it. Biss client – Anita B. Hamilton, trustee of the Judith Agee Johenning Revocable Trust – is
seeking damages from Phillis Ladd Blackwell, Robert V. Gary and the North Airport Drive Civic Association.
The Richmond Times Dispatch reporter further noted that the case involved First
Amendment Issues.
The neighbors’ attorney, John W. Montgomery Jr., argued in a July 21
hearing in front of Circuit Judge Daniel T. Balfour that his clients acted within their constitutional rights of free speech
and the right to petition a governmental agency. Neighbors brought up routine
rezoning concerns, including traffic and lot sizes, in front of the board. “We
did not lie, we didn’t come close,” he told Balfour.
Biss told Balfour during the hearing that the neighbors’ petition was
grossly misrepresentative and that he plans to show that the document was forged. The
first amendment protection of free speech does not allow someone to lie, he said. “In
this case, the First Amendment was not intended to protect fraud,” he said.
He further argued that board members cannot help but be influenced by what they hear and he expects the evidence to
show that the board was influenced by representations made at the meeting. The
neighbors “lied to the board, and they influenced the board to make a decision,” he told Balfour. “It was the lies that caused the board to vote no.”
The trust owns about 29 acres of agriculturally zoned land between North Airport
Drive and North Washington Street. In 2005, WWLP Development LLC agreed to buy
the land for $1.5 million contingent on a rezoning from agricultural to residential.
The developers worked with county planning staff, and the Planning Commission
recommended approval of the project. When the case came before the Board of Supervisors
on December 13, Blackwell was one of the four people who spoke against the project.
Also reported concerns from other citizens.
The lawsuit has drawn the attention of other parties…..who have said
the case resembles a SLAPP suit – a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
