Flagler County government is nearing a final settlement of a four-year-old lawsuit it filed against several parties after its ill-fated $1.125 million purchase of what was then known as the Sears building on Palm Coast Parkway.
The county previously settled with two of the four parties, recouping $900,000 (or $843,000, depending on which document you consult). The pending settlement would recoup an additional $125,000, netting a loss of $100,000 (or $157,000).
The settlement was negotiated by Assistant County Attorney Sean Moylan, who had handled the case, during a court-mandated mediation on Sept. 19 with Mediator Michael A. Tessitore. He reported to the court the next day that the parties had settled the case, pending signatures.
“We took a loss on the sale there,” Moylan said, “and our settlement does not pay for that. The issue is if we were to go to trial and succeed, there’s no guarantee that those damages would be awarded to us, so the issue with the settlement is, hey, is this worth it or not. We are presenting that to the commission. We believe it is worth it.”
“We can come to an agreement but the agreement is only on the condition that the commission agrees to that settlement,” County Attorney Michael Rodriguez said today.
The proposal is on the commission’s Oct. 6 meeting agenda. There was no closed-door discussion between commissioners and the county attorneys before the mediation, as is sometimes the case. State law allows for so-called “shade,” or closed-door, sessions of local governments when litigation strategy or settlements are in question. Commissioners are being briefed on the matter individually.
“This is a tentative settlement reached through mediation by our outside attorney and staff, based on prior direction from the Commission,” Commission Chair Andy Dance said, putting an emphasis on the “tentative.”
The county agreed to buy what was then known as the Sears building at 4888 Palm Coast Parkway NW in November 2018, and closed on the 8,000-square-foot property at the end of March 2019. The price was $1.125 million. The seller was Andre’a McIntyre through her company, Darnell Group.
After closing, the county discovered damage to the roof system and rain gutters and significant water intrusion, making the building unusable for the county’s purposes. The building was to have been used as a branch for the tax collector.
The county put four parties on notice that it would sue, including the realtor and her company, the owner, and Universal Engineering Sciences, the company that inspected the building on Nov. 9, 2018, before the sale.
The county settled with Darnell Group and the realtors in April 2020, when a buyer for the building was found. When the County Commission was presented with the settlement, the settlement agreement listed $1 million as the money the county would recoup. That turned out not to be the case. The building was sold to Bunnell Apostolic Church of God, also known as Christian Life Center of Flagler County, for $900,000 that September. The difference was never made clear. The figure cited in the Oct. 6 memo to commissioners is $843,000. The discrepancy is not explained.
(Two years after buying the building for $900,000, Bunnell Apostolic sold it to Calvary Christian Center, which occupies the building today, for $1.785 million.)
All that side, it still left Universal and one of its engineers, Brian Pohl, whom the county had sued for negligence and breach of contract. Pohl faced a claim of professional negligence, as he had signed the inspection report. Those are the two defendants now settling with the county.
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