A lawsuit filed in 2001 by Sears Holding Corp. against Barrington Hills and South Barrington has been settled with no money changing hands.
Sears claimed the two villages cost the company $15 million by interfering with its development plans. It filed the suit to remove land-use restrictions the villages placed on a portion of Sears’ 780-acre business park, located entirely in Hoffman Estates.
The two communities were able to work out the settlement with Sears by taking the debate out of the courtroom and moving it into a boardroom, officials said.
Read more here.
Good job Marty…..
What Bobbie gives away,
Marty gets back!
How much did this cost us, Bobbie?
Wow, this is huge. I didn’t even know anything about this lawsuit until last Monday’s board meeting. 13 years it went on, until McLaughlin & McCombie sat down without the lawyers and got it settled. Too bad $1.5 million had to be wasted fighting over the covenant on the land, but thank goodness the new mayors realized it was time to cut the losses and move on. And no extra taxpayer cost! Good going Martin!
This is a huge win for all involved. Thanks go to Marty McLaughlin for driving this to a positive conclusion! The Village gets rid of the black cloud hanging over our heads for a potential $10m + liability with an obstruction law suit.
The spin on this settlement has already started. Joe Messer thanked Burke Warren for their hard work. Baloney!! The suit cost the Village $1.4 million in legal fees paid to Burke Warren and we received nothing. Bob Abboud tried to pressure Sears and extort extra money from Sears or shut down their development. BW liked the fees and went along with the bad business decision.
Rumors are that the Village turned down several hundred thousand $$’s from Sears several years ago to release or minimize covenants. Development wasn’t even in Barrington Hills, but adjacent areas and we still had rights after a settlement. Thanks to Abboud and his protege Messer; the Village received no compensation from Sears, spent $1.4 of taxpayer money to BW defending and ended up in the same place – Sears can still develop.
And Messer wants us to retain Burke Warren.
Present McLaughlin, no thanks to the BOT who tried to fight you on this – great job and thanks!!!!
VBH paid 3 times more in legal fees than South Barrington even though both municipalities had identical claims and defenses pled in court – based upon the same recorded restricted covenants. My question to Trustee Meroni, did VBH pay 3 times more money in legal fees because Sears was 3 times more of a bad neighbor to VBH than they were to South Barrington?
Is it possible the answer is even more sinister – in order to keep South Barrington in the lawsuit for sake of public relations, Abboud promised South Barrington that VBH taxpayers would pay the bulk of the legal fees by having Burke-Warren do most of the legal work?
Senior members of the BOT for VBH (Gohl, Messer, Meroni and Selman) where was the oversight all these years and what will be your explanation to explain this disparity?
This difference in payment of legal fees between our two Villages in the Sears lawsuit represents the anticipated cost to VBH taxpayers for replacement of the deteriorated road (without bicycle lanes) on Haegar’s Bend.
VBH taxpayers should demand an immediate investigation!
Finally, it is time to give credit where credit is due. President McLaughlin we thank you for putting the interests of residents and our village ahead of your Apparently, the fine art of compromise is alive and well. This was arguably an administrative touchdown for you as our President. With this victory, you have demonstrated a steely bravado to solve problems with logic and intelligence and recognize when to retreat from a battle that no side could win. That is a smart strategy will reap many rewards for our village. As a result the monetary savings to this village can’t begin to be calculated yet, but we avoided a monetary pitfall for sure. One thing we can expect is perhaps a positive boost in the media, at least for a day or two!
Residents remain upset at that continued and deliberate over spending by the board and the prior President. This move by President McLaughlin now shows a deliberate resolve to move beyond our previous mindset and try and solve problems instead of creating more.
I hope this trend continues, with the continued support of our residents and their civic involvement, we can be proud of our village and the decisions that result from cautious and well-meaning planning.