Borough wins timber contract lawsuit

PALMER—In a ruling this week, a Superior Court judge found that the Matanuska-Susitna Borough acted appropriately when it ended a contract in 2002 with a logger who did not harvest the agreed-upon timber in the Chijuk Creek area.

The Chijuk Creek Forest Management Unit is near Trapper Creek, between the Kahiltna and Susitna Rivers bout 15 miles south of the West Petersville Road. The harvest was intended to not only raise revenues from natural resources but also to reduce the spread of the spruce bark beetle.

Charles Nash filed the lawsuit five years ago, appealing a decision by the MAT-SU Borough Board of Adjustment and Appeal, and asking for $5 million in damages and attorney fees. Superior Court Judge Eric Smith found that the Borough acted reasonably in terminating the contract. On Monday, Feb. 25, 2008, Judge Smith affirmed the decision of the MAT-SU Borough Board of Adjustment and Appeal. UPDATE: The ruling was later overturned in the Alaska Supreme Court, and the Borough continued the contract as part of the lawsuit. The contract ends April 15, 2018.

In Smith's ruling he writes "...the Borough worked closely with Mr. Nash, giving him a number of extensions of time in which to meet the harvest requirements; and the termination of the contract was not motivated by bad faith. A reasonable person could only regard the extensive efforts and accommodations made by the Borough in this respect as fair, especially given the fact that Mr. Nash did not meet a single deadline that had been set."

Chijuk Creek Management Area is 24,500 acres in size. Nash failed to harvest a fraction of what he was supposed to, the ruling stated.

The actions of the Borough's Land Management Division were looked upon favorably by the court.

In the five years of litigation, several attorneys handled the case on behalf of the Borough, including Attorneys Nicholas Spiropolous and Christopher Beltzer.

For more information, call Borough Manager John Duffy at (907) 746-9689.