LAWRENCE COUNTY Officials to appeal ruling on loan

A county solicitor said the lower court ruling left some doubt about the case.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa.-- Mercer County commissioners are appealing a common pleas court ruling that appeared to say a county $1 million loan to the Woodland Place nursing home was illegal.
Atty. Mark Longietti, representing the county, said Commissioners Olivia Lazor and Michele Brooks gave the go-ahead for filing an appeal. A notice of appeal was filed Monday.
Commissioner Brian Beader didn't vote on the initial loan to Woodland Place and isn't directly party to the appeal, Longietti said.
Lazor and Brooks voted in August to lend $1 million to Woodland Place, the former county nursing home that was sold to a private, nonprofit entity in 1998.
Tom Amundsen, Mercer County controller, challenged the loan, saying the county had no legal authority to lend money to a private company.
Judge's ruling
Lazor and Brooks took the issue to court and Visiting Judge Harold Thomson appeared to rule in September that the county had no legal authority to lend the money to the nursing home.
The appeal is taking two directions, he said, explaining that Thomson's ruling left some doubt about the outcome of the case.
The body of Thomson's opinion made it appear that he was ruling on the legality of the loan, but the order signed by the judge simply denied the county's motion for a pre-emptory judgment, Longietti said.
A request for a pre-emptory judgment is a request to have the court act as quickly as possible because of time constraints in a case.
Thomson's order denied the pre-emptory request, so the county will file an appeal with him, basically asking that he clarify his ruling and make it a final order.
Once that is done, the appeal can move forward in Commonwealth Court, Longietti said, explaining that a case can't be appealed until a final ruling is made by the lower court.
The county could ask for a trial before Thomson on the matter if the judge doesn't amend his ruling, but there isn't any new evidence to be presented, Longietti said.
Because Monday's filing was only a notice of appeal, no grounds for making the appeal were listed, Longietti said.
Recommendation
He said he presented the case to Atty. Robert Knupp of Harrisburg, the statewide attorney for the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, and that Knupp strongly advised Mercer County to appeal.
Lazor and Brooks said they support the loan to help Woodland Place because the nursing home is fulfilling the county's responsibility to care for indigent county residents and needs some financial assistance.
The county has a larger fiscal stake in the home as well. It guaranteed an $8.8 million bond issue borrowed by the home in 2002. Woodland Place already defaulted on one payment on that loan in September, forcing the county to come up with the $220,000 payment.
gwin@vindy.com