Port authority charges fraud and sues ADI for $361,000 reimbursement

YOUNGSTOWN

The Western Reserve Port Authority today authorized the filing of a lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court against Aerodynamics Inc., the company that flew daily for a short time last summer to Chicago out of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

The board also approved the hiring of Atty. Peter B. Grinstein of Brouse McDowell to assist the port authority's in-house attorney, Dan Keating, with the lawsuit.

Keating was negotiating with ADI regarding whether ADI owes the port authority money or vice versa regarding the end of the flights. But the negotiations ended in November, when ADI cut off all communication with him, Keating said today.

In the suit, filed last month, the port authority alleges ADI breached its contract with the port authority and committed fraud, negligent misrepresentation and fraudulent inducement . The suit says ADI should reimburse the port authority the $361,000 that the port authority paid ADI for the flights.

ADI, conversely, wanted the port authority to pay about $300,000 to ADI, Keating said.