Branson Airport LLC has agreed to a change of venue to Jackson County in a lawsuit brought against runway engineers including Kansas City-based Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co. Inc. and Springfield-based Anderson Engineering Inc.
Jackson County is home to two of the defendants, Burns & McDonnell and Lee’s Summit-based engineer E.T. Archer Corp. The move has potential to garner a larger award for the airport as urban areas are generally known to be offer larger awards to plaintiffs, according to an attorney not involved in the case, though convenience is more likely the motive.
The 4-year-old airport filed a suit Aug. 1 against four contractors for an amount to be determined by a civil jury for damages related to subsurface failures, including a partial collapse of its runway and taxiway in 2011. BKG alleges faulty design and construction work conducted by the builders of its physical foundation and runway system has left the private airport susceptible to future damages.
In its original case filing, officials say the airport has spent more than $750,000 for temporary repairs to the foundation and additional repairs “will require millions of dollars to complete.”
According to court records, Branson Airport stipulated to a change-of-venue request on Nov. 8 before the defendants made the same move Nov. 14 in what appears to be a sign the parties are in agreement. The defendants first requested a change of venue to Christian County on Sept. 25, and a host of related motions and objections followed before the plaintiff’s Nov. 8 stipulation. Through the actions, both parties have said they are prepared to take a judge assignment from the Kansas City Division of Judicial Circuit in Jackson County.
Mark Orr, a circuit court judge in Taney County, approved the motion Nov. 21.
Branson Airport Executive Director Jeff Bourk declined to comment on the venue change, and Overland Park, Kan., attorney Stephen Torline, who represents BKG, did not respond to Springfield Business Journal by press time.
Anderson Engineering Inc. is listed among the defendants in the case for its work as geotechnical engineer, and no attorney is listed in court documents representing the firm. President Neil Brady declined to comment on the case but noted the company was not directly involved with the proposed venue change.
The other defendants, Des Moines, Iowa-based general contractor McAninch Corp. and Archer Corp., have hired attorneys in St. Louis and Springfield, respectively. Michael Textor of Polsinelli PC, representing Archer, is the only listed local attorney on the case. Textor declined to be interviewed, and McAninch representative Brian McGovern in Chesterfield did not return calls for comment by press time.
“Sometimes, the location of the attorneys can drive where they’d like to have the lawsuit,” said Kansas City attorney Robert Pitkin, who is not involved in the case but has handled several construction payment dispute cases with more than $1 million at stake.
A construction litigation specialist with Levy Craig Law Firm PC, Pitkin has served as a trial attorney in both Taney and Jackson counties. Pitkin, who once represented a lender in a case against Indian Ridge, has secured a $500,000 judgment in Taney County, as well as awards ranging from $100,000 to $8 million in Jackson County, including a federal case tried in Kansas City.
He said the experience of certain judges also could play a role. “Just because it is a more urban area, in general, the judges here have more experience dealing with those kinds of cases than judges out state somewhere else in Missouri or in Kansas, for that matter. They are just used to dealing with more sophisticated business issues,” Pitkin said.
“The urban areas tend to be more plaintiff-friendly when it comes to personal injury [lawsuits]. When you are dealing with a case like this that deals with construction and economic damages, I have found that to be not as significant of an issue,” he said. “’I’m going to have to pay $3 million to fix this’ is different than ‘I lost my husband, and what’s that life worth?’”
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
