NCJ - Order to pay attorney fees (Bob Martel)

An interesting piece of the puzzle. The genesis of Humboldt Watershed Council? A failed lawsuit, the first of many.

Order to pay attorney fees

A taxpayer and a local nonprofit group have been ordered to pay legal fees for two separate lawsuits involving Pacific Lumber and its chief stockholder, Charles Hurwitz.

In 1995, Humboldt County resident Robert Martel filed suit against Hurwitz, alleging he had defrauded the federal government of $1.6 billion in the collapse of the United Savings Association of Texas 11 years ago, according to a report in the Times-Standard. Now Martel has been ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Hughes to pay Hurwitz' $110,123 in legal fees and expenses.

Hughes ruled that Martel's suit was "abusive litigation" because Martel had based much of his suit on information garnered from newspaper reports. Hughes also said Martel, who had filed the suit as a taxpayer, lacked standing to sue on behalf of the federal government.

Neither Martel nor Hurwitz could be reached for comment.

In a separate case, the Garberville-based Environmental Protection Information Center was ordered to pay Pacific Lumber $17,731 in legal costs as a result of a June 1997 lawsuit. EPIC sued PL in March of 1995, maintaining that the California Department of Forestry should have prepared an environmental impact study before it granted the company a salvage-logging permit for spotted owl habitat now protected as part of the Headwaters Reserve.

EPIC spokesperson Kevin Bundy said U.S. District court judge Louis Bechtle dismissed the suit because EPIC "couldn't convince the court (salvage logging) would violate the endangered species act."

John A. Campbell, PL president, recently issued a statement saying PL is entitled to the court costs.

"The favorable court ruling highlighted that salvage and other logging would not cause a take of endangered species," he said. "The court ... made clear in this case that endangered species would benefit from the working relationship developed by Pacific Lumber, federal wildlife agencies and the California Department of Forestry."

Bundy said the amount EPIC must pay is a fraction of the $700,000 PL originally requested to cover fees.