FAIRHOPE, Ala. - The three-year-old lawsuit filed by members of the Charles Dyas family against the city and mayor over the “Dyas Triangle” property that started in a county circuit court is now in a federal appeals court. 

That lawsuit alleges the city and mayor thwarted the family’s attempts to develop their property, while favoring a competitor across U.S. 98, where a shopping center was approved and is now located.

The plaintiffs appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals April 5, contesting a Mobile federal judge’s dismissal of the federal claims in their lawsuit.

The lawsuit was first filed in Baldwin County Circuit Court in April 2008. 

The lawsuit was moved to federal district court in Mobile by the defendant city of F airhope and Mayor Tim Kant shortly after the April 2008 complaint was filed. 

It has been there, in that federal trial court, that the case has been fought out ever since, through close to 50 depositions and hundreds of motions and several jury trial date continuances. 

Defense fees in the case have run to over $1 million, according to the defense team at the Mobile-based Hand Arendall firm.

Two days after the plaintiffs appealed to the 11th Circuit, the city and Kant appealed on April 7 the court’s denial earlier this year of their motion to recover those fees. 

“I met with Lonnie Mixon, Rick Kingrea and the attorneys, and the group all agreed to move forward with the appeal,” Kant said Tuesday. “The Dyases had filed an appeal and the discussion was should we file an appeal since the court had to hear it anyway. And so it was more or less, they’ve already filed one, so we might as well file a brief as well.”

That meeting occurred at the Fairhope office of Hand Arendall and included the defense’s lead attorney Caine O’Rear and another firm attorney, Kant said.

The appeal, and the meeting when the decision to appeal was made, came as a surprise this week to one council member who was not privy to, nor informed of, the meeting. 

“I didn’t know about the meeting or the appeal,” Councilwoman Debbie Quinn said Tuesday. “We just went into executive session Monday night, and we could go into executive session anytime to be brought up to speed on pending litigation. We should at least all be brought up to speed in such a case and get to voice whatever opinion we have about it.”

A lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Matt McDonald with the Jones Walker firm in Mobile, where Eric Dyas, one of the plaintiffs in the case is a partner, said he expected the appeal to last nine to 12 months.

O’Rear did not respond to a request for comment. 

Editor’s note: Updates to this story will be posted at www.baldwincountynow.com and in The Fairhope Courier.