Judge refuses to stay foreclosure suit against Perkins Rowe

One day after hearing oral arguments on the issue, a federal judge has refused to stay the foreclosure lawsuit against Perkins Rowe while its attorneys appeal an earlier ruling to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Lawyers for Tommy Spinosa’s mixed-use development asked U.S. Judge James Brady on Tuesday to stay, or suspend, the case while they appeal a ruling he issued in November refusing to dismiss the case from federal court. Spinosa’s lawyers have tried to argue the foreclosure proceedings more appropriately belong in state court. At Tuesday’s hearing, attorneys for KeyBank National Association, which heads the group of banks collectively owed some $170 million by Spinosa, argued that staying the case while the matter works its way through the appellate system could delay proceedings for up to a year and wouldn’t be fair to lenders or to tenants and residents of the development. In his ruling today, Brady said Spinosa’s attorneys had failed to show that his November ruling “involves a substantial difference of opinion over a controlling question of law.” —Stephanie Riegel