Cinemark Theaters has won a key victory in its seven-year battle with Central Facilities Operating Co. over chilled water rates at Perkins Rowe. In a ruling issued on Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Brady capped at 8.3 cents per ton hour the amount the theater company owes Central Facilities for providing chilled water for the theater’s air conditioning system.
That means Cinemark will have to pay just $235,000 for seven years of unpaid water bills, instead of $846,000, which is the amount Central Facilities alleged it was owed.
Brady’s ruling clarifies an earlier ruling from August, which, the judge concedes in the new ruling, ” … was ambiguous and seemingly inconsistent” and left open the possibility that Central Facilities could argue it was entitled to more than $235,000.
With the new ruling, the issue of chilled water rates at Perkins Rowe would appear to be over. Though Central Facilities could appeal, the water-chilling plant is no longer owned by Perkins Rowe’s developer, Tommy Spinosa, whose attorneys kept the litigation going with Cinemark for several years. Earlier this month, Spinosa sold Central Facilities for $2 million to Perkins Rowe’s new owners, a Texas-based investment group. Neither side’s attorneys could be reached for comment by this morning’s deadline.
