Legal battles over Perkins Rowe likely to linger on

When U.S. District Judge James Brady certified his final judgment earlier this month against Tommy Spinosa in the Perkins Rowe case—ruling KeyBank National Associates can foreclose on the mixed-used development and collect more than $200 million owed by the developer—one might have assumed the case was over. Or, at least, nearing an end. But as in previous rulings that have gone against Spinosa, the developer’s attorneys show no signs of giving up, vowing to appeal and suggesting the three-year-old case could continue to drag on for months, if not years. With judgments in favor of the bank and other creditors continuing to mount against the developer, many wonder how much longer Spinosa can hang on. More relevant questions to ask, however, may be why the case is taking so long—if, from a legal perspective, it really is—and how many times a court can order a defendant to pay up, as the judge has done in this case, before he finally does. The answers, say legal experts, are not comforting to anyone waiting on a check from Spinosa. “Three years is really not that long in a case of a large commercial dispute,” says Dane Ciolino, a professor at Loyola University’s College of Law in New Orleans. “It’s not uncommon for complex, commercial litigation to go on for three, four, five years or more.” Read the full story in the current issue of Business Report here.