TRPA makes settlement offer in Suitum lawsuit

"This amount exceeds the maximum likely award of damages at trial. However, when coupled with the costs that TRPA might incur if it continues to litigate the case, the amount is justifiable," says John Marshall, TRPA legal counsel.

Bernadine Suitum sued the bistate agency in 1991 after it classified the parcel she and her husband had bought in 1972 as a sensitive wetland, prohibiting its future development.

The Nevada Division of State Lands twice offered to buy Suitum's property, but Suitum rejected the offers, saying she wanted eventually to build a retirement residence on the lot.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 ruled that the Suitum case was ready to be tried, and a ruling in December 1998 rejected a TRPA bid to avoid a trial.

If TRPA makes the deal with Suitum, the agency would have to be willing to have a judgment entered against it. Board members were told that would mark the first time the TRPA would have to admit liability in a property "taking" case.

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