Hamilton County Superior Court Judge David Najjar has dismissed a legal action filed by the Save The Nickel Plate organization against the City of Fishers, and awarded attorney fees and court costs…meaning Save the Nickel Plate has been ordered by the court to pay the city’s legal expenses tied to this case.

“This Court finds that [Save the Nickel Plate] brought and continued to litigate frivolous and groundless claims… Accordingly, the Court finds an award of attorneys’ fees and costs to the taxpayers of the City of Fishers is warranted under these unique circumstances,” Judge Najjar wrote in his ruling.

Save The Nickel Plate alleged in the lawsuit that the City of Fishers had not adhered to the state’s Open Door Law in approving plans for the Nickel Plate Trail.

Jennifer Hallowell of the Scott Fadness re-election campaign was quick to release a statement on the judge’s ruling.

“Logan Day has only resided in Fishers less than six months but he has cost Fishers’ taxpayers thousands of dollars in what the Court ruled were ‘groundless’ claims on a ‘fishing expedition’ resulting in ‘frivolous’ failed lawsuits,” Hallowell said. “Day used the Nickel Plate Trail proposal to build a business for himself and raise his own profile. Logan Day has subjected Fishers’ residents to incredible misinformation and cost them thousands of dollars.”

Fadness’s opponent in the primary election, Logan Day, issued a statement about the judge’s decision.

“It’s unfortunate to hear that the Hamilton County courts have ruled against Save the Nickel Plate [‘STNKP’]” said Day.  “However, I’m confident that the citizens of Hamilton County are keen enough to see beyond a court’s ruling to understand the lack of integrity and public involvement in the Cities’ process of casting a new vision for the corridor.”

Day also responded to the statement from the Fadness campaign.

“Fadness has no room to talk about costing taxpayers money when he gives away unnecessary tax incentives like the 10-year tax abatement and waiver of impact fees totaling nearly $1.5M recently offered to Crew Car Wash,” Day said.  “An email circulated by the company in early February stated, ‘Crew is not asking for any tax incentives or money from the city.'”

At Monday’s Fishers City Council meeting, Day raised the Crew Car Wash issue during the public comment session, and Fadness responded that no incentives were offered for the  car wash itself, only for the headquarters building. The e-mail sent earlier by Crew only addressed the car wash itself, not the headquarters, according to Fadness.

The President of Save The Nickel Plate, Tyler Mendenhall, said after reading the judge’s ruling that his group “stands behind its claims against Fishers.”  The organization is “exploring options” on whether to appeal Judge Najjar’s ruling.  

SNP v COF (F.S. Order)(2019Apr17) (1)