Summit County was granted a temporary restraining order against developers Nate Brockbank and Josh Romney on Wednesday. The developers are hoping to build a commercial development on the Richardson Flat land East of Park City.
The ruling by Utah 3rd District Court Judge Richard Mrazik prevents Brockbank, Romney, and their associates from temporarily moving forward with any development plans regarding disputed parcels of land in the Richardson Flat area of Summit County.
The county claims a foreclosure sale conducted between Wells Fargo Bank and Brockbank for the Richardson Flat parcels was done improperly and should be void.
Summit County also alleges the parcels were illegally subdivided to exclude land designated as an EPA hazardous waste zone left over from Park City’s days as a mining town.
Judge Mrazik characterized the scope of Summit County’s claims as broad -- even too broad -- but found the county did have grounds for a temporary restraining order.
“The court finds that Summit County has shown that it is entitled to a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Brockbank Entities from selling, transferring, or otherwise taking any action in furtherance of development of, which explicitly includes giving consent to annexation of the parcels that were created out of what has historically been referred to in public records at the Summit County Recorder’s office as parcel SS-87,” said Judge Mrazik.
Wells Fargo Bank foreclosed on the parcels, which were owned by the United Park City Mines Company and are known as SS-87 and SS-88, and conducted the sale in February of this year. According to Utah Legal Services, if a property is being foreclosed on, a sheriff issues a writ of execution that then allows the property to be sold.
Summit County alleges the use of Justin Lampropoulos as a constable to conduct the foreclosure sale by Wells Fargo and Brockbank renders the sale invalid. According to the county’s parcel map, SS-87 and SS-88 are currently still owned by the United Park City Mines Company.
Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson argued there is no constable authorized to conduct foreclosure sales in Summit County and Lampropoulos misrepresented himself in order to conduct the sale.
“This constable was not authorized by the county legislative bodies, required by code,” Olson said. “He was a constable apparently appointed in Utah County in 2019. He came into this jurisdiction without notifying the sheriff, as required by law, without identifying himself properly, as required by law, holding a foreclosure sale which constables have no legal authority to do, issuing a real estate deed which constables have no legal authority to do, and calling himself a ‘Constable for the State of Utah,’ which there’s no such thing.”
Lampropoulos is an Executive Vice President at Merit Medical in Jordan, Utah, and is also named as a defendant in Summit County’s lawsuit.
Summit County alleges the attempt to use an unauthorized constable to push through the sale is evidence of an effort to sidestep Summit County’s zoning laws and regulations in order to obtain the property.
A second hearing is scheduled to determine whether the temporary restraining order will be converted to a preliminary injunction on September 22nd.
