The lawsuit was filed more than two years ago.
The Stop & Shop supermarket company will be back in court next month in its quest to open a market on land that used to be the the site of the former Tasty Top restaurant, seen here in 2006.EASTHAMPTON – The Stop & Shop project will be back in court next month with one party seeking a summary judgment to allow the project to move forward and the other seeking that the permit allowing it be annulled.
Boston-based lawyer Kenneth O'Flattery, who is representing Stop & Shop, filed the motion for summary judgment.
Northampton lawyer Mark A. Tanner representing Cernak Buick wants the permit annulled because he charges that Stop & Shop had unlawful contact with each Planning Board member and Mayor Michael A. Tautznik during the permitting process.
The suit filed in February 2010 alleges the Planning Board should not have considered a second revised application from Stop & Shop, that the property owner Dennis Courtney, trustee of the Margaret H. Courtney Family Trust, did not sign the application and that a proposed traffic signal at Mountainview Street would cause access problems for Cernak Buick.
Cernak Buick is one of several businesses located across Route 10 from the Stop & Shop site.
The Planning Board approved plans for Stop & Shop to build a 45,000-square-foot grocery store and a 4,900-square-foot adjacent store at 95-103 Northampton St. in January 2010.
The board had rejected the project in a vote in September of 2009.
Tanner was given more time to depose city officials in December and filled his motion asking for the annulment earlier this month.
Tanner said that Stop & Shop said the meetings with Planning Board members were to discuss procedure but he said they could have talked to the board chairman or City Planner, who was Stuart Beckley at that time, not each individual member in closed door meetings. In his filing, he wrote that “Due process and fundamental fairness require that quasi judicial boards base their decision on information received through the public hearing process where all interested parties have the opportunity to the know the evidence and respond.”
O’Flattery said he does not discuss litigation but said that Stop & Shop would like to see the case settled so it can proceed with the project.
The hearing is set for June 14 in Hampshire Superior Court in Northampton.