AIRPORT GIVEN 30 DAYS TO ACT; INITIAL LOCKHEED SITE PAYMENT: $30 MILLION.Byline: Lee Condon Staff Writer After years of wrangling over expansion, Burbank Airport officials suddenly faced a tight deadline Thursday when a judge gave them just 30 days to come up with $30 million as partial payment for the former Lockheed property as the site of a new terminal. Burbank Superior Court Judge Carl West also ordered Burbank Airport to pay an additional $19 within the next 30 days. If the airport does not make the payments, it gives up the right to buy the site. Airport officials said the judge's CERTIFICATE, JUDGE'S, English practice. The judge who tries the cause is authorized by several statutes in certain cases to certify, so as to decide when the party or parties shall or shall not be entitled to costs. order puts their plans in jeopardy jeopardy, in law, condition of a person charged with a crime and thus in danger of punishment. At common law a defendant could be exposed to jeopardy for the same offense only once; exposing a person twice is known as double jeopardy. , because they need at least four months to get the city of Burbank to approve purchase of the 130-acre property. Under the judge's ruling after a lengthy legal fight, they will have paid Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. a total of $88 million including previous payments for the site before they even find out whether Burbank is going to kill their project. ``We've come to the most critical point in the past nine years of pursuing this project,'' said Joyce Streator, the president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority and a Pasadena City Councilwoman. ``Burbank has said it needs four months or more to consider the airport's application to buy the land, but the court is only giving us 60 days.'' The challenge now will be to get Burbank to speed up its approval process and approve purchase of the site adjacent to the airport. But it's not going to be easy given that the city of Burbank has spent the past four years waging a $6 million legal war to stop the airport's expansion plans. Burbank City Manager Robert ``Bud'' Ovrom said the airport just submitted its application last month and the city cannot just whisk through it without a proper review. ``Nobody believes we can can complete this process within 30 days,'' Ovrom said. If the city does not cooperate, Streator said, the airport might have to abandon the Lockheed Martin site and build a new expanded terminal on its own property. ``There is no way the authority can prudently justify further cash outlays Outlays Payments on obligations in the form of cash, checks, the issuance of bonds or notes, or the maturing of interest coupons. if it is not clear we will be able to use the Lockheed land,'' Streator said. While city officials support moving the terminal for safety reasons, they have demanded a mandatory curfew curfew [O.Fr.,=cover fire], originally a signal, such as the ringing of a bell, to damp the fire, extinguish all lights in the dwelling, and retire for the night. The custom originated as a precaution against fires and was common throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. on night flights and a noise budget before dropping their opposition to expansion. Residents have complained for years about constant jet noise from the facility. Last month, a Burbank jury found that the airport must pay Lockheed Martin a total of $86 million in order to take the property by eminent domain eminent domain, the right of a government to force the owner of private property sell it if it is needed for a public use. The right is based on the doctrine that a sovereign state has dominion over all lands and buildings within its borders, which has its origins in . Since the airport already had paid a deposit of $39 million, the $49 million represents the balance the airport had to pay to fulfill ful·fill also ful·fil tr.v. ful·filled, ful·fill·ing, ful·fills also ful·fils 1. To bring into actuality; effect: fulfilled their promises. 2. the judgment, plus outstanding damage claims and interest. West said that under a recent Court of Appeals decision he cannot give the airport title to the property unless the city approves the purchase - even if the authority pays for the site. Bob Crockett Robert Maxwell Crockett (born 1863, Hepburn, Victoria, died 11 December 1935 at Footscray, Victoria), was an Australian Test match umpire. Crockett umpired a total of 32 Test matches, the highest number by an Australian umpire until passed by Tony Crafter in his last match , a lawyer for the airport, argued that Lockheed Martin was trying to force the airport to drop its bid for the land by demanding payment within 60 days. ``What Lockheed is attempting to do is force a forfeiture The involuntary relinquishment of money or property without compensation as a consequence of a breach or nonperformance of some legal obligation or the commission of a crime. The loss of a corporate charter or franchise as a result of illegality, malfeasance, or Nonfeasance. ,'' Crockett said. But West doubted that the airport would walk away from its bid to take the Lockheed land after a two-year court battle. ``I'm not as concerned that everybody is going to walk away from this case,'' the judge said. ``Lockheed has been sitting here for two years waiting to get their money. I'm confident the city can work with the airport and I'm confident the airport can work with Lockheed.'' Ovrom said the judge called Chief Judge Cal is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. He was loosely based on the real life Roman emperor Caligula, who is widely considered to have been insane. He was the villain in the story "The Day the Law Died" (1978-79). the airport's bluff, in rejecting its argument that his time line would force it to walk away from the Lockheed Martin site. Sean McCarthy, a spokesman for the airport, said the money is available to buy the property within the 60-day window. The only reason airport officials do not want to hand over the money is because they have not yet secured approval from the city. The airport started its bid to take the property by eminent domain in 1997, but the trial to determine how much the airport should pay did not start until April of this year. In the midst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?" midmost of the eminent domain trial, the Court of Appeal handed down a decision that threatened to send the whole eminent domain matter into a tailspin tail·spin n. 1. The rapid descent of an aircraft in a steep, spiral spin. 2. Informal A loss of emotional control sometimes resulting in emotional collapse. . That court decided that the city of Burbank had the power to reject both the airport's expansion plans and any land purchases the airport would make for an expansion. The airport has requested California Supreme Court review of the Court of Appeal's decision. |
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