Junkyard opponents request summary judgment

A shot was fired Thursday in the ongoing legal battle over Yakima County's controversial relocation of an auto wrecking yard.

Opponents of the move -- which takes Douglas Auto Wrecking from an island in the Yakima River and puts it along one of the region's main wine-tourism thoroughfares -- filed for summary judgment in their lawsuit against the county and the owners of the junkyard.

The filing was done in Yakima Superior Court, which is where the original suit was filed in April. A common step in civil cases, a summary judgment is when a court rules on a matter without a full trial.

In his request for such a judgment, attorney Jamie Carmody of Yakima, on behalf of opposition group Citizens Protecting Resources, argues that the county clearly violated the law by essentially using $800,000 of taxpayer money to fund a business relocation.

"The expenditures were only for the benefit of a private business," Carmody wrote in the filing. "And all Yakima County received in exchange for the new facility was Douglas Wrecking's promise to vacate the island property."

Carmody filed the motion for summary judgment around 4 p.m. Thursday.

County fish and wildlife biologist Joel Freudenthal, who has coordinated the project, was not immediately available for comment. Nor was Kenneth Harper, one of the attorneys for the defendants. David Thompson, the other defense attorney, said he had not yet read the motion and had no comment.

County officials have repeatedly said that they believe they were within the law in their handling of the relocation.

The dispute over the relocation began heating up in June after Yakima County commissioners approved paying Quintin Douglas to relocate. Opponents, including representatives of the Valley's wine industry, objected to the new location, along the Yakima Valley Highway near several wineries.

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