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The former owners of the ill-fated Trinitas golf course will likely have their $12 million civil rights suit against Calaveras County moved from a federal bankruptcy court to the U.S. District Court for Eastern California in Fresno. Malcolm Gross, a Colton attorney representing Michael and Michelle Nemee, indicated to U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Ronald Sargis in a Wednesday afternoon hearing in Modesto that he will file to have the jurisdiction changed prior to a Nov. 28 status hearing scheduled in Sargis’ court. Sargis ruled against the Nemees after hearing their suit in October 2011 that sought to overturn the county’s order to stop golf activity at the course. The plaintiffs argued unsuccessfully that golf should be considered “agritourism” by definition in the county code. The Nemees then lost the golf course to foreclosure in April and a U.S. District Court judge ruled their appeal of the agritourism suit had thus been rendered moot. That ruling has since been appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco, which is awaiting initial briefings on the case from the Nemees’ lawyers in October. The civil rights suit filed on the eve of the agritourism suit trial names several former county employees including former interim Community Development Director Brent Harrington and alleges they denied the couple’s rights to due process in handling the project. The amount sought is intended to reimburse them monetarily for the investment they ultimately lost when the 280 acres near Wallace were foreclosed upon and sold. Attorneys for the Nemees and the county agree that the civil rights suit should be stayed at least until the Ninth Circuit weighs in on the case. However, attorneys for Calaveras County preferred Sargis hear the civil rights case whereas Gross favored a different venue. Sargis did not object but told Gross he must be the one to tell the District Court the case no longer has substantial relation to the Nemees’ Chapter 7 bankruptcy and should be stayed pending the appeal. “If you want me to just put this in the freezer and chill it … if I’m going to put it in storage for you, I’d really need an agreement from both (sides) to have me hear it,” Sargis said. Sargis said he does not have the proper authority to unilaterally transfer the case to the District Court but agreed that “at this juncture, this lawsuit has very little left to do with the bankruptcy.” |