Covance suit runs up outside legal fees

Chandler has paid a private attorney more than $43,000 to defend itself against a lawsuit that could halt construction of a multimillion-dollar facility for the drug-testing company Covance.

Legal bills have been quickly racking up since the suit was filed in June because of a flurry of legal wrangling between Campana, Vieh & Loeb, the firm representing Chandler, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a Washington, D.C.-based group suing the city.

“There’s been a lot of legal filings and a lot of legal research being done on this case,” said Chandler City Attorney Mike House.

Yet, the firm has taken no depositions or appeared in court and no one was willing to speculate how much the case could end up costing taxpayers. The suit alleges elected city officials broke state open meetings laws as well as city ordinances last year when they allowed Covance to build its 300,000-square-foot facility near the Chandler Airpark.

If the physicians group succeeds, it could force the city to start the zoning process over again and, in effect, halt ongoing construction.

Since Covance decided to build its $44 million plant in Chandler, the project has been mired in controversy as residents and animal rights activists have launched a sustained protest against it. The company plans to conduct chemical and medical drug testing on animals at the site.

To help defend itself against allegations in the suit, the city hired the Scottsdale-based law firm at $175 per hour — a cut-rate deal, according to House, who claims many less experienced attorneys charge more than double that.

House said he has worked with attorney Daniel Loeb on other zoning cases in Chandler and other cities such as Tucson and Phoenix in the past. Without his expertise and legal work, House said the suit would consume most of his staff’s time.

Loeb has filed a pair of legal motions asking a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to toss out the case because the 13 plaintiffs lack the legal standing to sue the city. It is part of an overall strategy to end the case as quickly as possible and keep the legal costs from skyrocketing, House said.

Daniel Kinburn, the attorney handling the case for the physicians group, said it has spent as much as the city on the case but would not offer specific details. He said much of the firm’s money has been spent on experts to review certain aspects of the case, such as blueprints of the facility.

“They (the city) spend their money on lawyers and we’re spending ours on experts right now,” he said.

Chandler City Council members contacted by the Tribune have denied the allegations made in the suit, describing it as another “frivolous” case at the taxpayers’ expense.

However, Kinburn takes issue with describing the 22-page legal filing as

frivolous.

He said the physicians group regularly sues big companies and no judge has ever found any of its cases to be frivolous.

“Unfortunately, these lawsuit are a fact of life for big cities,” said Chandler Mayor Boyd Dunn.