Inn wins right to intervene in stub street appeal

On a cold drizzly Monday morning (March 14) things were a bit stormy in Rappahannock Circuit Court, as Judge Herman A. Whisenant tussled with one of the appellants in the latest round of actions involving the Town of Washington and The Inn at Little Washington’s “beautification” projects.

Inn attorneys David Fiske and Tom Junker appeared before the court to argue for the Inn’s motion to intervene in a case brought by attorney David Konick and four other supporters challenging the state’s vacating of a piece of Middle Street between the Washington post office and the Inn’s shops.

On Dec. 2, Konick, Marian Bragg, Christine Smith and Timothy and Mary Lou Pagano filed an appeal in circuit court of the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s Oct. 27 decision to remove the

stub end of Middle Street from its secondary-road system. The group’s complaint alleges that relevant traffic data were improperly ignored in the decision by the CTB, the governing body of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).

After granting the motion, Whisenant was immediately challenged by Pagano, who appeared to want to argue the merits of the underlying case. When Whisenant replied, “We’re not considering this today,” Pagano said he wanted assurances that his side would be heard.

By granting the motion to intervene, Whisenant said, “I am giving them [the Inn] the right to be heard as YOU want the right to be heard. Everybody’s going to have their say.”

A motion to intervene allows an outside party affected by a case to have a say to protect its interest. In this particular instance, the request for appeal does not name the Inn as a defendant. However, as the owner now of the stub street, the Inn wished to participate (intervene) in the case.

After the session, Junker said, “We filed this motion because we feel Konick and the other four appellants lack standing. The motion to intervene brings the Inn into the proceedings so we can ask that the case be dismissed.”

Meanwhile, Konick is scheduled to argue April 5 before the Supreme Court of Virginia on his petition for appeal of Judge Jeffrey W. Parker’s decision last August in which the judge rejected Konick’s original petition against the town and the Inn. Parker’s decision was based on Konick’s lack of standing. Konick is a nonresident of the town.