Jan. 31—FAIRMONT — A dispute between a West Virginia power plant and its landlord is still dragging along in Marion County Circuit Court.

American Bituminous Power — colloquially known as Ambit — is the company that owns the Grant Town Power Plant and it has been in a legal battle regarding several disputes with the power plant landlord Horizon Ventures since 2017.

Monday afternoon, the latest chapter in the legal saga between Ambit and Horizon played out in Judge Patrick Wilson's courtroom. Although the matter was brief, it lays the stage for larger decisions expected to come this year.

Monday, Judge Wilson approved a stay order on his previous ruling from July 2022, where he ordered Ambit pay Horizon $250,000 for outstanding contractual payments. The stay order is in place until the second case on the matter is resolved in Marion County Business Court.

These two cases being judged simultaneously has led to confusion, but the motion from Monday involves contract law, while the second case in the business court has to do with rent payments.

To the surprise of Judge Wilson, neither side wished to dispute the request for a stay order. Monday's arguments were specifically about a paragraph written by Horizon's council, Mark Kepple, in his plea to the ruling, where he accuses Ambit of chicanery, which means trickery or underhanded tactics for a legal purpose.

Ambit's counsel — Charleston-attorneys Roberta Green and John McCuskey — took offense to the accusation and asked Wilson that the paragraph be struck from the plea.

"It's trivial, off-the-cuff, heat-of-the-passion response and we shouldn't pay any attention to it," McCuskey said. "They're trying to warn the court to be aware of our 'chicanery.'"

The issue taken with the language used in the plea is that Abmit's counsel felt that it besmirched the reputation of the lawyers representing them rather than placing the blame on the company.

Further confusing the issue, the conduct alleged by Horizon's council in the plea took place in the business court case, not the case at hand. McCuskey argued that further blurred the line between the two cases between Ambit and Horizon.

In his rebuttal, Kepple stood by what he wrote in the plea and claimed the blame ought to be placed on Ambit, not Ambit's counsel. His intention was to express that he felt tricked by Ambit in the business court case and that he wouldn't allow it to happen in this case.

He made clear that it was never his intention to attempt to smear the name of Ambit's lawyers. He also argued that this motion to strike does nothing to move the case forward.

"Nothing about this motion advances anything germane to this case forward," Kepple said. "What I said in my brief has nothing to do with counsel."

The judge ultimately ruled against the request for strike and approved the stay request, the specifics of which are still in discussion between the attorneys.

The suit is back in Marion County courts after the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case back to the local level in a 2022 ruling.

In writing the high court's opinion, then-Justice Beth Walker pointed out how confusing and entangled the legal problems are between the two entities.

"These parties have a protracted, convoluted, and litigious relationship dating back to the formation of their lease agreement on November 29, 1989. Much of that history is irrelevant to our analysis here, but the backdrop of that continuous litigation informs the issues presented in these appeals. At base, Horizon is the landlord and AMBIT is the tenant of certain parcels of property in Marion County, West Virginia. That property was leased for the purpose of constructing and operating a coal-fired power plant, now operated and maintained as the Grant Town Power Plant. The parties' arrangement is governed by a Lease Agreement that has been amended several times since its November 29, 1989 formation," states the court opinion.

Reach David Kirk at 304-367-2522 or by email at dkirk@timeswv.com.