By Gwen Davis

As previously reported by the Highline Times, the City of SeaTac was ordered to pay $18.3 million to Gerry and Kathy Kingen, after a judge ruled that the city cheated the couple out of a piece of land. The City of SeaTac was the loser and K&S Developments was the winner in the largest land use judgement in the history of Washington State on July 8. In addition the judge, made a recommendation that the in house counsel for the City of SeaTac be formally sanctioned in a case that involved years long deception and dishonesty by the City and its staff. The Kingen's are the owners of Salty's Seafood Grills in West Seattle, Redondo and Portland.

However, SeaTac did not pay and instead appealed the ruling.

(SeaTac City Manqger, Joseph Scorcio was contacted for comment and has not responded.)

But on Friday, the Times learned of a new development related to the case.

The Kingen’s attorney, Bradley Andersen with the Landerholm law firm told the Times that he recently learned that SeaTac allegedly failed to turn over key documents related to the case and fired a City employee who attempted to bring them forward.

Meghan Howey, former City of SeaTac code compliance administrator, approached the Kingen's this past November saying she was fired, after she told her supervisor about the need to turn over more public documents regarding the Kingen lawsuit.

"After the verdict, was assigned to find public documents for us, and when she brought them to her supervisor’s attention, she was told to bury them,” Andersen said. "She refused, and was fired a couple days later."

A plaintiff’s memorandum (see attached file) filed by the attorneys for K&S Development that Andersen sent to the Times stated:

"K&S [Kingen’s just learned from a former City of SeaTac employee, Meghan Howey, that the City may have improperly withheld documents that responded to K&S’s 2010 public records and discovery requests. Ms. Howey says she was fired on because she challenged City Officials about these documents. She also describes the documents as very incriminating and that she felt the City was directing her to essentially bury them."

Therefore, Andersen now might charge the city with public document obstruction, along with fighting the appeal.

The memo continues:

"K&S has information to reasonably believe that the City intentionally failed to produce additional incriminating documents. This information could be relevant if this lawsuit is remanded on appeal or to allow K&S to pursue additional remedies.”

Overall, the city currently owes the couple $19.3 million. According to Andersen, every day that the city does not pay the original sum, an additional $6,000 fee is tacked onto the payment.

“I usually tell clients it takes between 16 to 24 months for the first round of the appellate process,” Andersen said.

In other words, the city is taking a huge gamble with the appeal. If it loses, the city will need to pay millions more than it already has to presently.

Additionally, the city’s insurance company said it won’t cover the cost, claiming that the city knowingly did wrong, according to a resident familiar with the situation, but who requested anonymity for this story. The city is now going through a second litigation case with the insurance company.

Speaking on behalf of K&S Development the plaintiffs, Kathryn Kingen said, "In our case, Judge McDermott found that the City had failed to produce many of the public records that contained evidence damaging to the City. So we were not surprised to learn that there are additional documents that the City failed to produce. It was very upsetting to learn that the brave Seatac employee who tried to do the right thing, and brought these concerns to her supervisors was fired.  We certainly appreciate her contacting our attorney and look forward to having our lawyer take the deposition of those responsible for this."