Wilkes County jury rules in favor of Bristol Compressors

Bristol Compressors didn’t violate its incentive agreement with Alleghany County, the Town of Sparta, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation and Skyline Telephone Membership Corporation.

That was a jury’s decision reached late last Thursday morning in Wilkes Superior Court, ending nearly two weeks of trial.

Alleghany and the other plaintiffs were seeking $6.9 million in damages, while Bristol Compressors, a division of York International located in Bristol, Va., said it owed only $1.3 million.

Because of this decision, $1.3 million will be the amount Bristol will pay, according to Ernest Pearson, representing the plaintiffs for the Sanford-Holshouser law firm of Raleigh.

Co-counsel with Pearson was David Garrett of Sanford-Holshouser. A total of $805,000 will be de-ducted from the amount owed by the company based on money already returned and annual incentive agreement payments which won’t be made, Pearson said.

“I always thought it was a close call,” Pearson commented after the trial. He said Alleghany, Sparta and the others had informal discussions and negotiations with Bristol regarding resolution of the matter, but “we never found a number to settle on.”

Every avenue, including some four to six meetings with Bristol officials, was exhausted before a lawsuit was filed. Court-ordered mediation also failed, he said.

The verdict was returned around 11:45 a.m. Deliberations began Wednesday afternoon.

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