Despite a jury’s verdict in favor of Bob Cummins Construction Co. in a lawsuit against the Bradford Sanitary Authority, litigation is not over, both sides assured The Era on Tuesday.

According to the verdict, the jury ruled the authority breached a contract with Cummins by failing to pay for work on the second phase of Bradford wastewater treatment plant upgrades.

The jury awarded Cummins Construction $488,243.24, and said the authority had withheld the contract balance in “bad faith.”

The verdict was appealed by the authority, which is arguing the contract was not ambiguous and it should have been victorious in the suit. Cummins appealed, too, arguing that Judge Christopher Hauser, who presided over the trial, should have awarded penalty interest on top of the withheld payment.

Don and Bob Cummins attended the sanitary authority’s meeting Tuesday with a lengthy list of questions, most of which were deflected by attorney Bob Saunders, who referred to pending litigation as the reason for not answering.

In speaking to The Era earlier in the day, Don Cummins said the authority’s bill for the litigation is approaching $3 million, and he wants to know if the authority members think it is cost-effective to continue to appeal a jury’s verdict.

“I want to see accountability from this board,” Cummins said. “Who is paying for it?”

The suit is over $488,000 in work that has been performed, he said, and he asked what the sense was of spending $3 million to recoup that money.

“Ultimately, the taxpayers are going to pay this bill and it’s just wrong. The staggering cost of it … the whole thing just stinks,” Cummins added.

Prior to the meeting, he provided The Era with copies of several documents relating to appeals filed after the verdict, as well as questions the construction company has for the authority. One such document is Hauser’s opinion on the reason why he ruled the way he did in the suit, which is prepared to aid the appeals court in evaluating claims of errors raised on appeal.

In that opinion, Hauser stated the gist of the appeal was his ruling that the work contract entered into between the two parties was ambiguous. He gave numerous citations in case law that supported his ruling.

Cummins points to a mounting legal bill for the authority in continuing to appeal the matter, and asked if the authority would be raising rates to cover its legal costs.

After Tuesday’s meeting, Saunders called The Era to respond to questions regarding the ongoing legal costs.

“First off, I think we need to keep in mind this litigation started with Cummins suing the authority,” Saunders said. “As a result of his bringing this lawsuit, there are costs and expenses.”

Saunders said the authority attempted to settle the issue prior to trial, but Cummins was not receptive. However, Don Cummins has disputed that attempts were made at resolving the case.

“There have been serious attempts made (even before the trial) to get this matter resolved,” Saunders said, “including going to a full day of mediation in Pittsburgh where serious gestures were made on behalf of the sanitary authority that were not responded to.”

Saunders agreed that Cummins received a favorable verdict from the jury after a 9-day trial, but said, “This case is not over.

“We do not see that a reversal on appeal is unlikely,” Saunders said. “We are confident on the position the authority has taken.”

Regarding the mounting costs, the attorney said, “The authority is very aware of the financial situation and are very much looking out for the interests of the ratepayer.”

There is no intention to raise rates to cover litigation costs, Saunders said.

“If somehow this is not reversed, there are other options the sanitary authority can pursue and will consider, but now is not the time to” discuss them, he added.

“We are in the middle of litigation,” Saunders said, and added that “parties should not be trying to air this out in the newspaper.”

Both sides are represented by attorneys, and questions or comments should be handled through legal channels, he stated.

“Going to a meeting and making … statements that are self-serving does not help the community,” Saunders said, regarding the Cumminses attendance at the authority meeting.