Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas Judge James Goodman was visibly and verbally frustrated with arguments made by the lawyer representing Bobby Weaver Jr., the majority owner of Black Rock Brewing Co., during a Summary Appeal case heard on Wednesday afternoon.
After about 90 minutes of testimony and arguments, Goodman abruptly ruled in favor of the City and found Weaver guilty of violating an ordinance of the International Property Maintenance Code prohibiting occupancy of an unsafe structure and equipment.
The Appeals hearing in Courtroom 7 at Schuylkill County Courthouse came about after District Magistrate James Reiley found Weaver guilty of that offense back in June for hosting a March 16 Free Beer event at the condemned Black Rock property at 325 S. Centre St. in Pottsville.
Weaver was found not guilty of two other citations in that District Court ruling.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Goodman became very agitated by the arguments made by Steve Carpenito, the lawyer representing Weaver.
Carpenito tried arguing to Goodman that Pottsville’s IPMC violation against his client is wrong on two bases: First, that it’s unconstitutional and secondly, because the Free Beer event was not held inside the condemned property.
In the lower court ruling issued by Reiley, the judge cited an IPMC definition of what constituted a condemned structure. Did it include the property surrounding a building or just the building?
Goodman’s ruling lined up with Reiley’s and what the City argued in that the entire tax parcel, including the areas surrounding the condemned building were part of the condemnation issued in May 2023 following a small kitchen fire that forced Weaver’s business to close.
The City was represented Wednesday by its Solicitor, Tim Pellish, who called a pair of witnesses to testify at the Summary Appeal: Code Enforcement Officer Justin Trefsger and Pottsville Fire Chief James Misstishin.
“You’re asking the court to come to an absurd result with your arguments!”
Wednesday’s proceedings were filled with often tedious minutiae regarding building codes and municipal ordinances. It wasn’t the stuff made for CourtTV, that’s for sure.
But things got interesting inside the Courtroom when Goodman started getting visibly flustered by Carpenito’s arguments on his points of emphasis.
The judge admonished the attorney for sometimes straying from the focus of the Summary Appeal, which was the specific ordinance for which Weaver was found guilty in the Reiley ruling.
When Carpenito attempted to argue that Pottsville’s citation was unconstitutional because Pottsville never established an IPMC Board of Appeals, he argued that the original condemnation of the property was such and not the citation that brought them to court on Wednesday.
Pellish objected to questions regarding the condemnation.
“That’s not why we’re here today,” he said.
Goodman agreed.
“You’re trying to challenge the underlying condemnation,” he told Carpenito.
The City did fail to actually prove that there is an IPMC Board of Appeals, which would conceivably hear any would-be appeals of citations.
On the stand, Trefsger testified that Pottsville Uniform Construction Code Board of Appeals is the same as the IPMC Board of Appeals but couldn’t point to any specific ordinance that establishes that fact.
However, that didn’t seem to matter in Wednesday’s hearing.
After Carpenito told Goodman that the Constitution protects parties from “absurd” rulings, the judge later threw that line back at the lawyer, saying “You’re asking the court to come to an absurd result with your arguments.”
On Carpenito’s other argument that the condemnation of Black Rock Brewing only applied to the actual building and not the yard surrounding it, Goodman didn’t buy that either.
Carpenito questioned Trefsger continuously about using the word “structure” and “building” on a condemnation sign posted on the building after the fire and in a written Notice of Violation delivered to Weaver.
“The City chose to use the word ‘structure’,” he said. “There’s no testimony that anything in the yard was a danger.”
However, Trefsger said that a condemnation applies to the entire parcel, including any grounds that surround a building.
Goodman backed that theory and told Carpenito that the City doesn’t have to post “32 different notices” around a property to condemn an entire property.
The judge, getting visibly more frustrated with Carpenito as the hearing dragged on, also pointed to five different violations noted during an inspection of the property after the fire that purportedly deal with things on the outside of the building.
Goodman said abruptly, “The city has proven he violated the ordinance,” and found Weaver guilty.
Another Appeal?
Following Wednesday’s courtroom activity, Weaver said he’s considering another appeal on this citation.
He said the result of the Summary Appeal was disappointing.
“It’s disappointing to file for an appeal and then have it denied. But we’re still confident on the merits. I need to confirm with Steve but we think we’re just going to appeal to the next level,” Weaver said. “We made some really valid arguments. We did bring up the constitutionality. We brought out the fact that the City has never established an International Property Maintenance Code Board of Appeals.”
Weaver called Goodman’s ruling “fair.”
“The judge was fair. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t leave with a not guilty verdict,” he said.
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