Metropolitan and Terminella Turn in Final Briefs

On Nov. 17, Metropolitan National Bank and Tom Terminella turned in their final legal arguments to Washington County Circuit Court Judge Kim Smith.

Smith must now decide whether Terminella defaulted on his $9.6 million loan from MNB, or if MNB broke its contract with Terminella before the loan went into default status.

The conflict has been simmering, and occasionally boiling over, for more than two years now dating to October 2006.

Smith heard three days of testimony in the foreclosure-counterclaim trial from Oct. 20-22 and requested legal briefs in lieu of oral closing arguments.

Each side filed final arguments on Nov. 10, then filed their responses to each other’s final arguments. Smith should make his ruling in a matter of weeks.

In their closing statements, both sides used each other’s words to make their case. Terminella cites testimony presented at trial that conflicts with the bank’s internal loan documents from the critical period of October-December 2006 when the dispute over funding the loan arose.

MNB noted a few contradictions of its own, most notably that in Terminella’s own counterclaim it was stated that he slowed down the Grand Valley Ridge because of market conditions. MNB argues this was cause for default under the loan agreement.

At trial, Terminella testified that he never intentionally slowed the project and that delays in receiving final permitting approval were the actual reason the construction timeline exceeded the intial 10-12 month estimate to prepare lots for sale.