Lawyer David Young Payne must pay damages for filing an invalid lien, a 2nd District judge has ruled.
Payne, 48, sits one day a week as North Salt Lake's justice court judge. He continues to hear justice court cases even though he has been facing felony perjury charges for the past seven months. His preliminary hearing has been repeatedly postponed.Payne claimed he performed $85,000 worth of legal work for a now-dormant condominium project when he filed a mechanic's lien last year against the property in North Salt Lake.
Payne is to pay property owner Richard Stromness $3,000, plus another $6,000 in legal costs, under an order to be signed by Judge Rodney Page.
In the mid-1990s, Payne became involved with the proposed North Capitol Park Condominiums, a 117-unit project that was to be built on vacant land on North Salt Lake's main thoroughfare.
In court filings, he claims his role was to provide "legal services and associated financial and development expertise." After he was forced out of the project in February 1997, Payne filed a lien, which clouded the title to the property.
"The labor which (Payne claims he) performed relating to the property does not give rise to a mechanic's lien because it did not physically improve or enhance the value of the property," argued Stromness' lawyer, Steven Gunn, in court filings.
Payne responded that Utah's lien law is among the most liberal in the nation.
"In Utah, the law is designed to protect those that have produced services in good faith but have not been paid as agreed," his lawyer, Carvel Shaffer, wrote in reply briefs. Payne maintained he rendered valuable services by helping persuade city officials to rezone the property to allow high-density residential development.
Payne did not have a formal retainer agreement in the condo project, nor was he directly involved with Stromness, according to court records. Instead, Payne was a partner with businessman Kent Allred, who was to develop the North Salt Lake 7-acre property. Payne and Allred were to split an 80 percent equity in the project, which never got past the planning stage.
Allred dissolved his association with Payne early last year and has since backed out of the project altogether.
Payne's testimony in his divorce cases is the basis for the two perjury counts pending against him. Davis County prosecutors allege he lied to 2nd District judges in an effort to keep income from his wives.
Page ruled Payne had no legitimate interest in Stromness' property and ordered the lien removed.