BENTON COUNTY — Benton County will settle the lawsuit filed against it by TNT Dirtworks for $568,945.

The lawsuit was filed in April and sought $1.4 million for work the Decatur company performed after January’s ice storm.

Once the county finalizes the settlement, it will have paid TNT a total of $1,708,128, just $519,065 short of the $2,227,193 bill the company originally submitted to the county nearly one year ago.

Tim Witcher of TNT Dirtworks filed the suit after his company’s contract with the county was terminated and the county refused to pay its original bill.

County officials re-By Tabatha Hunter [email protected]fused to pay the entire amount of the bill because they were unaware of how quickly paying $90 per leaning and hanging branch cut could add up, County Judge Dave Bisbee previously said.

When the contracts were originally signed, Bisbee said he felt like the $90 per tree would add up to be $4,500 per day per truck.

The invoice Witcher submitted to the countyrevealed that on his busiest day, he cut $264,510 worth of trees at the originally negotiated price.

Two weeks after the contractors went to work, county officials discovered how much the companies were making. Three of the four contractors hired to perform the cleanup accepted a new contract at a lower price. Those contractors were paid $4,500 per truck per day cutting leaning and hanging trees.

TNT did not accept the new contract and was fired.

When Jason Owens, an attorney with Rainwater, Holt and Sexton of Little Rock spoke to the Quorum Court Tuesday night,he told them about the risks of going to trial and encouraged them to settle the lawsuit.

Owens defined risk as the likelihood that the county would be found responsible for the full amount of the lawsuit should the case go to court.

“Because I think that risk is unacceptably high, I am here tonight seeking approval (of the settlement),” Owens said.

Owenstold the Quorum Court the county had two defenses to the lawsuit, an underlying mistake, caused by a misunderstanding about theterms of the contract between TNT Dirtworks and the county and exorbitantly high fees resulting from the contract.

Owens said he would not predict what a jury would decide after hearing the case and again warned justices of the peace about the risk involved in going to trial.

“There is every chance the court could impose the contract for its terms as it does in the majority of these cases,” Owens said.

Owens also said going to trial would not likely put the county in a better situation than they would be in if they chose to settle the suit.

“The best case scenario is not a whole lot better than this (settlement) number,” Owens said. “Worst case is double.”

Justice of the Peace Bobby Hubbard voted against the settlement because he felt the payment was still too high.

“This is over $12,000 per day per truck for two or three guys per truck. That starts getting into this outrageous profit. That is where it is hard to swallow,” Hubbard said.

“That is 3,000 per man for three men and $3,000 per truck per day,” Hubbard said. “I have never heard of someone makingthat much.”

Justices of the Peace Craig Brown and Frank Winscott also voted against settling the suit.

“I am sick and tired of these politicians. There is never any consequences for their actions. They just stick it to the people,” Brown said.

Brown said he felt like Bisbee should help foot the bill for the settlement.

“The first thing I said when they told me about the settlement was to tell Bisbee to bring his checkbook,” Brown said. “If I screw up in my business, guess who pays for it. Me.Why should this be any different.”

Justices Frank Winscott and Bobby Hubbard said they felt like the settlement was too high.

“It is far and above what any of the other contractors were paid. To me there has been a baseline estimate by what the other contractors were paid and they were all happy with it,” Winscott said.

Owens said TNT Dirtworks would be paid before the end of the week.

News, Pages 3 on 02/10/2010