Oct 25, 2005 By Christine Haines 3 min read

After waiting five and a half hours for their case to be heard Monday, Ernest and Marilyn Liggett withdrew their appeal of a magisterial district judge’s ruling finding them guilty of various property code violations. Magisterial District Judge Ronald Haggerty, last Dec. 15, ruled against the Liggetts for citations on seven of their properties.

The appeals hearing before Fayette County Common Pleas Judge Gerald Solomon had been scheduled for 8:30 a.m., as had numerous other cases involving entering or removing individuals from the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program, revoking probation, and various other offenses. The other cases took the court to its lunch recess, with the Liggett appeal set as the first and only case after a two-hour lunch break.

“We are going to withdraw all seven of the appeals,” Sean Audley, the Liggetts’ attorney, announced as the hearing began.

Solomon said that with the withdrawal of the appeals, Haggerty’s ruling calling for fines and court costs would stand. According to the Fayette County Clerk of Courts office, those fines and costs total $17,175. To date, the Liggetts have paid $80 toward those costs by paying the filing fees for the appeals hearings.

Audley declined to comment following the hearing. Melinda Dellarose, representing Brownsville Borough, said withdrawing the appeal is not the same as the Liggetts complying with Haggerty’s ruling.

“My next step is to go after the enforcement to make sure that the things that were ordered are done, so the violations are taken care of,” Dellarose said.

Dellarose said she may also seek a judgment that is considerably higher than what is listed in the case docket, since Haggerty had imposed fines of $100 a day from the date of citation for three of the properties. Dellarose contends those daily fines continued throughout the appeal period, since no corrective actions have been taken at the cited properties.

The properties involved were:

-The former Financial Analysts Building on Market Street, adjacent to the Cast Iron Bridge, cited for failure to maintain the roof;

-17 Market St., for a collapsed roof. The citation ordered the building to be repaired or torn down;

-56 Market St. for failure to maintain windows;

-The former Brownsville Hospital building at Fifth and Church streets for failure to cut weeds;

-A former personal care home on Church Street for a defective porch roof;

-422 Church St., for a defective porch roof; and

-204 High St. for failure to maintain the porch roof.