The Court rejects the request for reconsideration of the decision of the mall | News, Sports, Jobs

Iowa Second Judicial District Magistrate Tom Hillers denied a motion to reconsider his ruling in the Marshalltown Mall case.

The city of Marshalltown sued Marshalltown Development Group, the mall’s owner, for various fire code violations. A brief trial in the case was held on July 19, without the defendant or attorney Jeff Hazen present. Hillers found the owners in violation of codes, fined them $6,500 and ordered that the problems be fixed within 30 days or face a lawsuit.

Hazen filed a motion for reconsideration of the judgment due to absenteeism during the trial. He had requested the continuation due to illness, which is why he was absent. Unfortunately for the defense, the motion was filed an hour before the fire code violation trial began.

In denial, Hillers explained the accepted practice of requesting a continuance. He wrote that attorneys should first contact opposing counsel to see if he or she will resist a continuance. Thereafter, a motion to continue should be filed with notes as to whether or not there will be resistance. If the trial is approaching without a decision on a continuance, counsel should email the judge or call opposing counsel to check on the status.

Hillers wrote that occasionally it is only hours or minutes before the trial when an unexpected situation arises. In these cases, the almost universal practice is for the lawyer to send another lawyer to the tribunal or call the court to discuss the matter with the judge and opposing counsel.

“Filing a motion for continuance without speaking to the judge and opposing counsel and then failing to appear in person is outside the accepted practice in all of our judicial districts in Iowa,” he wrote.

The magistrate noted that the aforementioned illness was not unexpected, and Hazen called in sick for most of his hearings the week of July 15. Hillers wrote that the attorney should have communicated with the city attorney the day before the trial to discuss the possibility of proceeding and that the motion should have been filed that week.

“Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the attorney made a full recovery on Thursday but woke up broken in bed on Friday morning, the attorney was still aware that calling the clerk and filing a last-minute motion was well outside of accepted practice of search. a continuation of a trial on the morning of the trial,” the denial said.

Hillers suggested that the attorneys Hazen works with could have gone to the courthouse or called him to discuss the matter. He wrote to the court balanced the prejudice of each side in favor of the opponent, made the motion for continuance and then continued.

“All of the above is amplified by the nature of this case,” he wrote. “One of the largest commercial structures in our jurisdiction is currently vacant without adequate systems to prevent fires.”

Marshalltown Fire Chief Josh Warnell said none of the fire code violations have yet been fixed. The violations included poorly maintained equipment to ensure the safety of building occupants, fire protection and life safety systems not installed or maintained, and fire detection and suppression systems were not operational.

The violations stem from Marshalltown Development Group, a holding company of New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group owned by Mike Kohan, which has been neglecting to pay its electric bill. In November 2023, electricity was turned off in the main areas of the mall, such as the hallways, bathrooms, and parking lot, which also turned off the sprinkler systems. The invoice has not yet been paid.

The United States federal court system also indicates that Kohan, known by the aliases Mike Kohen and Mehran Kohansieh, is the owner of North Park Realty Management, which is a defendant in the Sakhe and North Park Realty Management case in New Jersey Bankruptcy Court. The case was filed in June 2016 and has a hearing set for August 20 in Newark, NJ.

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

[email protected].