Following a hearing on Monday, April 21, 2025, Judge David Freeman denied Plaintiffs’ Petition for Further Relief as well as an earlier Motion for Release of Funds that had been pending for a few weeks. These decisions add to the losses sustained by the Plaintiffs in this case following the recent denial by the Supreme Court to take up the Plaintiffs’ case for Direct Review. At the hearing, counsel for 18 Paradise, MJ Management, and a representative for the Intervenors asked the court to bring this case to an end and to stop the continued filing of Post Trial Motions by the Plaintiffs. Bringing this case to an end in the trial court and giving the community the ability to start to heal was one of the arguments made by attorney, Ian Ducey, representing MJ Management at the hearing, and was a common theme among the other voices seeking denial of the Plaintiffs’ most recently filed post trial motion. The Court indicated that it was working with the Clerk’s Office to make arrangements for those former Homestead homeowners, who had been ordered to deposit funds into the Registry of the Court, to be able to withdraw their money. The Plaintiffs’ earlier motion to have the Court send this money to Plaintiffs’ Counsel to supervise and distribute was denied.

“With the denial of these two motions, we are hopeful that this is another step towards closure in this case,” said attorney Jeffrey Possinger, who represented MJ Management at trial.

The Plaintiffs’ appeal is now before the Court of Appeals (Division I), in Seattle, where Plaintiffs have recently filed a Motion for Extension of Time, requesting additional time to file verbatim reports of proceedings, despite having filed the appeal in November 2024. Despite the passage of six months since the filing of their Notice of Appeal, in their motion, Plaintiffs stated “The complexity of the appeal and the time required to identify the issues for appeal delayed the initial aspects of the case.” The parties and Homestead homeowners now have to wait for the Plaintiffs’ appellate briefing on a long list of various orders and other decisions made by the trial court, including the Final Judgment and the Court’s dismissal of the Plaintiffs’ Consumer Protection Act (“CPA”) claim. The CPA claim being the only cause of action in the case for which Plaintiffs were seeking money damages and attorney’s fees.

Following nearly 5 years of litigation in Whatcom County Superior Court and a trial in May 2024, the Hillius v. 18 Paradise, LLP case continues in the Court of Appeals, while the once thriving Golf Course located at Homestead remains closed and continues to deteriorate. The final outcome for the case and the community remains undecided.

Possinger Law Group represented MJ Management, O’Bryan, and Williams in this litigation through the trial and has continued to represent these parties in the appeal brought by the Plaintiffs.