Graves, Martin to receive “Legal Champion” award from Missouri Lawyers Weekly

Graves Garrett is pleased to announce Missouri Lawyers Weekly recently selected partners Todd Graves and Dane Martin as Legal Champion honorees in the 2021 Missouri Lawyers Awards. Legal Champion honors go to lawyers “not based on the size of verdicts, but the importance of the principle or policy at stake.”

Graves and Martin will be recognized during a virtual ceremony Feb. 11, 2021 for their work in keeping millions of dollars in taxpayer money from flowing to a Platte County shopping district. To read a recap of this year’s Missouri Lawyers Awards honorees, please click here.

In late August, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District affirmed a judgment in favor of Platte County, a Graves Garrett client, in a lawsuit against UMB Bank, N.A., the trustee for the Zona Rosa bonds.

Platte County filed the lawsuit in 2018 after the trustee threatened to sue unless Platte County paid shortfalls on the Zona Rosa bonds for that year and each year thereafter. The Zona Rosa bonds were issued by a third-party entity, not Platte County, and are payable from a 1% sales tax in Zona Rosa. The payments demanded by the trustee would have escalated over time, totaling up to $40 million through 2032.

The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District agreed with Platte County that it was not legally obligated to cover any payments.