By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM — A judge Monday declined to issue a temporary injunction that would continue to prevent the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Services Department from demolishing five duplexes on Boone Street.

Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson’s ruling followed a hearing that lasted about 1½ hours.

Hudson said Haskell Properties, the company that owns the so-called Boone Court complex, had fallen short of the standard for obtaining an injunction because it had “shown no irreparable harm [and] no likelihood of the success on the merits” of a lawsuit against the city.

The company — the corporate arm of landlord James “Fireball” White and his family — has sued for a permanent injunction from a judge and monetary damages from the city. One of its lawyers, Alexander Perry, reserved the right to appeal Hudson’s ruling.

Senior Assistant City Attorney Emanuel McGirt said afterward that Hudson had left city officials free to demolish the units “if we wanted to.”

He added that going ahead in light of the fact a lawsuit remains pending would be “a policy decision” for administrators.

NIS Director Constance Stancil said later on in the day that she would confer with city attorneys, Deputy City Manager Keith Chadwell and City Manager Tom Bonfield before making a decision about whether to proceed with the demolition.

Perry asked Hudson to stay his ruling pending an appeal, but the judge refused.

Hudson’s Monday ruling negated a 10-day restraining order he signed last month to block an earlier attempt by the city to knock down the units. Inspectors and east Durham activists say the units don’t meet code and are drawing crime.

The hearing Monday focused on the two sides’ attempts over the summer and in the days leading up to the judge’s first order to negotiate a deal over the units’ future.

The city had the right, thanks to a federal bankruptcy judge’s order, to knock down the duplexes any time after Aug. 6.

But the Whites sought a chance to bring them up to code, and city administrators, against what McGirt several times termed their “better judgment,” had been willing to let them try.

The problem, McGirt and NIS Acting Assistant Director Rick Hester told Hudson, was that the Whites didn’t hold up their end by assembling a renovation plan, financing, a licensed general contractor and the necessary permits in the days leading up to the first demolition attempt on Sept. 10.

Perry countered that White’s daughter, Tisa Rogers, had spent $30,000 on preliminary expenses that included buying windows, doors and other materials. She also wired $40,000 into her lawyers’ trust account to cover the actual work.

“Give her the opportunity and let her renovate these properties,” Perry urged the judge.

Hudson made it clear city officials had walked thin ice by haggling with the Whites after Aug. 6. “You got your hand in both tills,” he told McGirt at one point.

But McGirt countered that since the two sides never reduced a new bargain to writing, the city under state statute retained its right to demolish the properties.