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CITY COUNCIL OF AUGUSTA SETTLE WITH X-MART ADULT SUPERSTORE
By: Andy Powell, Staff Writer - 05-24-10 - 8:55 a.m. PDT
Email Andy@JRLChartsonline.com
AUGUSTA, GA. — It was an arduous fight lasting eight years that the city of Augusta undertook to keep a south Augusta adult video store closed.An attorney for Augusta Video, Gary Edinger, estimated that had the Gordon Highway X-Mart been open since 2002, it could have earned $4 million.
Occupying a former Hardee's about two miles from downtown, the closed X-Mart still has a sign that advertises its 24-7 operating hours.
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Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Dudley Bowen determined X-Mart was entitled to lost-profit damages of about $1,300 a day, based on what the store brought in while it was open for a few months in 2003, but he limited the damages to 99 days. Augusta Video appealed the ruling and another verdict related to Augusta's latest effort to refuse X-Mart an adult entertainment license, based on setback requirements.
Augusta officials will pay $550,000 and let the city's only adult video store reopen under the terms of a settlement the Augusta Commission approved Tuesday. The city has been wrangling with Augusta Video Inc. for eight years.
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City commissioners tried to stop Augusta Video's X-Mart Adult Supercenter from opening in 2002 by passing a zoning ordinance limiting businesses from opening along the city's gateway corridors. Edinger estimated Augusta Video had spent between $150,000 and $200,000 litigating the case and would have spent $100,000 more if it was taken all the way.
Augusta for their part had paid $137,726 to law firm Burnside Wall LLP through January to litigate the cases. Bills for additional fees had not reached the city's finance department. Former City Attorney Jim Wall, who represented the city during most of the litigation, could not be reached by JRL for comment.
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Edinger said X-Mart officials were satisfied with the decision. "We've got the right to open now, as opposed to a year from now, and certainty makes sense for any plaintiff," he said. As soon as X-Mart restocks and staffs the store, it will open, Edinger said.
The settlement leaves little "wiggle room," and Edinger doesn't expect any more qualms from the city about the store.The X-Mart fight stands out as unique to the First Amendment attorney. Governments typically voice more opposition to dance clubs than adult bookstores, Edinger said.
The Gordon Highway store is a few miles from downtown. Counsel for the company says it will likely open in a few weeks.
Watch the news coverage on this case on the JRL Movietron.
