Param Hotel Corp. is once again seeking victory in a lawsuit against the Port of Astoria over the operation of the Astoria Riverwalk Inn, based on the Port’s delay in releasing executive session transcripts and recordings.

The Portland hotel group, which had been attempting since 2014 to take over operation of the Riverwalk Inn from heavily indebted former operator Brad Smithart, filed suit in November 2015. The lawsuit came after the Port awarded operation of the hotel to Astoria Hospitality Ventures, whose owner, William Orr, is former Port Commissioner Stephen Fulton’s brother-in-law. Param claimed the Port violated a deal it had made with Smithart on the hotel, and had shown bias toward Orr’s group.

In April, Clatsop County Circuit Court Judge Dawn McIntosh ordered the Port to pay for additional depositions of its staff by Param. She found the Port had withheld executive session materials related to the hotel, requested by Param in November 2015, for about 13 months. Param’s lawyer, Colin Hunter, sought to win the case based on the omissions, arguing they were prejudicial and had irreversibly affected his case.

Hunter subsequently deposed Port Executive Director Jim Knight and Judy Fattori, the Port’s executive assistant, the two people he said were involved in the case’s discovery process. Those additional depositions, Hunter argued in a motion filed this week, confirmed that the Port had actually been aware of the records for the past 15 months before Param’s request, has no explanation for the delay in producing them and completely delegated their production to Fattori without any further guidance from her superiors.

Hunter said Fattori had compiled a list of meetings related to the Riverwalk Inn in August 2015, in preparation for an eviction case against Smithart and his company, Hospitality Masters.

“In short, by August 2015, the Port had already specifically identified the documents it ultimately failed to provide Param for more than a year,” Hunter wrote in his motion.

Hunter argued the Port has had ample opportunity to explain the delays, which have fundamentally altered his case. Param has asked the court to force the Port to transfer the company the lease on the Riverwalk Inn or pay monetary damages.

Hunter said that if the court is concerned about providing the Port a jury trial, it should strike the Port’s defense to award Param a limited judgment on its first claim of specific performance. Specific performance is a legal remedy used when no other remedy, including money, will adequately compensate an aggrieved party. If Param was given limited judgment on the claim, it would be argued before the court as opposed to before a trial jury.

“At minimum, in the event the court declines both of the alternatives identified above, the court should award Param all the attorneys’ fees it has incurred in this case and, in addition, should give a curative instruction explaining the Port’s discovery violation and instructing the jury to draw an adverse inference from that conduct,” Hunter wrote.

A trial is scheduled for October.

The Port is also scheduled to go to trial in August against Smithart. The agency is suing Smithart for unpaid rent and revenue-sharing.