LIBBY — Employees of Stinger Welding Inc. are planning to take possession of six industrial cranes now that a judge has lifted a temporary restraining order.

District Court Judge James Manley dissolved the order and denied the Lincoln County Port Authority’s motion for a preliminary injunction on Dec. 13.

Manley was the second judge to reject the Port Authority’s attempts to keep the cranes on public property in Libby while waiting for a ruling by a different judge to determine ownership of the cranes, the former Stinger Welding building at the Kootenai Business Park and other assets.

Stinger Welding was required to post a bond of $1.4 million before removing the cranes. The company posted the bond Dec. 18, according to Brigid Burke, the executive director of the Port Authority. The bond essentially guarantees that the Port Authority would be compensated for the cranes at their full market value if a judge ultimately decides the Port Authority is the rightful owner.

Ralph Seeley, former senior project manager for Stinger Welding in Libby, said the company will move quickly to take possession of the cranes.

“I think it’s clear. The cranes were purchased by Stinger to bring jobs here,” Seeley said. “The county has no right to the claims.”

Stinger has argued that the cranes and other property were purchased by the company and are now needed to fulfill work contracts in Arizona. The company took one of the cranes in mid-October without the Port Authority’s permission and returned a couple of times since then with the intention of taking the remaining six cranes.

The Port Authority has argued that the cranes were purchased using grant money from the Montana Department of Commerce and therefore do not belong to Stinger. The Port Authority also argued that “great or irreparable damage would occur” if Stinger was allowed to remove the cranes.

Manley wrote in his decision that Port Authority attorney Allan Payne failed to prove that the Port Authority would be damaged by the removal of the cranes. He also noted that the Port Authority failed to show its claims of ownership would succeed.

“Plaintiffs’ new claim of ownership interest of the cranes is based on a vague theory that, because third party(s) loaned money or made grants, and some of the money was used to purchase the cranes, some of that money may have to be returned, and Plaintiff could possibly be liable for such ‘clawback’ provisions, and therefore Plaintiff somehow has an ownership interest in the cranes.” Manley wrote. “It is uncontested that the cranes were purchased by Stinger or one of its related companies, and the cranes are titled in the name of the purchaser, not in the name of the Plaintiff.”

The ruling by Manley settled only possession of the cranes while a different judge weighs the ownership of the cranes and other property used by Stinger to build steel spans and assemble bridge structures during the three years in which it operated in Libby.

Judge Loren Tucker is presiding over the more comprehensive lawsuit over ownership of the assets, including the former Stinger Welding building and the 8-acre tract of land that the building sits on. According to court paperwork, Stinger purchased the property from the county for $186,000.

“We’re a long way from being through this,” said Brigid Burke, who recently took over as executive director of the Kootenai River Development Council, which oversees the Port Authority.

Stinger Welding was owned and operated by Carl Douglas until he died in an airplane crash in December 2012. Fischer Industries of North Dakota and other investors assumed ownership of the company after Douglas’ death.

Gerstenecker is the editor of the Western News in Libby.