SANDPOINT — A 1st District Court judge is turning down a request to add punitive damages in a lawsuit which alleges former NBA star John Stockton interfered with a real estate transaction at Priest Lake, court records show.

Judge Barbara Buchanan said she saw an attempt to stop Tricore Investments’ acquisition of a Warren Beach property, but said there was no showing in the pleadings on a motion to amend the civil complaint that Stockton and co-defendant Todd Brinkmeyer attempted to harm the Coeur d’Alene development firm, according to court documents. Moreover, she ruled the motion was untimely because the plaintiffs had as many two years to raise allegations that the NBA standout and the timber company executive sought to destroy Tricore’s business opportunity in developing the Coolin parcel.

Buchanan said allowing the complaint to be amended so close to the start of this fall’s trial would force a continuance, which the court was unwilling to brook, court records indicate.

Tricore was seeking $5 million in damages from defendants in the case, which include the Warren estate and a limited-liability corporation the $2.5 million property was transferred to.

Tricore alleges in the sprawling litigation that the defendants conspired to chisel the company out of the land purchase it had arranged with the Warren estate, ostensibly to keep it from developed due to the presence of wetlands.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.