Group Took Money From Ernst To Stop Eagle

A citizens group trying to block a new Eagle Hardware & Garden store in Bellevue accepted $2,000 from Eagle's arch-rival, Ernst Home & Garden Centers, to help fight its court battles.

Bellevue Residents Opposed to Illegal Land use, or BROIL, admits taking the contribution, saying it was legal and went toward litigation costs.

But Eagle says it isn't fair.

"Ernst has written checks to BROIL to finance the lawsuit to keep us out of Bellevue. It's just that simple," Eagle Chairman David Heerensperger said.

BROIL, which has charged land-use violations in Eagle's renovation of an old candy factory, won a court battle Monday when King County Superior Court Judge Michael Haydon nullified Eagle's building permits.

This is just the latest salvo in a heated battle between the two home-center giants that started when Eagle came to the Puget Sound area last year.

Tukwila-based Eagle discovered Ernst's contribution to BROIL while fighting an Ernst lawsuit, charging Eagle with unfair competition and false advertising. That suit hasn't yet been resolved.

BROIL's attorney, Jeff Eustis, said the group asked for the contribution.

"Look at it this way," he said. "Although Gov. Booth Gardner permitted the execution of (Westley Allan) Dodd, he's freely entitled to make a contribution to the ACLU (which opposed the execution)."

Eustis didn't explain exactly how this comparison worked in connection with Broil's taking money from Ernst, which would profit if its competitor's Bellevue store never opened.

Eustis said the check paid for about 10 percent of the lawsuit's cost. The rest of BROIL's campaign fund came from some 150 individual contributors, he said.

Heerensperger said Ernst's action showed "malicious intent," adding "there are some antitrust implications here."

"You can't play the game if they knock you out of the league before you start," he said. "I don't like to spend money on lawsuits. But I am not going to be pushed around by Ernst, either."

Ernst Chief Financial Officer Michael Baumann refused comment, referring all media calls to BROIL.

Eagle, which has expanded aggressively across the state since opening its first Washington store, in Spokane two years ago, has had legal problems of its own lately. It faces shareholder suits over a recent disclosure of costly inventory problems, and the Wall Street Journal today reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission has begun an "informal" inquiry.

So far it has built five of its giant warehouse-like hardware stores and had planned on opening the Bellevue store, in the old Vernell's candy factory at 120th Street Northeast and Northup Way, next month.

But Monday, Judge Haydon ruled that a 1991 environmental-impact statement was inadequate. He said a residential rezone of that Bellevue neighborhood used by the city in approving Eagle's plans was not valid.

Eagle, however, has not stopped the renovation work. Dearborn said work would continue until the city stops it.

"There's a pattern developing here," said Heerensperger. "Obviously they (Ernst) don't want Eagle to be in business."