Multi-Million Dollar Commercial Litigation Ruling Upheld by Judge.

Judge Wilson Fields of the Nineteenth Judicial District has upheld an arbitration ruling that clears the way for Camm Morton to resume management of the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center. Judge Fields confirmed the ruling that was issued by a panel earlier this summer, ordering an affiliate of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to pay Morton for his company's management of the hotel.

Stephen Babcock, litigation attorney for Morton, says it isn't known whether the Capitol House Hotel Operating Company will resume the management contract with Morton and his firm, Ashby Hospitality, or simply buy him out. Babcock notes when the arbitration panel ruled in favor of Morton earlier this summer, attorneys for CHH ordered him to stay away from the hotel and its employees. Ashby was ousted in June 2010 in a dispute concerning who would pay for accounting services at the hotel: the owners of the property or the management company.

The value of the award, which covers unpaid fees and the six months left on the Ashby contract, is estimated at up to $2 million. Morton developed the Capitol Center in 2006 and 2007, when he was president of Commercial Properties, BRAF's for-profit real estate company. He resigned from that position in December 2007 to form Ashby, which assumed management of the hotel the following month. Officials with BRAF referred all comments to Jude Bursavich, an attorney representing CHH. Bursavich was unavailable for comment as of press time.