Oak Harbor airport lawsuit lingers on

One in a tangled series of lawsuits involving the Oak Harbor airport a decade ago still isn’t settled.

A judge in Island County Superior Court recently denied a motion for a summary judgment in a lawsuit between A.J. Eisenberg Airport LLC and Kenmore Air Harbor.

Kenmore Air operated at the Oak Harbor Airport, also known as the Wes Lupien Airport, under a lease and operating agreement beginning in 2005. The airline offered flights from Oak Harbor to Seattle but struggled to make money.

The ownership of the airport was muddled — resulting in three lawsuits — until Seattle businessman A.J. Eisenberg became owner of the property in 2008 following a sheriff’s auction.

Kenmore suspended service in 2009 due to “the City of Oak Harbor’s inability to support commercial air service,” according to court documents. The company did not notify the airport that it had permanently abandoned its leasehold, the judge wrote.

Eisenberg filed the lawsuit in 2012, claiming breach of contract, unjust enrichment and violation of the state consumer protection law.

Most issues were dismissed in summary judgments over the years. In the recent motion for summary judgment, the only issue is whether Eisenberg took possession of the airport office rented by Kenmore Air by changing the locks, moving furniture and switching utilities, the judge wrote.

Eisenberg denies that he terminated the lease and claimed the office was accessible by an access code posted on the door; Kenmore Air denies this.

The summary judgment motion was denied because a disputed issue of fact remains.