Parties in a federal suit Warren County attracted when supervisors tried to regulate use of land off Mississippi 465 begin settlement talks Thursday in federal court in Natchez.

Filed in 2007, the suit by Issaquena Warren Counties Land Company alleges county officials intervened in a private land dispute to favor another landowning firm, Paw Paw Island Land Company. The county’s position has been that it was merely trying to enforce ordinances on subdivision development and floodplain management as it would on any tract.

Supervisors were represented at the time by attorney Paul Winfield, who is now Vicksburg mayor and remains a defendant in the case.

Among other counts, owners of IWCLC claim in the federal case the county’s actions amount to violations under the Racketeering and Corrupt Influences Act. Each of six counts of the federal case seeks $1 million in damages.

In addition to Winfield, defendants include all supervisors, County Prosecutor Richard Johnson and surveyor Joe Strickland.

Supervisors met with Ken Rector, one of the attorneys they’ve hired to defend the county, in closed session at the conclusion of Tuesday’s budget-related meeting. A pretrial conference set for Jan. 14, 2010, by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi makes it unlikely a jury would hear arguments in the matter for several months, Rector said later.

U.S. Magistrate John Roper will preside over the settlement hearing, a common step in civil matters but not a guarantee a deal will be reached. U.S. District Judge David Bramlette was set to hear the trial if no settlement is reached.

Simmering issues between PPILC and IWCLC first led to a courtroom in 2003, when the former sued the latter over access to the property. A gravel path, Paw Paw Road, connects 465 to the acreage central to the case and figured prominently in later suits filed in chancery and circuit court. The county has appealed to the state Court of Appeals a ruling in September by Chancellor Vicki Roach Barnes, which said three-fourths of the road is private, including the part beyond the gate. The county had attempted to move its own complaint against IWCLC involving violations of county ordinances to circuit court in order to claim damages. The state’s high court ruled in February the inspection and enforcement matters belonged in the chancery system.

The northwest Warren County acreage is in a floodplain, where supervisors have authority to regulate all new construction be above normal flood levels. In 2004, the county adopted a subdivision ordinance governing plans for new developments requiring road and drainage plans be submitted for approval by county engineers so the infrastructure can be maintained by the county.

Tax records indicate development has taken place on the property, southeast of the Eagle Lake community.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com