Door-to-door firms, cities settling suits

Attorneys representing more than 23 Utah cities being sued by door-to-door vacuum cleaner salespeople and their distributor say they have entered into settlement negotiations that may lead to many Utah cities re-writing their ordinances governing door-to-door sales.

During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell on Monday, five attorneys representing cities from Logan to St. George reported that many of them have entered into settlement negotiations with the Nevada corporation Pacific Frontier, which may include replacing ordinances restricting door-to-door sales with ones more friendly to salespeople.

"We're in the process of negotiating those," said Pacific Frontier attorney Craig Taylor.

Several attorneys said negotiations are still stalled on the awarding of attorney's fees and damages. The request for a court-appointed mediator was made.

Given the complexity of the task hearing more than 20 independent, yet related suits, Campbell said she would much rather see most of the suits settled out of court, adding appointing a mediator made sense.

Recently, several court decisions have supported the Kirby representatives. Last month the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's grant of a preliminary injunction of Pleasant Grove City's ordinance. The appellate court's ruling also helped to bolster the company's standing to bring their suits against the cities.

Some cities have required sales representatives to be bonded, while others have required fingerprint samples. Some representatives have also been arrested for soliciting.

In June, Campbell ruled that Kaysville city's ordinance was so arbitrary in its restrictions that she deemed it unconstitutional.

David Church, who represents several cities and the Utah League of Cities and Towns, said the league is working on a general replacement ordinance which it plans to offer for cities to adopt as an effort to settle the suits out of court.

Campbell has set a hearing for Nov. 16 to hear motions for several cities that plan to fight the suits.

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