Windermere and the 12 owners and former owners of the five Palmer Park boathouses named in the town’s lawsuit failed to reach a settlement through mediation, which means the town’s appeal will proceed in the Sixth District Court of Appeal, according to a joint report submitted last week to the court. 

The town is appealing the Ninth Circuit Court's October decision awarding ownership of the boathouses to the residents.

Mediation was heard via Zoom by mediator and retired Circuit Judge Frederick Lauten on Feb. 25. “Official impasse” was declared March 10 after the town council voted to reject the boathouse owners’ attorney’s offer of a $500,000 lump sum settlement to be divided among the owners together with a pledge to drop the appeal and abandon further attempts to possess the boathouses. The town council also rejected its own attorney’s offer of a $105,000 settlement with a 99-year auto-renewing lease and determinations about who owned the rest of the lagoon around the boathouses. 

Court filings dated March 25 note the mediation was “unsuccessful.” 

The appeal process won’t get fully underway, however, until the boathouse owners’ pending motion to dismiss is resolved. Filed Feb. 9, the motion claims Windermere’s town council did not legally authorize the decision to pursue the appeal and that the appellate court must dismiss the case as it has no authority to hear it.