One of the sons of prominent Spokane-area property owner and developer Harlan Douglass has sued a brother and a sister over a $685,000 sum paid by Spokane County last year to settle a civil suit regarding a piece of property they own jointly. They, meanwhile, have countersued.

Harley Douglass has sued both his brother, Lanzce Douglass, and their sister, Stacey Douglass, claiming the settlement is rightly his, and is seeking damages from them in a civil lawsuit filed Aug. 30 in Spokane County Superior Court.

Lanzce and Stacey Douglass then filed a countersuit against Harley Douglass on Sept. 15, claiming that the $685,000 should be distributed equally among the three, and that Harley Douglass owes them for damages they incurred. The dispute stems from a claim the three Douglasses made in September of 2008 when they accused Spokane County of wrongfully denying a plat approval they sought for a property they owned and planned to develop.

Harley Douglass claims that Lanzce and Stacey Douglass told him he couldn't use funds from the trio's real estate investment company, Ace Investments LLC, to pay for the attorney's fees and other costs from that suit, and instead had to pay for those costs on behalf of the company with his own funds.

The property the Douglasses were platting for residential development, to be called Hunter's Pointe, appears to be located near Mead, Wash., according to Spokane County building permit documents, but it's unclear whether that piece of property since has been developed.

Harley Douglass also is asking the court to dissolve Ace Investments, and to order Lanzce and Stacey Douglass to reimburse him the amount that he originally paid for costs associated with the Hunter's Pointe suit. He also claims that they both violated financial and contractual duties by making him pay for the suit's costs, of which it is unclear how much he personally contributed.

In addition, Douglass contends that both Lanzce and Stacey Douglass failed to disclose important information regarding the investment company, and that he was left out of matters of importance pertaining to his partnership in it.

He says that if Lanzce and Stacey Douglass had been truthful regarding those matters, he wouldn't have entered into an agreement with them to form the company.

In the countersuit filed by Lanzce and Stacey Douglass, the two claim that Harley Douglass breached his duties and responsibilities to them and to Ace Investments, and that the damages Harley Douglass claims he incurred were caused by his own negligence. The two also claim that the reason the plat approval for Hunter's Pointe wasn't originally approved by the county when it was sought is because Harley had failed to complete some work associated with the application.

Lanzce and Stacey Douglass also assert that despite repeated requests, Harley refused to transfer the Hunter's Pointe property to another company, Douglass Developments, which they had agreed would oversee the selling of the lots there to individual builders.

Lanzce and Stacey Douglass are also asking the court to dissolve Ace Investments, but want its assets, including the settlement, to be distributed equally among all three.

One of Harley Douglass's attorneys Michael Church, of Stamper Rubens PS, couldn't answer certain questions about the suit because he didn't have the file when he was reached. Jed Morris, of Lukins & Annis PS, the attorney representing Lanzce and Stacey Douglass, couldn't be reached for comment.