FILED February 7, 2023 EDYTHE NASH GAISER, CLERK SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA OF WEST VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS Colin Bitterfield and Olena Paliasna, Plaintiffs Below, Petitioners vs.) No. 21-0733 (Berkeley County 19-C-90) Blackwell Realty, Patrick Blood, Polly Smith and Trevor Sternanko, II, Defendants Below, Respondents MEMORANDUM DECISION Petitioners Colin Bitterfield and Olena Paliasna appeal four orders of the Circuit Court of Berkeley County. 1 In its February 24, 2021, order, the circuit court awarded summary judgment to respondents on petitioners’ claims involving a failed land transaction. In its August 5, 2021, order, the circuit court granted a motion filed by Respondent Trevor Sternanko, II, to strike a mechanic’s lien petitioners had placed on his real property. In its August 19, 2021, order, the circuit court granted Respondent Sternanko’s motion for attorney’s fees and costs and granted the motion for attorney’s fees and costs filed by Respondents Blackwell Realty, Patrick Blood, and Polly Smith (collectively “Blackwell Realty”). Finally, the circuit court, by judgment order also entered on August 19, 2021, awarded attorney’s fees and costs to respondents. Upon our review, we determine that oral argument is unnecessary and that a memorandum decision affirming the circuit court’s orders is appropriate pursuant to Rule 21 of the West Virginia Rules of Appellate Procedure. In November of 2017, Blackwell Realty acted as Respondent Sternanko’s real estate broker when Respondent Sternanko and petitioners entered into a land contract for petitioners to purchase Respondent Sternanko’s real property in Martinsburg, West Virginia, for $149,000. The parties agreed that the closing would not occur until November 1, 2018, so that petitioners could resolve credit issues and obtain financing for the purchase of the real property. However, petitioners wanted to move into the real property immediately. Accordingly, the parties entered into a lease 1 Petitioners are self-represented. Respondent Trevor Sternanko, II, appears by counsel Christopher P. Stroech, and Respondents Blackwell Realty, Patrick Blood, and Polly Smith appear by counsel Kelsey Swaim Miller. 1 agreement to run from December 18, 2017, to November 1, 2018. On November 1, 2018, petitioners did not have the financing necessary to purchase the real property, and the land contract expired. Petitioners’ lease of the real property was extended for three months in the hope that they would secure financing. Nevertheless, at the end of the three-month lease extension, petitioners still did not have financing to purchase the real property, and their lease expired on January 31, 2019. Following their receipt of respondents’ eviction notice, petitioners provided respondents with a letter demanding payment for black mold abatement and renovations of the real property that Respondent Sternanko had no notice of and did not authorize. Petitioners also placed a mechanic’s lien on the real property in the land records of Berkeley County, asserting that Respondent Sternanko owed them $35,000 for the mold abatement and renovations. In February of 2019, petitioners filed a civil action in the Circuit Court of Berkeley County against respondents based upon the failed land transaction. In April …
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