Some Butler County court officials are breathing a sigh of relief that the lengthy litigation surrounding the Seven Fields real estate scam of the 1970s and 1980s finally is over.

Tom Holman, deputy court administrator, had been anticipating a second round in civil court, much like one that took two full weeks of trial in 2002 after years of pretrial work. The paperwork in the case, which was filed in Butler County Common Pleas Court in 1997, stands more than three feet tall.

"We would have had to try to work it into an existing court calendar that's already overburdened," he said. "From an administrator's point of view, the fact this is resolved permits us to get on with the regular course of business."

The Seven Fields scam left thousands of middle-income retirees without their savings.

The case most recently centered on the battle between Thomas and Barbara L. Reilly -- former Butler County residents who were last known to live in Florida -- and the Ernst & Young accounting firm. That battle ended with a ruling Nov. 10 from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

Ernst & Young is the successor to the firm that provided critical testimony in the bankruptcy proceedings in the mid-1980s of four firms that had been principally owned by the Reillys. Mr. Reilly went to jail in connection with the case that ultimately was determined to be a Ponzi scheme in which shares of property in Seven Fields Borough were oversold.

In 1997, the Reillys sued Ernst & Young in Butler County court, charging that the accounting firm had committed what amounted to malpractice by having testified to the insolvency of the four companies that eventually were reorganized in bankruptcy court into the Seven Fields Development Corp.

The case netted a $103 million verdict in 2003 in the Reillys' favor -- the largest civil award in Butler County history. Mr. Reilly, however, was barred by Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Yeager from sharing the spoils because of his prior "bad acts" that led to his incarceration.

The multi-million dollar verdict in Mrs. Reilly's favor was vacated in 2007 by state Superior Court due to lower court "error," and a new trial was ordered.

Ernst & Young went to U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Pennsylvania, headquartered in Pittsburgh, later that year, asking that the Reillys' case through the state courts be blocked on the basis that the state case would contradict what already had been decided and settled by the original bankruptcy case.

The request was approved by the bankruptcy court in September 2008. The Reillys appealed to the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, and Judge Gary Lancaster denied their appeal in May 2009 and upheld the previous decision of the bankruptcy court. The Reillys appealed again to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which again affirmed the previous decision.

The Reillys have been represented by the Pribanic law firm in Pittsburgh. Victor Pribanic did not return a request for comment.

What has become known as the Seven Fields development scam attracted some 2,500 people, who -- enticed by the promise of 13 percent annual returns -- invested $57 million in the venture. In the end, they recovered about one-third of what they invested.

In the 1970s, Seven Fields Borough was a square-mile of field and farmland on either side of Route 228, next door to Cranberry. Mr. Reilly was a builder from McKeesport who became a principal in companies involved with developing the borough's land into a residential community at the time known as Canterbury Village.

Mr. Reilly has maintained his innocence over the years, saying the project would have made money for everyone had it not been for the interference of government officials and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court decisions.

His first criminal trial, in 1991, ended after 17 weeks with a hung jury. The second trial in 1992 ended after five weeks with his conviction on 23 felony counts. He spent about four years in prison for tax evasion and fraud for his role in what prosecutors described as a Ponzi scheme: While investors thought they were putting their money into townhomes and condos, their "returns" actually were the new investment dollars collected from other investors. He was released from jail in 1997.

As for the investors, they took ownership of Seven Fields Development Corp. -- the consolidation of the original four companies -- and they received about a third of what they originally invested. The corporation was dissolved in 2002 when the remaining undeveloped land in the borough was sold to two other real estate companies.

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