The company that issued an insurance policy on two Clay Street buildings that collapsed nearly two years ago must remain a party in the lawsuit filed by the buildings’ owner against the City of Vicksburg, Circuit Court Judge Isadore Patrick has ruled.

Otherwise, there’s little indication in the rulings on preliminary matters that seems to forecast how the situation will be resolved.

Assurance Company of America will stay on as a third-party defendant in the suit, which is to decide the future of buildings at 707 and 709 Clay St., Patrick said in a summary judgment Friday.

The buildings, owned by Preston and Mary Reuther, collapsed on Jan. 25, 2006. They had purchased the buildings three months earlier and they were being cleaned out for use as an antique mall when they imploded. No one was hurt.

In the ensuring months, conflict arose between City Hall and the Reuthers on several points and in court they have challenged the city’s denial of permits to demolish the two freestanding buildings, which city officials and advisory board members have said have historic value.

The first of two summary judgments Patrick issued Friday, based on arguments presented at a Nov. 27 hearing, retains Assurance as a third-party defendant, upsetting the company’s motion asking to be removed as a party to the case, or alternatively, that the case be severed and a complaint brought against Assurance by the mortgage company, DCH Realty, be decided separately.

Patrick’s second ruling allows the city to keep in place a “stop work order” preventing private contractors from removing any debris from the site of the accident. Recision of the order was one aim of the complaint the Reuthers filed against the city in August 2006.

In his decision, Patrick said the Reuthers did not follow appropriate legal channels after the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to deny them a permit to demolish the buildings, following a Board of Architectural Review recommendation that the buildings be stabilized.

The Reuthers and their attorneys say the cost of stabilization was estimated at more than $300,000 and will far exceed the cost of demolishing the buildings. They are contesting the city’s efforts, under slum clearance laws, to clean the site and stabilize the buildings at the owners’ expense.

The Reuthers could have appealed the board’s decision directly to the Warren County Circuit Court, but did not, filing suit in chancery court months after the appeal window had expired.

The Nov. 27 hearing was the first before Judge Patrick. Vicksburg-based Chancellor Vicki Roach Barnes had recused herself from the case, sending it to Indianola-based Chancery Judge Jane Weathersby, who sent it to Greenville-based Chancellor Marie Wilson. In July, Wilson ordered the case to Judge Patrick’s court.

Associate City Attorney Bobby Robinson said the next step will be a trial, a date for which will be set by Patrick’s office.