Monday was supposed to be the day a judge would decide once and for all if the lawsuits filed against the city of El Paso could delay or prevent the demolition of City Hall to build the ballpark. 

A curve ball delivered in Austin postponed the hearing Monday.

Both sides showed up to court in Austin expecting to head back with a decision. Instead, they learned that one of the parties suing the city has taken its case to federal court.

The city is asking for a bond validation, which acts as an umbrella, effectively taking all the lawsuits that aim to delay or stop the city's plans at once.

"We went to Austin and Travis County for the bond validation to have a judge certify that all the proper steps had been taken to issue the bonds," said senior city attorney Sylvia Firth.

The party, led by former Mayor Ray Salazar and Jesus Ochoa, filed a motion to move the bond validation to federal court.

"This morning in Austin the parties that are led by former Mayor Salazar filed a motion to remove our bond validation case to federal court and automatically that stays all actions at state court," said Firth.

Neither the city nor the other parties, including Carl Starr and Sal Gomez, who are also suing the city, were aware of the move until they arrived in court.

Monday's development delayed the hearing until the federal courts make a decision, which doesn't prevent the city from moving forward with its plans.

"Now it's been delayed, but there are no injunction or anything to stop us from moving forward with our relocation and demolition plans as of today," said Firth.

"I don't know whether it benefits me and Mr. Gomez or not. It could be that this delay is to our benefit," said Starr.

Without an injunction, the city can proceed with its plans for demolition but the city of El Paso cannot issue any of the bonds for construction until after a decision on the bond validation suit is made.

However, the city could chose to spend money if they were confident the bonds would be validated and then they could use the bonds to repay the money previously spent.

While Salazar and Ochoa were asked to have their lawsuit moved to federal court, there is no guarantee that a federal judge will chose to hear the case.

Theoretically, if all the delays take too long, City Hall could be gone before a judge hears the case as the city plans to demolish city hall as early as next month.

So far the city said its spent tens of thousands of dollars on outside attorney fees fighting the lawsuits in addition to occupying a substantial amount of the city attorney's time.