Is the legal fight over the controversial -- but long-ago scuttled -- plan to build a commercial airport at the former Homestead Air Force Base finally over?

A state court judge has thrown out a case against Miami-Dade County that was filed by Homestead Air Base Developers Inc., also known as HABDI, which claimed it was owed more than $100 million after the airport deal collapsed in 2001.

``Finally, I think we can move on,'' Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson, a long-time opponent of a commercial airport at the base, said Thursday.

The decision is the latest chapter in a legal fight that started eight years ago when the U.S. Air Force decided it would not convey the 604 acres to the county for an airport -- instead later giving it to Miami-Dade for general non-aviation development.

HABDI had won a no-bid contract from Miami-Dade County to lease and develop the property as a commercial airport in 1996.

But the development group still needed the federal government to transfer the land to the county and to approve airport use on the large parcel in South Miami-Dade. It needed to clear these hurdles while also confronting fierce opposition to its plans from environmental groups.

When the Air Force decided against conveying the land for an airport, HABDI responded by suing the federal government. The case was ultimately rejected by a U.S. district judge in 2006 and affirmed on appeal a year later.

Separately, HABDI sued Miami-Dade County in 2006, alleging the county had failed to hold up its end of the bargain in the airport development project. Now that suit has been rejected also.

In a one-page ruling dated Nov. 4, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Gerald D. Hubbart dismissed the case, concluding there ``is no genuine issue as to any material fact.''

Assistant County Attorney Thomas Goldstein, the lead attorney for Miami-Dade in the lawsuit, said there was little the county could have done to save the project.

``To this day, we don't know what HABDI had in mind that we could have done that would have resulted in the property being conveyed for use as a commecial airport,'' Goldstein said.

Lawrence Gordich, HABDI's lawyer, did not return calls Thursday.

The case can still be appealed.

``Nothing is ever finished until it is finished,'' said the county's Goldstein. ``Hopefully, they don't appeal and we can get on with doing other things.''