A coalition of Aspen restaurants is suing the man who stole New Year’s Eve to recoup the losses suffered when his bomb scare brought celebrations here to a halt.

Ten local eateries have retained the Aspen law firm of Garfield & Hecht, which plans to file a suit this week against the estate of James Chester Blanning — the troubled 72-year-old who planted four crude bombs in Aspen on New Year’s Eve and threatened indiscriminate “mass death” in a cockeyed scheme that he admitted in a letter to a bank teller was “as much a suicide mission as a bank robbery.”

“We’re not doing this for the money,” said Scott Brasington, a co-owner of Kenichi, which is spearheading the legal reckoning against Blanning, who killed himself on the side of the road in the wee hours of New Year’s Day. “We’re doing this to make a statement. Whether it’s a Sno-Cat, a mining claim or whatever, we feel it belongs to the restaurant workers who took a huge hit. It’s not just the restaurant owners; it’s the waiters, the waitresses, the bartenders, the guys in the kitchen.”

So far Kenichi, Bad Billy’s, D-19, Dish, Elevation, Jimmy’s, Mezzaluna, Social, Syzygy and the Steak Pit have joined together for the suit and Brasington said other restaurants are encouraged to join the effort.

“The businesses of Aspen paid a dear price,” he said. “First and foremost, thankfully no one was hurt. None of us are litigation happy but [Blanning] set out with deliberate intentions to harm people.”

Garfield & Hecht attorney Matt Ferguson said the legal action is also intended to “de-romanticize the Blanning character and show that real people were hurt.”

The amount of the lawsuit is still to be determined but Ferguson said it would likely be for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Several eateries reported losing $30,000 or more that night, which could make it difficult for some restaurants to pay their rents and many of their servers to pay their own bills. New Year’s Eve is typically one of the busiest and most profitable nights for restaurants in Aspen.

“We really want to help these people out,” Ferguson said. “It was a horrible thing to do to good people. This could have been unbelievably tragic. I don’t know if we know how bad it could’ve been. It could have hurt a lot of people.”

It is unclear what value Blanning’s estate may have, but he owned various mining claims in Colorado. He reportedly has an encyclopedic collection of mining records that some believe could have worth, and investigators are still determining what else he might have owned. Before taking his life, Blanning wrote a couple of letters that Ferguson said amounted to a “quick and dirty will.” He bequeathed his possessions to various individuals, including Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis, but most if not all those named in his will have indicated they want little to do with it.

“He either has an estate with a will or one without one. We’re not sure if it’ll have value but whatever mining claims he has, or if anyone thinks they’re going to write a book about him, we think the people who got shorted should get it,” Ferguson said.

Attorneys will also explore other options to deliver relief to restaurant workers who were impacted by Blanning’s bomb scare by checking to see if there is any local, state or federal aid for victims of what essentially was an act of terrorism.

Garfield & Hecht is representing the eateries, which are calling themselves the New Year’s Eve Restaurant Alliance, at a reduced and potentially free rate.

“It might yield some money. It might be to get some aid. Or it might just be to make a point,” Ferguson said. “We really want to help these people.”

hoop@aspendailynews.com