Thursday, May 26, 2005

Mysterious Court Filing

It's uncanny how often I stumble upon something really interesting, while actually searching for something on an entirely different subject. This happened to me this morning, as I was prowling the U.S. District Court (Utah) website, looking for the hearing date on the motion for preliminary injuction requested in the Ogden Airport case. What I inadvertantly found was this page, listing cases filed in the US District Court between May 5, 2005 and May 25, 2005, containing this mysterious information:

U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF UTAH
Cases Filed from 5/11/2005 to Wed May 25 23:12:00 MDT 2005
DATE FILED CASE TITLE DOCKET# *********************************************************
05/25/2005 Moyes et al v. Ogden City et al 1:05-cv-00071-TS
Judge: Stewart
Cause: 42:1983 Civil Rights Act
Nat Suit: Civil Rights: Other

There was talk of attorneys and hints of lawsuits in a Salt Lake Tribune article on May 17, in connection with the recently failed Anti-Recreation Center Bond petition drive :
The petition drive and a counter campaign by residents who want the center grew nasty in recent weeks, with accusations of harassment, stolen petitions, threats and a marketing blitz that included telemarketing and newspaper advertisements. It is those issues that attorneys want to explore for possible action, [Mitch] Moyes said.
Could it be that Mr. Moyes and his now-bloodied group have somehow picked themselves up off the mat, and are now reeling back into the center of the ring for Round Two?
Grab your popcorn and tilt back your barca-loungers, folks. It seems there's never a dull moment in Ogden City politics.
If any of you have any specific information about this lawsuit, please feel free to chime in with your comments. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for our local newspaper of record to fill in the blanks.
How many lawsuits are now in the works, anyway? I lose count.
05/28 Update: I got my hands on a copy of the "complaint" in the above-mentioned Moyes v. Ogden lawsuit today. To call its draftsman inept and amateuturish would be a severe insult to inept and amateurish people. This lawsuit will get blown out of court, I predict, faster than a speeding snare roll.
I'm hoping, for the sake of one of the plaintiffs, a very decent man whom I hold in high regard, that US District Court Judge Stewart isn't in a bad mood when this case winds up on his court docket for the inevitable Motion to Dismiss. Federal Judges have a tendency to become grumpy over frivolous lawsuits; and I'd hate to see any of these plaintiffs suffer heavy sanctions because of their misapplied political passion.
This lawsuit is a true-life example of why there are some jobs that require the hiring of professionals. The plaintiffs' complaint is a do-it-yourself job; and it shows.

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