[dropcap]Back[/dropcap] on April 20th I posted about how Aquafortis Associates LLC (“AQF”) filed yet another Request for Stay of Proceedings in the matter of the ongoing appeal of the Clary Lake Water Level Order (see: “Lawyers for Kelley, Smith file Yet Another Motion For Stay of WLO Appeal“). That latest Request for Stay was dated April 14th and requested a stay of proceedings until June 1st to give the parties additional time to try and arrive at a settlement. When I reported on this matter, the State had not yet responded to the Motion though I anticipated that they would not object to the stay request. On April 22nd they did respond, and as expected, they did not object. Continue reading
Category Archives: Superior Court
20 April 2016: Lawyers for Kelley, Smith file Yet Another Motion For Stay of WLO Appeal
Attorneys for Aquafortis Associates LLC (“AQF”) have filed another Motion For Stay of the WLO appeal until June 1st. The motion was filed on April 14th and states that AQF, Pleasant Pond Mill LLC (“PPM”), and the Department of Environmental Protection have been “cooperatively working to resolve the issues that are the subject of Aquafortis’ appeal of the Department of Environmental Protection’s (“DEP”) Water Level Order for Clary Lake Dam (“CLD”), including issues that impede repairs to the CLD.” Continue reading
29 March 2016: Aquafortis Associates LLC Files Amended Petition in Superior Court
Attorneys for Aquafortis Associates LLC have finally filed an amended petition in the Superior Court appeal of the Clary Lake Water Level Order. You may recall that back on January 25th the Court issued an Order granting the State’s Motion to Dismiss and gave Aquafortis Associates, LLC 21 days to file an amended petition. Rather than filing the amended petition, they instead appealed the Superior Court ruling to the Law Court on February 16th, followed not quite 2 weeks later by Requests for Stays of Proceedings of both the appeal and the underlying Superior Court action. The appeal was subsequently dismissed by the Law Court on March 1st, and the 30 day stay requested on February 16th ended last Saturday, March 26th. The amended petition was filed yesterday, March 28th. Yes, it has taken a lot longer than 21 days for the amended petition to be filed; the reason for this is explained quite well in the cover letter accompanying the amended petition. Here’s the amended petition; it’s 23 pages and a rather large file, but interesting reading:
The most significant thing about this amended petition for me is that Paul Kelley and his company Pleasant Pond Mill LLC are not parties to it. This is because the Court’s January 25th Order granting the State’s Motion to Dismiss resulted in Mr. Kelley being removed from the proceedings. With that exception, this amended petition is not a whole lot different from the proposed amended petition filed with the court last summer.
So what’s been going on?
05 March 2016: Law Court Dismisses PPM Appeal
The appeal filed with the Law Court back in late February by counsel for Pleasant Pond Mill LLC (PPM) was dismissed last Tuesday, March 1st because the appeal was deemed to be “interlocutory” which is a term referring to an interim ruling issued before the conclusion of a suit. While it is certainly good news, one shouldn’t try to read too much into this decision: it is not uncommon for a Law Court to dismiss an appeal of a lower court ruling while the underlying suit is still being heard. Consequently, this dismissal isn’t really unexpected but it is interesting that the dismissal was issued so quickly. PPM’s Motion to Stay the appeal, filed last Monday, February 29th, has also been dismissed as moot.
So what all this means is that when the appeal of the Clary Lake Water Level Order in Superior Court resumes at the conclusion of the current stay on March 26th, it will proceed without the benefit of Paul Kelley/PPM being a party to it.
Things do seem to be proceeding at a fast pace.
03 March 2016: PretiFlaherty Files Motions for Stays of Suits
[dropcap]Last[/dropcap] Monday, February 29th attorneys representing Aquafortis Associates LLC (AQF) and Pleasant Pond Mill LLC (PPM) filed motions requesting a Stay of Proceedings in two pending suits, the February 2014 Water Level Order appeal in Superior Court (No. AP-14-1) and the recently filed appeal of the recent lower court’s ruling in the Maine Supreme Court (No. LIN-16-63). The stay requests are for 30 days and end on March 26th. The Law Court action was initiated when Pleasant Pond Mill LLC appealed the January 25th Superior Court ruling granting the State’s motion to dismiss (see PPM Appeals Superior Court Ruling on Motion to Dismiss).
Stay tuned.