class action

Attempts to "attach" the assets of the Massachusetts Turnpike by class action attorney Jan Schlichtmann have been denied. Superior Court judge Herman Smith said in a decision that Schlichtmann had made no credible estimate of the potential compensation needed, had failed to show that the Turnpike couldn't pay, or that the state wouldn't back it up.

Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's funding of free portions of the Big Dig has long been regarded as bad public policy, and as unfair. It was a dirty political deal on behalf of northern and southern constituencies on the free I-93 portion at the expense of the tolled west on I-90. Wrong yes, but illegal, unconstitutional?