court

Top Ambassador Bridge people are due in Wayne County Court Thursday in what is billed locally as a showdown that could see a Judge order some of them to jail for contempt, and/or appoint a receiver to take over the bridge plaza.

Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) continued to insist in court in Detroit this week that the Ambassador Bridge company executives are defying court orders to remove non-conforming structures and should be jailed for contempt of court. Wayne County Judge Prentis Edwards sent bridge company president Dan Stamper to jail in January for contempt.

The Ambassador Bridge company is facing a legal crisis in relations with the state. Today the state asked a Judge to impose penalties of $100,000/day until the company begins demolition of non-conforming portions of the approaches and reconstructs them in accord with approved and contractually agreed plans.

The contempt of court case brought against the Ambassador Bridge company by Michigan DOT will be ruled on by Judge Prentis Edwards on January 10. Testimony in the case in Wayne County Circuit Court finished up today. The Judge asked both sides for a summary of their case to be submitted by Jan 4 - maximum length ten pages, but he didn't specify minimum font size.

The Ambassador bridge company has won a stay of a judge's demolition order so the Michigan Supreme Court can hear their argument for an appeal. In February Judge Prentis Edwards ruled in favor of a Michigan DOT request for a demolition order to bring the bridge's Michigan approaches known as the Gateway Project into conformity with details the state says were agreed in a contract between the bridge company and the state.

The Ambassador Bridge company has lost its appeal against a major demolition order obtained by the state. Judge Cynthia Stephens presiding officer of the Michigan Court of Appeals today denied leave to appeal, and a motion to stay the demolition order, saying simply that the bridge company had "failed to persuade the Court." (see nearby)

A judge in Detroit has given the Ambassador Bridge company 90 days in which to get governmental agreement to a controversial security fence or to pull it down. The company was sued over the fence by the City of Detroit whose lawyers said the fence was illegal and an encroachment on city land.

A Judge in Richmond VA has rejected claims that Virginia DOT doesn't have the power to transfer control of the Dulles Toll Road to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).

The proposed transfer of the Dulles Toll Road (DTR) from the control of Virginia DOT to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is in doubt following a court victory by opponents. The state supreme court in Richmond today in a 19 page opinion overturned a lower court ruling that the transfer was protected from challenge by a doctrine of sovereign immunity.

The state supreme court in New Jersey has issued a stinging rebuke to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority over a case where the tollster tried to override a labor arbitrator. The court ordered the Turnpike to reinstate Jason Glassey, 34, to a Garden State Parkway toll collector position from which he was fired in Nov 2003.