Steve scooped me, but I thought I'd still add my two cents in this post. As noted, two weeks ago the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments for a Wild Equity Institute (WEI) appeal of district Judge Susan Illston's December 6, 2012 decision dismissing the WEI lawsuit against the City of San Francisco and the Sharp Park golf course. At the time, she dismissed the case as "moot".
Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rendered their judgement of the WEI appeal. But before we get to that judgement, a bit of context. In a recent post I attempted to translate the lawsuit legalese by offering my decidedly non-legal understanding of the merits of the WEI appeal. To whit:
"In this case, in simple terms, the Wild Equity Institute sued the City of San Francisco over whether they had the right permits and permission to continue golf operations, enhance the frog habitat, and provide needed infrastructure maintenance. The judge determined that the City did indeed have the correct permits and permissions, found the WEI lawsuit moot, and dismissed the case. WEI subsequently declared victory, and asked their legal fees to be reimbursed as a reward for managing to successfully get their own lawsuit declared moot. After the judge granted them 1/4 of the legal fees they wanted they issued another triumphant press release. Then they subsequently appealed the judgement of the lawsuit they claimed that they won. For us, the untutored, non-lawyerly, great unwashed, this comes across as complete BS."
As it turns out, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of their decision is that it was rendered in only 600 words and less than two weeks after hearing oral arguments. 100 of those 600 words were consumed by the title of the lawsuit and listing the litigants. Cripes, I can't even write a blog post introduction in under 600 words.
Alright. I've teased this long enough. Here is the decision:
"Wild Equity Institute appeals from the district court’s order dismissing this case as moot. This case originated as an Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 9 claim against the City and County of San Francisco, which was then operating Sharp Park Golf Course without any type of ESA permit. After Wild Equity filed suit, the City requested that the Army Corps of Engineers initiate consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) under ESA Section 7 in connection with the City’s application for a Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 404 permit. The district court stayed proceedings pending the outcome of the consultation, then concluded that the case was moot once FWS issued its Biological Opinion and Incidental Take Statement (ITS) following the Section 7 consultation. Wild Equity argued on appeal that the ITS had no independent force prior to its incorporation into the City’s CWA permit. However, the Corps has since issued the relevant permit, which incorporates the terms of the ITS. California has also provided its state certification as required under CWA Section 401. Accordingly, and as Wild Equity has acknowledged, this appeal is moot...
The issuance of the ITS and CWA permit have also fundamentally changed the legal landscape within which the parties are operating, reducing the likelihood that this issue will arise again between these particular parties... We therefore lack jurisdiction over this appeal. APPEAL DISMISSED."
Why, indeed.
On to the next battle. They've lost the political battle with both the Pacifica City Council and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. They've lost in Federal Court. They've lost in the court of public opinion. Now they are moving to regulatory agencies, specifically the Coastal Commission. The hearing is in two weeks. Onward.
4 comments:
What's even scary about this is that Digre and Keener still buy Plater's load of crap as evidenced by their behavior at last Monday's (3/2315) Council Meeting.
They are card carrying members of the "let's delay" club. Anything to thwart progress in Pacifica is fair game for these two nuts and their brethren.
To be fair, the Pacifica City Council did vote unanimously to support the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance position and send a letter to the Coastal Commission supporting the pump house and habitat restoration project. I have not watched the youtube video of the council meeting yet, but that was clearly the right decision.
watch the video.......
At one point they both even characterized the letter in support of Sharp Park as a marketing ploy.
If it wasn't for the common sense of O'neil to compromise with these two nuts it would not have passed.
Keener knew what he was up to but I'm convinced that Digre is still in the dark about what she's being manipulated to do by her "faux-supporter/handlers".
She is a bigger useful idiot than W was for the America haters during his terms.
Forget it MW. Cockpit door locked and he's on a toot!
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