Landfill lawsuit will go on

It looks like the City Beat can look forward to many fun hours at Grand Forks District Court this December.

Judge Joel Medd recently denied Turtle River Township's motion to dismiss the city of Grand Forks' appeal. The city wants the judge to overturn the township board of supervisor's decision not to allow the city to build a landfill in township land.

Township attorney Al Boucher said back in mid-July that the city didn't correctly file its appeal because it didn't use the word "appeal" anywhere in its filing. Since the court only has appellate jurisdiction, it has no jurisdiction over the city's non-appeal.

I didn't roll my eyes or anything but Al read my thoughts. He told me later that it may sound like a technicality but these things have to be done correctly. If the statute of limitation on a crime is, say, six years, he said, and charges are filed on the first day of the seventh year, they wouldn't stick. Same situation here.

The city's attorney Ron Fischer said state law doesn't define what an appeal is. By taking the township to an appellate court and asking the court to overturn the city's decision, he argued, he's essentially filing an appeal.

He noted that state law doesn't say what an appeal has to look like.

Medd agreed with Fischer. The city's appeal doesn't say "appeal" so the substance of it makes it an appeal.

The township is free to appeal Medd's decision but Boucher doesn't know if that will happen yet. The question is, will he put the word "appeal" at the top or not?