The owners of land taken for a service plaza want more money for the land the state took by eminent domain. Kennebec Journal:
So far, the former landowners have been awarded almost $1 million for the 26 acres between the Maine Turnpike and Interstate 295.
The Maine Turnpike Authority used eminent domain to acquire the 26-acre former truck stop in 2007. …more
In order to save money in the face of a budget shortfall, several courts are cutting their hours on certain days:
YORK DISTRICT COURT will be closed from 8 to 10 a.m. on Tuesdays.
SPRINGVALE DISTRICT COURT will be closed on the first Wednesday of every month from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
BIDDEFORD DISTRICT COURT will be closed from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays.
YORK COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT will be closed from 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
PORTLAND DISTRICT COURT will be closed from noon to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays.
BRIDGTON DISTRICT COURT will be closed from 8 a.m. to noon on Mondays.
In what will certainly be controversial, supporters of same-sex marriage are hoping to make it legal in Maine.
Gay marriage supporters announced today they are moving forward with legislation that will permit same-sex couples to wed in Maine.
The bill, to be sponsored by Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Trenton, would end the prohibition on qualified gay and lesbian couples from marrying in Maine, according to a statement from the Maine Freedom to Marry Coalition.
The bill codifies civil marriage in Maine law as the legally recognized union of two people. The bill affirms that religious institutions continue to have control over their own religious doctrine and teachings regarding who may marry within each faith.
Finally, the bill recognizes the validity of marriages validly licensed and certified in other states.
The coalition includes EqualityMaine, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Maine Civil Liberties Union, and the Maine Women’s Lobby.
Opponents, including the Catholic Diocese of Portland and the Maine Family Policy Council, said they will fight the bill as it goes through the legislative process.
The Kennec Journal reports on the law firm Linnell, Choate and Webber is being sued by Downeast Energy Corp. for breaching an oil purchase contract. The firm allegedly locked in the price of oil over the summer when it was at $4.36, but is now refusing to take any more oil at that price, which is nearly double the current rate.
The firm is claiming that there was not in fact a contract because Downeast did not provide a signed confirmation of the agreement. However the firm has accepted the delivery of some oil since the agreement was made.
With contract disputes, what was actually agreed to will decide. However here the firm is claiming the contract was never ratified. The Court will first need to look at the ‘who did what and when’ to determine if the contract was actually formed. The fact that the firm did accept oil deliveries, and presumably paid the higher price will go against them. The court will also look to see what is the normal practice in this type of situation, e.g., is a signed confirmation from the oil supplier the norm.
Perhaps in the end they will just settle, and the firm will pay a reduced amount for their oil.
A Searsport lawyer exposed himself to former clients.
Mason was accused of exposing himself to a woman while he was parked at the On the Run store in Winterport on Oct. 17. The second charge stems from an alleged incident on July 4, 2007, that took place in Stockton Springs.
Baghdoyan said that in both cases it was alleged that Mason exposed his genitals to the women in a public place.
Baghdoyan said indecent conduct is a Class E misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a maximum fine of $1,000. Baghdoyan said he recommended that Mason be given a 60-day suspended sentence with probation. Defense attorney Steven C. Peterson of Rockport argued for a lighter sentence.
“The judge decided 20 days would be sufficient,” Baghdoyan said….
Baghdoyan said both victims, who were current or former clients of Mason’s, had submitted complaints to the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar against Mason. The board could impose a number of possible sanctions, including informal reprimand, formal reprimand, suspension or disbarment.
In 2007, the Legislature passed the $5 million Riverfront Community Development Bond and Maine voters gave it their own stamp of approval in November of 2007.
The town will largely put the $675,000 toward the reinvention of the mill at 61 Washington Street. In September, the town took the mill by eminent domain from its previous owner, local developer Patrick Fagan, whose dreams of revitalizing the property for commercial and residential purposes ran into financial difficulties.
CASE NOTE: Brown v. Crown Equipment Corporation
By Elliott Teel
One question before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in this case was whether or not Maine imposes a duty on manufacturers to warn of problems with their product after it has been sold.
The facts of the case show that the manufacturer of forklifts, Crown Equipment, became aware of a design defect that had caused serious injury and even death in several cases. In response to this problem, the company produced a kit in 1995 that prevented injuries from occurring. Essentially the company simply had a piece of metal designed that needed to be added to it’s forklifts in order to prevent injuries. However, despite producing the item that would have prevented further injuries and death, they failed to make sure that they were actually used, or even properly inform the forklift owners of the problem.
Robert Brown was operating one of these forklifts while working for a tanning company. The forklift had been purchased second-hand, however Crown still was aware of the use of the particular forklift, and had even “performed an evaluation” on it. So despite knowing that use of the forklift could result in deadly accidents, and knowing that this particular forklift had not had the corrective work done to it, Crown made no effort to have the modification done to the forklift. In August of 2006, Mr. Brown was killed while operating the forklift after suffering the exact injury Crown was aware had occurred over fifty times already.
The Court in Maine found that Crown had a duty to warn of the defect in their forklifts. Their failure to adequately address the problem through a recall or proper notification to the forklift owners violated that duty, and they were found liable for Mr. Brown’s death. The Court noted however that they were not adopting a broader, absolute rule about the duty to warn, but only on the facts of this case.
A group opposed to the building of a wind power project on Rollins Mountain in Lincoln have filed an appeal with the Lincoln Appeals Board. They are arguing that the wind turbines should be considered “power generating facilities,” as opposed to “major public utilities.” Because the area is zoned residential, if the wind turbines are considered generating facilities they should be be permitted.
The Lincoln Planning Board used “ludicrous” arguments in shoehorning a proposed $130 million wind farm into its regulations, a Bar Harbor lawyer opposing the board’s approval of the proposal contended Tuesday.
Representing a group opposing the project, the Friends of Lincoln Lakes, attorney Lynne A. Williams filed an appeal with the Lincoln Appeals Board on Monday charging that First Wind’s turbines do not belong in residential zones of Rollins Mountain, where the project is slated to go if it is approved by Maine Department of Environmental Protection and other agencies.
In her two-page appeal, Williams said the board’s 6-1 approval Dec. 1 violated its own, and most other, municipal land-use ordinances for residential zones.
The Times-Record reports that the State has sent the Wiscasset bypass route plan to the Army Corps of Engineers for approval. The building of the road will likely require the State to take property by eminent domain.
Construction of the bypass would force the state to move 26 residences and 13 businesses, claiming those properties through eminent domain proceedings.
“One of the reasons this bypass has taken many, many years to come to a conclusion is there are always impacts, and they’re not always good,” said Carol Morris. “It’s never good to have to take people’s properties and lands. It’s never good to impact wetlands.
The Press Herald reports here on the case Brown v. Crown Equipment Corporation, where the State Supreme Court confirmed that there is a post-sale duty to warn, even to secondary, (i.e., used product purchasers) of defects in a product. The facts of the case as reported show that the tragic death of Thomas Brown should have been prevented by Crown, and they inexcusably let a known problem go unresolved.
See my summary of the case here.