LATEST TURN IN TOXIC TOWERS CASE

The Toxic Towers case is the lawsuit we filed in June 2002 against the developers of the Boardwalk residential-commercial complex, their contractors Pioneer Inc. and Dykema Excavators, and the City of Grand Rapids to hold them accountable for illegally dumping 20,000 tons of hazardous waste on the grounds of the old water filtration plant on Monroe Avenue (now rechristened with your "Cool City" tax dollars as Clear Water Plaza).  As outlined here, this case has followed what must be the most bizarre procedural path through the state courts in Michigan history.  Nevertheless, we have stuck to our guns.

In response to the Michigan Supreme Court's split and contentious decision in April 2006 to remand the Toxic Towers case to the Michigan Court of Appeals for review of a legal question instead of the Kent County Circuit Court for resumption of normal proceedings, our attorneys filed with the high court a motion to reconsider.  With no surprise, this week the chief justice announced that there was nothing for the high court to reconsider.

Now the case rests with the Court of Appeals to decide a specific question about our legal standing that wouldn't be before it except for the fiat of the Supreme Court.  Fortunately, the Court of Appeals has previously decided the issue of standing in our favor (twice now).  Furthermore, the Kent County Circuit Court, after reviewing our evidence of Pioneer's and Dykema's illegal removal of hazardous waste from the Boardwalk property to the filtration plant, also decided the issue of standing in our favor within the strictures the Supreme Court has laid out.  So, we have good reason to think our case will go forward -- eventually.

The galling thing about all of this is that the polluter-defendants didn't appeal to the Supreme Court these decisions on standing made by either the Court of Appeals or the Circuit Court.  Their appeal was based upon a very strange and narrow ruling of the Court of Appeals which it soon corrected.  So this thrice-settled issue of standing was not even before the Supreme Court.  Oh well, so much for the court rules and the law.  The fact is, folks, our state supreme court just like the U.S. Supreme Court is about politics not the law.