RUSTON LOSES

Steve Fabre v. Town of Ruston June 24, 2011 1:30pm room 822 Judge Edmund Murphy: Motion to Dismiss
The former Mayor Council skate today. Dismissed from case.
Ruston not so lucky trial will go on for negligence, tortious interference, post Cuthbertson and 1253. Damages will be assessed at trial on NINE MILLION DOLLAR CLAIM.
They just could not leave well enough alone and poked the sleeping dog thinking it was a dead horse.
The judge held that Ruston Mayor/Council had legislative immunity dismissing all claims against individual defendants.

Res judicata or res iudicata (RJ), also known as claim preclusion, is the Latin term for "a matter [already] judged",

Res judicata claim by defendant Town of Ruston dismissed. Cuthbertson (Judge) dismissed claim. Ruston took no action to enforce new claims or actions.
Plaintiff res judicata upheld.
Grant each partially. No action on after Cuthbertson not repealed until December 10. Only Ruston argument.
Town shifted to Social Card games after declatory decision.
Summation of discretionary acts followed.

Claim for damages will go forward.

Plaintiff conversion, estoppel, abusive process dismissed.
Negligence, tortious interference will continue to trial.

My take is that the Town of Ruston should of quit when they were ahead. But the present council pressed on with Social card games then changing to house banked social card games in their haste to close the Point Defiance Cafe and Casino and its house banked card games including an illegal referendum.

The Casino and Steve Fabre may be made whole again but the damage to 35-40 employees and their lives cannot be repaired.

When you go "all in" with your credit card bad days are ahead. How bad will be decided on 06/04/2012 DEPT 09 - JUDGE MURPHY (Rm. 822 ) Confirmed 9:00 Trial (5 days).

Stay tuned for happenings along the way. CLERK'S MINUTE ENTRY will be posted when available.
One less law firm to pay but still legal bills will be substantial. A claim settlement is a definite possibility.
AWC, Association of Washington Cities, must be stone deaf not to pay attention to these thundering claims and lawsuits they have to pony up for.

Town of Ruston officials:
Mayor, Bruce Hopkins
Council, Bradley Huson, Jim Hedrick, Deborah Kristovich, Lyle Hardin, Jane Hunt

GREAT COST (updated)

Legal bills for the Town of Ruston are large and could be dramatically larger soon. Ruston WA a town of 700 approximately now employs four law firms. Wow! I have tried to stay away from lawyer names as the Town Council is responsible for these large sums and the barristers merely do their bidding.
The Town pays or has paid $60 thousand dollars a year for a Town Attorney. All of the following charges are in addition to in house legal charges. The following were obtained through a PRR (Public Records Request) and are not necessarily in any order. It would take a huge amount of time and effort to show all pages. Judgments are not included.

Fabre v. Town of Ruston June 2008 through Jun 2010
$23 thousand and $468 dollars and .05 cents ($23,468.05). Still ongoing.

Fabre v. Town of Ruston July 2008 through December 2008
$6 thousand and $713 dollars and .80 cents ($6,783.14).

Boundary Review September 2010 through December 2010
$3 thousand $590 dollars ($3,590.00)

Commencement March through April 2009
$353 dollars ($353).

Whoa. Just realized I did not go far enough back and am missing the Commencement lawsuit referred to as the 'Ballet lawsuit' where they tried to evict the Commencement from the Mary Joyce center to hold ballet classes. The judge ruled for the Commencement which held a 500 year lease on the premises and the Town had to pay costs for both sides.

Baumgardner March 2009
$692 dollars.

Huitt-Zollars February through June 2010.
$1,455 dollars ($1,455.00)

Leider/Point Ruston March through June 2009
$5 thousand 407 dollars ($5,407.00)

Liability Insurance July 2009
$1 thousand 949 dollars ($1,949.00)
Compensation for increase in liability insurance coverage limits.

AWC RMSA assessment for 2011
$45 thousand 482 dollars ($45,482.00)
"As you review your enclosed 2011 assessments, please remember that your rates reflect $10 million in liability coverage."
Formerly was $5 million. Wonder why they doubled it?

Please leave comment if I missed any or corrections or meet at next Regular Council meeting May 2. Clue read next post Fabre claim.

Next Fabre claim amended.