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Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Ind. Law - More on Hammond v. Calumet City "state line" dispute

Updating this April 6th ILB entry is a story today in the Munster (NW Indiana) Times by Joe Carlson headed: "Calumet City switches State Line strategy: New legal tack is seen as realization of Hammond's stronger legal position in federal court battle." Some quotes:

HAMMOND | Calumet City officials are switching to a less expensive and hopefully more successful legal strategy in their federal case against Hammond over the controversial State Line Road traffic barrier, Calumet City attorney Dennis Gianopolus said.

Calumet City officials are now planning to seek monetary damages against Hammond if U.S. District Judge Philip Simon will not grant their request to stop construction of the barrier that divides the state line between the cities south of 165th Street.

Previously, Calumet City was only seeking a judge's order preventing construction of the barrier, but the judge sided with Hammond in a preliminary ruling last month.

As a result, work is rapidly under way on the $637,000 project and will wrap up soon, even though the judge could theoretically rule against Hammond and force the project to be undone in his final ruling.

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. interpreted the new legal strategy by Calumet City as a realization the judge is not going to prevent the barrier from existing.

"To me, it means that they accept the original ruling that it does not violate the Constitution of the United States to build this curb," McDermott said. "I think they probably decided they've spent enough money on a case they're going to lose."

On the contrary, Gianopolus said, Calumet City is still seeking a permanent order preventing the curb.

But under the amended legal arguments, Calumet City will seek monetary damages from Hammond to fix its side of the road if it cannot convince the judge to undo the project -- a less expensive and more promising legal tactic, Gianopolus said.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 2, 2006 08:05 AM
Posted to Indiana Law