BREAKING NEWS: Cruise ship lawsuit against town moves forward, but judge removes councilors' names in litigation
BAR HARBOR, July 12, 2024 - Superior Court Judge Thomas McKeon ruled Thursday that the lawsuit brought against the town for its refusal to implement the citizens enacted ordinance Nov. 8, 2022 to cap cruise ship passenger visitation may proceed.
He dismissed the most incendiary aspect of the suit naming individual members of the Town Council which now appeared to be a tactical error on the part of lawyers representing Charles Sidman, leader of the citizens initiative. It ignited a firestorm of protest from council members which caused a huge distraction from the case.
His lawyers had claimed that the “individual town councilors violated his constitutional right to vote by directing the Harbor Master to honor 2024 season cruise ship reservations made between March 17, 2022 and November 8, 2022,” McKeon wrote.
Several council members repeatedly chastised Sidman, even though Sidman said he was not holding the councilors personally liable. Member Matt Hochman twice posted on social media, “fuck that guy” in reference to Sidman.
McKeon did not agree that Sidman’s rights were violated and dismissed his charges against the individual council members.
McKeon also denied Sidman’s request for “injunctive relief” to remedy the council’s action to delay implementation of the passenger cap because he had not yet proved his point.
But McKeon sided with Sidman's claim of legal standing that “the Town Council's direction to the Harbor Master to exempt certain 2024 cruise ship reservations will cause him hardship by reducing his business clientele.” Sidman had claimed that customers of his wife’s art gallery have complained about the influx of cruise ship passengers making it unpleasant for them to come to the shop.
“The court finds that Sidman has adequately alleged standing and ripeness to allow his claim for' declaratory relief to survive a motion to dismiss.”
McKeon also brushed aside the town’s claim that even if it sided with Sidman it could not enforce the ordinance “until theHarbor Master promulgates rules required under the ordinance, which it has not yet done.”
The case now moves forward, probably to a court-supervised session to seek a settlement. If Sidman wins on the merits of the case, McKeon wrote that he may then obtain “injunctive relief as a remedy.”
McKeon’s decision as mostly a victory for Sidman was corroborated by a respected judicial source who wrote,
“Sidman's suit has not suffered any meaningful setback. He never was going to get anything from the individual defendants, and an injunctive order directed to the Town's conduct will bind them even if they are not still defendants. He maintained standing to complain, and the defendants' no-harm-done-because-there-are-other-impediments argument did not prevail.”
Both sides claimed victory Friday and issued competing press releases which you may view on The Bar Harbor Story which broke the story today.