There is a very technical legal manoever that the plaintiff in Frack Zombie Rent-a-Plaintiff vs Dryden is attempting to pull off in stealth mode; in arcane legal parlance it is known as cum baculo percutere equus mortuus, which, as any good lawyer or Jesuit-educated person would know is “fracking a dead horse.”
The plaintiff in Dryden, We Must Act Fast Before We Fracking Disappear, is trying - hurriedly - to get New York’s High Court to hear an appeal that the appellate court justices ruled against unanimously - on all counts - and that four (4) trial courts have ruled with or agreed with the defendant(s) - the Towns of Dryden and Middlefield - on Home Rule. That’s a grand total of eight (8) judges. And, as we say here in Cooperstown, 8 strikes and you’re out. Even if you’re a Frack Zombie Rent a Plaintiff.
All this because the Rent-a-Plaintiff’s lawyer, aka Chesapeake’s Lobbyist, pretends to not understand the clear meaning of the relevant statutes, the New York constitution, the case law on the matter or the unanimous ruling of 8 judges. And he wishes to express his histrionic befuddlement in person to the state’s High Court.
Town of Dryden asks top court to uphold fracking bans
Posted by Jon Campbell • June 13, 2013 • 3:09 pm
“A central New York town is asking the state’s top court to reject a request to appeal decisions that have upheld its local hydrofracking ban, arguing that previous decisions against a previous appeal should be enough to uphold it.
Since a mid-level appeals court ruled unanimously that the ban in the Tompkins County town of Dryden is legal, a lawyer for Norse Energy Corp. had to ask permission to appeal to the state Court of Appeals. The attorney, Tom West, made that request earlier this month.
In a court filing Thursday, an attorney for the Tompkins County town of Dryden called on the court to turn down West’s request.
“At this point, we don’t think there’s anything left to resolve,” Dryden Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner said in a statement. “Our town clearly has the right, enshrined in our state constitution and upheld by the courts, to decide how land is used within our town borders.”
Out of 999 requests to appeal non-split Appellate Division decisions in 2012, just 64 were granted.
The Dryden case and a similar one in the Otsego County town of Middlefield are expected to set a statewide precedent as to whether local governments can ban gas drilling and fracking. High-volume fracking is still on hold in New York as the Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health weigh its merits.
Here’s the Dryden filing, courtesy of Earthjustice, the group representing Dryden:
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