4 results for month: 01/2018


Coal Trial Ends: Undecided, Judge Awaits Post-Trial Briefs and Final Argument

Post-Trial Briefing Schedule Order The three-day trial of developer Phil Tagami’s lawsuit against the City of Oakland ended Friday without a clear signal from Judge Vince Chhabria as to how he will rule. Chhabria’s ruling is not expected until after he has had a chance to review posttrial briefs and other papers to be filed by the parties in the coming weeks and holds a final hearing tentatively set for March 28. The City made its case Friday calling a number of expert witnesses to rebut the plaintiff’s contentions that the City breached a 2013 development agreement by banning the storage and handling of coal at a proposed terminal to be ...

City Bats Next in Coal Terminal Trial

Judge Challenges City to Explain Health Conclusions Without Air Quality Modeling Judge Vince Chhabria ended day two of the Oakland coal trial by challenging the City to show how it reached conclusions about air quality impacts in the health of residents in West Oakland without doing modelling that would quantify the likely concentration of pollutants in neighborhood air that would result from coal handling at the proposed West Gateway coal terminal. After a day off from trial, the City will begin presentation of its case on Friday at 10 a.m. and hopes to call Dr. Andrew Gray, an air quality expert, to testify on air dispersion modeling of pollut...

Coal Trial Gets Underway in S.F. Federal Court

Before the trial got underway, the judge reiterated his guidance from last week’s summary judgment hearing: “The question in this case is whether substantial evidence supports the City’s decision. It either does or it doesn’t.”

Coal Lawsuit Goes to Trial on January 16

Before a packed courtroom of No Coal in Oakland supporters, Judge Vince Chhabria today ordered a trial on whether the City breached its agreements with the developer when it enacted a ban on coal storage and handling in July 2016.  The trial will start on Tuesday, January 16, and then hop, skip, and jump from Wednesday, January 17 to Friday, January 19, and on to Tuesday, January 23. At today’s hearing, the judge effectively denied summary judgment to both sides on the developer’s breach of contract claim and left summary judgment motions on federal constitutional and preemption claims hanging for later resolution after trial.  Although the ...