California Supreme Court Denies Review in OBOT v Oakland

  • The Earl Warren Building and Courthouse (former California State Building) — at Civic Center Plaza in the San Francisco Civic Center, California, home to the Supreme Court of California and the Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District. Image credit: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Today, the California Supreme Court denied review of the Court of Appeal decision upholding Judge Noel Wise’s 2024 ruling that the City of Oakland did not have a right to terminate its lease with Phil Tagami’s Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT) in 2018. Judge Wise rejected OBOT’s claim for $159.6 million in damages (primarily for speculative “lost profits”) but gave the developers two and a half years to get construction underway. The City appealed unsuccessfully and the Supreme Court has now let the Court of Appeal’s decision stand. This marks the end of one phase of the ten-year battle to keep coal out of Oakland and the beginning of another.

The developers now have a new lease on life, renewing the danger of a coal terminal coming to Oakland should anyone want to finance such a venture knowing that the project will face stiff community resistance and potential legal challenges. On Sunday, an article appeared in the Cowboy State Daily newspaper revealing the possibility that politicians and coal interests in Wyoming may be interested in Oakland, in addition to the Utah coal interests that have sought to build a giant coal export facility in West Oakland since the mid-2010s.

Potential investors should take note that construction and operation of a coal export terminal on our city’s waterfront will continue to face unrelenting opposition from the people of Oakland, the Bay Area, and California.

 

 

Image: The Earl Warren Building and Courthouse (former California State Building) — at Civic Center Plaza in the San Francisco Civic Center, California, home to the Supreme Court of California and the Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District. Image credit: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.