That was my favorite lawyer slip-up at oral argument on the various Motions to Dismiss before Judge Paul McMurdie of Maricopa County Superior Court in Weedon v. Covance.
Judge McMurdie took the matter under advisement - that means he will rule later. The "City of Covance" faux pas came from Joe Mais who represents Covance Laboratories, Inc. I suspect many Chandler residents think Mr. Mais got it right. The City of Chandler's City Council and staff failed to provide a meaningful public process, and go through a rigorous due diligence process. It makes you wonder if Arizona's fifth largest City is the City of Covance.
There were a number of motions pending in the hearing. All Motions to Dismiss. These are what lawyers call procedural motions, and what lay people call technicalities. The plaintiffs may have an uphill fight, based on the Judge's questions and comments, but Plaintiffs' lawyer Ty Tabor did a nice job, and addressed the Judge's questions head on. He correctly reminded the Judge that for the purposes of ruling on Motions to Dismiss, he must assume the allegations of the First Amended Complaint are true. He also pointed out that the allegations are factual, and based on actual events from Covance facilities around the country. Mr. Mais had challenged this in his opening.
I guess in the City of Covance facts are a little different than they are in the rest of the country.
Stephanie Nichols-Young
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Thank you for your summary. I still can't believe this can happen in a populated neighborhood. Its really sickening. Somebody, someplace is getting paid bigtime.
ReplyDeleteFacts spouted by Covance and to a lesser degree the City of Chandler throughout this process have often reminded me more of poll results than of hard data, i.e. skewed interpretation of hard data can also be presented as fact. We know skewed interpretation doesn't need to be accepted as fact, but ears that want to hear only tax dollars falling into city coffers will hear only "facts" that support making that possible.
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