A judge hearing the City of Boston’s lawsuit challenging the validity of a license awarded to Wynn Resorts for a casino in Everett on Tuesday signaled she is giving strong consideration to dismissing the lawsuit.
Such a decision would represent a significant political blow to Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who has pursued an aggressive legal strategy to block the proposed $1.7 billion casino planned for an area along the Mystic River a short distance from Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood.
It would also deliver a major victory to Steve Wynn, the casino mogul who has clashed with Walsh on a personal level over the fate of the casino, with Wynn even warning that he might file a defamation lawsuit against the mayor.Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders, at the conclusion of a 2½-hour hearing in a packed courtroom in Boston, said she would need time before rendering a decision, even while commenting that she understood a decision was needed expeditiously.But in remarks from the bench, Sanders appeared to be carefully weighing the possibility of dismissing the lawsuit, saying she was not sure a judge “should wade into” such a matter. Continue reading it below Wynn gets key state approval for casino The state granted a crucial environmental license to Wynn Resorts, clearing one of the biggest obstacles the Everett proposal faced.While careful to say she has reached no conclusion in the case, Sanders also cited the “deference” courts ordinarily accord administrative agencies such as the state gambling commission in their decision-making.
She said many of the “very complicated” issues raised in the lawsuit were considered by the commission “over several years,” far more time than she is expected to have before handing down her ruling in the case.
Sanders also persisted in questioning the premise advanced in the city’s lawsuit — that residents of Charlestown deserve the right to vote on whether to permit a casino in their neighborhood because the casino facility actually spills over the Everett city line and into Boston.
Sanders suggested that contention could be resolved as a “matter or geography” and that “all you had to do was look at the map.”
But Thomas Frongillo, the lawyer representing Boston, countered that a roadway called Horizon Way begins in Boston and ends at the site of the casino, making it and Boston “part of the casino premises.”
“It provides critical access to the property,” he said.
Frongillo said Charlestown residents are likely to be very badly inconvenienced by an expected increase in traffic brought on by the casino, especially around Sullivan Square, which he called one of the worst places for traffic tie-ups in the state.
“We are the ones to pay the price,” Frongillo said, referring to Boston residents. “A license unlawfully granted harms the city of Boston.”
The city has filed hundreds of pages of legal documents in its claim that the gambling commission’s award last year of a coveted casino license to Wynn was “the product of a corrupt process.”
The lawsuit challenges virtually all of the commission’s actions leading up to its vote to award the license to Wynn instead of a competing proposal from a partnership made up of the owners of Suffolk Downs and Mohegan Sun.
The city’s lawsuit portrays the commission as having deliberately favored Wynn by violating state statutes, gambling regulations, and codes of ethics.
The commission has denied wrongdoing, and its lawyers have asked Sanders to dismiss the lawsuit because it makes no valid claim.
The arguments made before Sanders also focused on such issues as whether the lawsuit violates the statute of limitations, and whether the city and other plaintiffs in the case have proper standing to bring the legal action.
Sean P. Murphy can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Follow him on Twitter @spmurphyboston.| < Prev | Next > |
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