Once more with feeling – the Town of Mammoth Lakes will re-argue the appeal of the Hot Creek lawsuit and $30 million mammoth_town_officejudgment against the Town. One of the appeals court judges retired before a decision was reached after the October oral arguments. Mammoth officials say this development might help.

The grim fact of the judgment against the Town means an ongoing dark cloud over future plans. A Mono County jury had found that the Town breached a development contract with Hot Creek and owed the company $30 million.

At the October oral arguments, attorneys for the Town felt comments by the judges did not bode well for the Town. The Town Council had stated that significant risk existed over the appeal. A press release from the Town states that “the re-hearing provides an opportunity for the Town to address issues that were raised by the panel and to present its arguments to the new judge.”

The new oral argument date is Monday, December 20th. After that time, the Third District judges will have another 90 days in which to issue a decision.

Town officials reminded the public that this litigation arose when the Hot Creek developer claimed that the town “interfered with its rights under a development agreement to build a 250 room condominium hotel at the Mammoth Yosemite Airport and further claimed that the Town should be held responsible for the FAA’s int4rference with the project.”

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