Injunction

An Eastern Shore hospital scheduled for closure next month is seeking a preliminary injunction to remain open, according to court papers filed this week. Upper Shore Hospital in Chestertown is to close Feb. 28 as part of a series of cuts proposed by state officials in light of revenue shortfalls, according to court papers. The closing would save the state about $2.7 million. The petition for an injunction, filed in Kent County Circuit Court, alleges that the closing of the hospital would be an improper exercise of gubernatorial power by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

An Anne Arundel County judge handed the Key School a victory Tuesday, allowing the 55-year-old Annapolis private school to go ahead with plans to turn the 70-acre Annapolis Golf Club into an outdoor campus for athletics. A request by residents of the surrounding Annapolis Roads community to block the proposed landscape of playing fields, tennis courts, parking lot and a maintenance facility was turned down by Circuit Judge Paul G. Goetzke. An appeal, however, is possible. "This is an important day for us," said Marcella Yedid, head of the school, noting that the school has been working with Anne Arundel County on the site plan.

When NFL players waged a 24-day strike at the start of the 1987 season, Phillip Closius gained front-row insight as a law school professor and player agent. He saw the players' movement collapse in September when Pro Bowl stars like Joe Montana and Tony Dorsett crossed the picket line. He saw the players routed by the owners with replacement players. He saw the face of desperation. "I know what tensions are like on players when they start losing paychecks," Closius said Tuesday.

Lawyers for Baltimore say a group of Westport residents seeking an injunction to stop construction of the Horseshoe Casino along Russell Street have no legal standing and are being used by a shadowy organization more concerned with delaying the facility opening than environmental factors. In a response filed Tuesday, city solicitors Matthew W. Nayden and Daniel J. Sparaco dismissed the group's claim that the city and the Maryland Department of the Environment colluded to allow CBAC Gaming to avoid following protocol for publicly discussing and planning cleanup of the site.

The political action group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, along with a group of parents and one teacher, is seeking an injunction against the Baltimore school system to stop the more than 700 employee layoffs school officials announced Tuesday. The request, filed in Circuit Court yesterday, says the layoffs pose a threat to the quality of education received by the city's 92,000 schoolchildren. "The bottom line is the state has the obligation to fund these schools, and so does the city, and they need to start coming up with the money," said Mitchell Klein, ACORN's chief organizer.

1/8 TC A Churchville-based company has asked a Harford Circuit Court judge to lift an injunction that would allow the company to start some operations at its controversial rubble fill near Havre de Grace.The company, Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc., received a state permit for the rubble fill, but the injunction prevents the company from starting operations at the dump until several court cases are resolved.Attorneys representing the county and the County Council have objected to the company's request, saying it is too soon for the courts to lift the injunction.

In a continuing battle over the display of illegal real estate signs along state highways in Harford County, the anti-sign forces appear to have scored a small victory.A court injunction against Rommel Crabtree, a Creswell activist who single-handedly destroyed hundreds of illegal signs in weekend forays this fall, was lifted Monday in Harford County Circuit Court, according to court documents. In effect, the ruling allows him to continue to remove the illegally posted signs.Questar Homes Inc. has sued Mr. Crabtree, asking for $900,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, the documents show.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Kathleen O'Ferrall Friedman has lTC issued an injunction blocking the city from forcing firefighters and fire officers to forfeit five days' pay as part of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's budget-cutting plan.The judge based her injunction, issued yesterday, on an earlier agreement between the city and the firefighters' union.Faced with the threat of 252 layoffs, the union agreed Nov. 29 to give up a 6 percent pay rise it had won through binding arbitration.In exchange, the city agreed to shift $3 million it had set aside to pay for the pay increase into the Fire Department budget, thereby avoiding the layoffs.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has asked a federal district judge to withdraw his preliminary injunction halting the military's mandatory anthrax vaccination program, or at least limit his ruling to the six plaintiffs whose lawsuit prompted it. The department's motion is the Bush administration's first legal response to the injunction, issued Monday and barring the Pentagon from "inoculating service members without their consent." The motion, which promises to be just one step in a long court battle, seeks clarification of whether the injunction applies solely to the six plaintiffs, each identified only as John Doe. If not, it asks that the judge reconsider, arguing that the suit was not filed on behalf of all military personnel.

The state sold a Marriottsville house at auction yesterday hours after a Carroll County circuit judge refused to enjoin the sale until ownership of the property can be determined.Lee Heffner, 27, a Baltimore County heating and air conditioning contractor, offered a $133,000 high bid for the home and 3.62 acres at 1901 Arrington Road.Seven other buyers came to the sale with certified checks for the $10,000 deposit. Bidding opened at $50,000."I am looking forward to restoring a piece of history and keeping the historic flavor of the house," Mr. Heffner said.

After three years of intense scrutiny, a Baltimore judge has decided that the state had done enough to get poor Marylanders signed up quickly for food stamps, medical help and cash assistance — a decision that has advocates for the poor worried that the problems will return. The Department of Human Resources hailed Thursday's ruling by Circuit Judge Barry Williams, which found the state was processing nearly all of its applications within the time allowed by law — typically 30 days after an application is submitted.

The founder of the Baltimore Grand Prix asked a judge Wednesday to prevent organizers of the race from using ticket sales as collateral on future loans because, he alleges, they have failed to make tens of thousands of dollars of payments to him. In separate lawsuits filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court, race founder Steven Wehner and early investor Sean Conley allege that current race organizers have defaulted on payments to them. Wehner and Conley write that the amount that race organizers have borrowed indicates "the real possibility that little, if any, unencumbered monies would be available to satisfy [their]

Baltimore City will be able to continue seeking new proposals for its 17-acre slots casino site in South Baltimore, after a rejected bidder dropped a legal request to halt the process for finding a developer. The Baltimore City Entertainment Group — the sole bidder in 2009 for the site near Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium — has withdrawn its request for an injunction, according the company's attorney, John F. Dougherty. A hearing had been scheduled for Thursday morning, after Canadian developer Michael Moldenhauer filed motions in Baltimore City Circuit Court last month for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction.

As state and city officials move to revive plans for Baltimore's long-delayed casino, a developer who struck a deal two years ago on the downtown site is seeking an injunction to halt new proposals for the land. The casino, which could house 3,750 slot machines on a site south of the city's two sports stadiums, has been entangled in a knot of lawsuits since a 2009 deal with Canadian developer Michael Moldenhauer fell through. After he failed to meet certain requirements, the state rejected his slots proposal.

Spurned developer Michael Moldenhauer is attempting to throw up an 11th-hour obstacle to the state's efforts to find new candidates to build and run Baltimore's casino. Lawyers for the Canadian homebuilder, who was the only applicant in the initial round of bidding for the Baltimore slots license, filed papers Wednesday in Baltimore Circuit Court asking a judge to stop the state slots commission from seeking new proposals. The head of the commission expressed confidence that the effort would not slow the process down.

When NFL players waged a 24-day strike at the start of the 1987 season, Phillip Closius gained front-row insight as a law school professor and player agent. He saw the players' movement collapse in September when Pro Bowl stars like Joe Montana and Tony Dorsett crossed the picket line. He saw the players routed by the owners with replacement players. He saw the face of desperation. "I know what tensions are like on players when they start losing paychecks," Closius said Tuesday.

Atholton wheelchair athlete Tatyana McFadden filed suit in federal court yesterday, asking for an overturning of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association's February ruling that she can't score points for her team at either the regional or state outdoor track and field meets this year. Deborah McFadden, Tatyana's mother, said they're asking for injunctive relief so she can score points for her team when the regional and state meets come up in late May. "It's fair and it's equitable," Deborah McFadden said.

The most significant confrontation in this year's baseball playoffs will not take place inside the ballparks of any of the eight cities whose teams are still playing. It will happen in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia today, when officials for Major League Baseball attempt to block the umpires from going out on strike.Richie Phillips, who heads the umpires union, said last night that, barring an injunction, the battle isn't over. The umpires want Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar to serve a harsher penalty immediately for spitting at umpire John Hirschbeck last week in Toronto.

It's not hard to understand why the Obama administration went to court Thursday seeking a stay of a federal injunction barring the military from enforcing "don't ask, don't tell. " It could have allowed the injunction to stand, effectively killing this misbegotten Clinton-era compromise with principle under which gay service personnel were required to hide their identities in order to serve. But a Justice Department is usually duty bound to defend laws duly enacted by Congress — even those with which the president disagrees.

The wife of retired Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar has obtained a temporary injunction against him after a domestic dispute over the weekend. Maria Del Pilar Alomar , 33, said in a complaint filed Monday that the couple got into an argument at their Hillsborough County, Fla., home on Sunday. Deputies responded, and the wife told them that she had to push Alomar away when he got several inches from her. No arrests were made. The complaint also described an incident in June, in which Alomar, 42, allegedly yelled at his wife and pushed her. In April, he threatened her with a knife, according to the complaint.