Court Roundup

North Carolina: Appeals court  considers lawsuit over incentives
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court is taking a new look at a lawsuit arguing the millions taxpayers spent to get a culinary and hospitality school to move to Charlotte should be repaid.

The Court of Appeals hears oral arguments on Monday in the case that seeks to claw back about $10 million in taxpayer money state legislators gave Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte.

A Wake County Superior Court judge last year dismissed the lawsuit by a conservative legal group, ruling the breaks served a legitimate public purpose of education and economic development.

But the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law says the state constitution prohibits awarding special benefits to people or companies lawmakers pick out.

Texas: Videotaping at drug treatment facility brings suit
DALLAS (AP) — A lawsuit has been filed against a company that formerly managed a Dallas-area drug treatment facility and allegedly videotaped 36 female residents without their written permission.

The Dallas Morning News reports, for its Monday editions, that the DVDs were distributed as promotional material for Cornell Companies Inc.

The lawsuit, filed last week, says residents were told that the January 2009 videotape would only be seen by judges who sent the women to the Dallas County Judicial Treatment Center in Wilmer.

The lawsuit says the DVD was instead used to raise money for the program and obtain contracts for other treatment facilities.

Cornell merged with GEO Group last August. The treatment center has been managed by Phoenix House since December 2009.

GEO Group spokesman Pablo E. Paez declined comment.

California: Tiny ski resort town ordered to pay $30 million
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (AP) — The Sierra Nevada ski resort of Mammoth Lakes is looking at a mammoth bill.

The Los Angeles Times says an appeals court last month ruled that it must pay $30 million in a breach-of-contract lawsuit. That’s about twice the size of the town’s annual budget.

The Dec. 30 decision said the town of 7,500 tried to back out of a 1997 agreement that gave a developer the right to develop a hotel and buy land in return for improving the local airport.

Developer’s spokesman Mark Rosenthal declined to comment to the Times, saying Mammoth Lakes is going to appeal to the California Supreme Court. The town has until Feb. 8 to file the petition.

It’s also seeking advice on bankruptcy and studying proposals such as raising taxes and cutting services to pay the judgment.

North Dakota: Doctor says he’s not liable for basketball injury
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — A Minot doctor says he was not at fault in the case of a former Williston State College basketball player whose leg was amputated after an injury.

Lenishka McDonald, of Freeport, Grand Bahamas, injured her knee in a collision with another player during a scrimmage in 2009. Doctors in Williston had her transferred to Trinity Health in Minot after it was discovered she had artery damage behind the knee.

McDonald later was flown by air ambulance to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where her right lower leg was amputated.

McDonald claims in a federal lawsuit against Trinity Health and Dr. Frederick Ness that she didn’t receive the necessary testing and care.

Ness says any damage suffered by McDonald was beyond his control. He’s asking for the case to be dismissed.

Alaska: Seafood groups sue over closure of fishing area
UNALASKA, Alaska (AP) — Alaska seafood organizations are suing to stop a ruling by the National Marine Fisheries Service that would protect fish on which the endangered Stellar sea lions feed.

The ruling by the fisheries service has closed an area to fishing Atka mackerel and Pacific cod in the far western Aleutian Islands, according to the Alaska Public Radio Network.

The Alaska Seafood Cooperative fishes in the closed area, and take about 90 percent of its Atka mackerel quota.

Linda Larson, an attorney who represents the cooperative, said the ruling is misguided and that it unfairly blames overfishing for the decline of the Stellar sea lion population when other factors may be at fault.

“They’re taking these very drastic, very restrictive measures to shut down huge areas of the Aleutians to any fishing at all for Atka mackerel or cod without stepping back and taking a looking at whether there were other things they could do that would allow fishing to continue,” Larson said. “We just don’t see a conservation emergency that calls for such a drastic change.”

A fisheries service spokesperson said the closure rule was pushed into place by Jan. 1, despite objections by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, to comply with the Endangered Species Act.

Stellar sea lions have been listed as an endangered species since 1997. Fishermen must travel and fish under restrictions provided for sea lions.

The fisheries service estimates that communities and companies involved in the affected fisheries could lose between $44 and $60 million per year because of the fishery closure.