Follow This Latest Border Crossing Lawsuit

I just cannot believe what is going on now on the border file!  I certainly do not intend to spend a lot of time examining the new lawsuit documents for no real reason at all.

Unfortunately, I have not seen the latest battle document, the Statement Of Claim or whatever that document is called in an American lawsuit, effectively between the Ambassador Bridge Company and the State of Michigan.  That should nicely escalate the dispute between the Governments on both sides of the River and the Ambassador Bridge Company over what is going to happen.  This fight has already been going on for over a decade and I fear that this lawsuit alone by the time it finally gets appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States should take a decade as well.

I guess it means that the likelihood of completing a new Government bridge is not going to happen as quickly as suggested recently. Mind you, the word "quick" is hardly the appropriate one to use when talking about the completion of a Government project for a new crossing between Windsor and Detroit.

Of course, I can hardly wait for a similar type of lawsuit to be started in Canada. It may well be that it is not the right time to start one here. I am sure though that we will see one started that will be the Canadian equivalent and it will also take a decade or so to be completed after being appealed to all of the Canadian Courts at every level as required.

What I found interesting in the various stories that I have seen so far is that there is no claim for damages as well. I would have thought that a damages claim would be in the billions of dollars. I wonder then if this is not a lawsuit for money but rather just an "issues" lawsuit in which non-damages reliefs are being sought. What that means to me then is that this is not a "final" lawsuit at all but rather just one of the number of lawsuits that could well be planned but not started yet. I just wonder how many more of these types of lawsuits can be started and when. My guess is that the numbers are quite high.

I was quite intrigued about who was acting for the Ambassador Bridge Company. The Bridge Company's lawyer was identified as "former Attorney General Mike Cox, of the Livonia-based Mike Cox Law Firm…" (Chad Livengood, Crain's Detroit Business, January 5, 2017)    He was Michigan Attorney General from 2003 until 2010 so he was rather experienced I would suggest. I thought that this was an interesting choice of who should be the lawyer for the Plaintiffs. Talk about this matter not just being about legal issues but "political" ones as well.

Apparently, here is the essence of what this lawsuit is all about:

"No state department can spend money unless it's appropriated," Cox told Crain's on Thursday. "Even if you get free money — i.e. money from Canada — you still have to get an appropriation to spend it. That's Government 101."

Lawmakers have prohibited MDOT from spending any state tax dollars on the project. To get around that requirement, the state road agency has been billing Canada for planning and real estate work.

Moroun's companies contend every version of Michigan's state Constitution dating to 1850 has stipulated that only the Legislature can authorize the construction of international bridge crossings to Canada."

Now I haven't got the faintest idea whether this is a good claim or not, nor, quite frankly, do I care. I assume that the Ambassador Bridge Company will not start a silly lawsuit like this but rather will have a very significant case to make and have a very well known former politician, now lawyer, act on their behalf. Moreover, I hardly think that someone who is an experienced lawyer at a very high level would take on a foolish lawsuit that could damage his reputation.

Nevertheless, it is just another event in this fiasco matter that has been going on without, it seems, any hope of reaching a final conclusion unless there are highest level Supreme Court decisions on both sides of the river that are the same that support one side. Gee, I wonder what would happen if the Courts' decisions are not the same but exactly opposite. Now that should be fun to see as well.

To be direct, dear reader, my own view about all of this is that the lawsuit was started now to put intense pressure on the Governments to resolve their issues with the Ambassador Bridge Company. I just don't understand what is going on anyway. I thought that it was the Ambassador Bridge Company position that they were waiting to get approval from the Governments to build their bridge now and as quickly as possible. After all, weren't we told that it is the Governments' position that they need 2 new crossings built.  One of the crossings was supposed to be for this new bridge that they were going to build and the other one, of course, was for the building of a new Ambassador Bridge because it is quite old now.

Of course, I know what this really means. If the Bridge Company gets the approval to build a new bridge now and does so immediately, then the Government Bridge will never get built. I can hardly think that there is a need for so many bridges in this area when the traffic seems to have declined significantly. A new Ambassador Bridge along with fixing up the old one would be all that is needed for this area. It would mean then that the Governments are in a tough position with the Bridge Company effectively telling everyone that the Governments cannot hurt their business at all.

Really, in my opinion, all that is happening is that the Governments are waiting for Matty Moroun to finally decide that he will not be involved in business anymore and will retire. That means that his son will be the one looking after the file. They expected to do a deal with him. As you may also know, dear reader, the reputation of his son in the past was not a good one. He was going to have to run this Company's business on his own when his father left the scene and it was felt that he would probably sell out and at a very cheap price. Of course, the Governments now understand that they were completely wrong in how they looked at the business reputation of Matthew Moroun. He is a real problem for them and will carry on his father's business quite well! Even better now after his father was put in jail for one night some time ago over a dispute in one of the lawsuits. Matthew literally changed overnight and publicly after this happened.

Oh well, nothing has really changed. It is just another lawsuit but with a very significant lawyer acting for the Ambassador Bridge Company. It makes their position appear much stronger to the public than the Governments would prefer! All it says to me is that until the Governments decide that it is time to talk with the Bridge Company all that we will see is more of this misery going on.

Let me repeat what I have said already so many times just one more time. It is time for the Governments and the Ambassador Bridge Company to sit down and arrive at a solution now on the border file. There are all kinds of solutions that are possible that the parties can discuss and resolve. Canada has at least decided on this in my opinion with the appointment now of Dwight Duncan as the five-year Chairman of Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.  After all, here is what he said some time ago:

"Canada should consider buying the privately owned, 87-year-old Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor, Ont., and Detroit, Mich., says the man already tasked with building a brand new crossing just down river.

Dwight Duncan, chairman of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, which oversees construction of the $4-billion Gordie Howe International Bridge, says Ottawa should also own what is one of the busiest land border crossings in North America." (CBC News, July 28, 2016) 

I guess there should be an American politician involved too but it really will be the decision between Duncan and the Ambassador Bridge Company that will decide what will happen. Who knows, maybe the price for the Morouns' interest will be close to the $4 billion amount that has been thrown  around and that will get them out of the Company finally.