A trial date has finally been set for the Cal High Performance Center (HPC) lawsuits.  Just to recap, the City of Berkeley, the Panaramic Hills Association (a home owners association) and some tree-sitters have all sued Cal to block construction of the HPC.  The 3 separate suits were joined into one and then a preliminary hearing was heard in late Janaury at which a temporary injunction was granted to stop construction until a trial could be held.  The driver for the injunction was that the earthquake fault data was potentially incomplete.  The trial was to be held in June or July.

Since that time, the University has expanded their earthquake testing and everything has come out in favor of the University.  That was a necessary first step to getting the trial under way and since that data wasn’t released until late May, it slowed the trial a bit.

The new trial date is September 19th.  The same judge who granted the preliminary injunction, judge Barbara Miller, will be handling the actual case.

Overall this is good news.  It’s good news because the trial will be happening early enough, albeit later than originally hopeed, that construction can begin immediately after the season ends (the last home game is November 10th) if Cal wins the case.  While others may disagree, I think having judge Miller preside over the case is also a good thing.  Her preliminary ruling, although not what Bear fans wanted to hear, was a reasonable decision under the circumstances.  I don’t see her as an activist judge.  Also, since her injunction was in regards to one specific issue and not a plethora of issues, it seems to follow that since that issue has been resolved, that she is likely to rule in Cal’s favor.

The final reason this is good news is that it lights a fire under the 3 plaintiffs regarding any desire they may have to settle.  Particulary now that we have a fixed date for a trial with a judge who made it clear what needed to happen for Cal to win, and Cal has satisfied that requirement, the plaintiffs should have a strong desire to settle to get concessions instead of losing outright in court.  It’s one thing to talk settlement when neither the trial date nor the judge has been set.  There’s a new urgency once the clock officially starts ticking.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 9:35 am and is filed under Sports, Sports - Cal Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.