Same S#%t, Different Town

The Seattle law firm of Bricklin Newman Dold are PARD's new union hired guns handling the appeal to the Whitman County Superior Court.

Partner David Bricklin also handled the Yelm Commerce Group's fight against a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Yelm last year. After Wal-Mart's application was approved, the Yelm Commerce Group was ecstatic that the United Food & Commerical Workers union was going to continue to pick up Mr. Bricklin's tab for an appeal:

Are you sitting down?

The Yelm Commerce Group was infomed by our lawyer David Bricklin that the UFCW (grocery store workers union) has decided that our case against Wal-Mart had merit and asked Mr. Bricklin to move ahead with the appeal.

Funny, Bricklin Newman Dold's website doesn't mention the UFCW as a client.

Too bad for the YCG though. According to The Olympian, their appeal was denied earlier this year:

A Thurston County Superior Court judge dismissed a last-ditch effort Friday by opponents of Wal-Mart to revive an earlier land-use appeal after the deadline to file it was missed by 10 minutes.

The Yelm Commerce Group, a 50-member group that has been fighting the arrival of the Wal-Mart Supercenter since fall 2004, had appealed a Yelm City Council decision to Thurston County Superior Court after the council voted to uphold a hearing examiner’s findings to proceed with the Wal-Mart project.

...May [ed: director of the Yelm Commerce Group], after consulting with attorney David Alan Bricklin, who had argued the group’s case at Friday’s court hearing, came to the mutual decision not to pursue another appeal.

“We could appeal the appeal ... but no, it’s really a long shot,” May said.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Paula Casey’s decision and the Yelm Commerce Group’s capitulation brings to an end a sometimes contentious process in which the group had appealed various stages of Wal-Mart’s plans to build a new store.

...Afterward, Bricklin explained that his “normally reliable process server” got stuck in traffic and spent an hour traveling from Thurston County Superior Court in Olympia to Yelm on Jan. 18.

As I mentioned previously, partner Jennifer Dold represented UFCW Local 44 in their fight against Wal-Mart in Mount Vernon last year. That appeal failed also.

So what are PARD's chances? Zero. But to quote from Willie Nelson, "If you've got the money honey, I've got the time, we'll go Wal-Mart appealin' and we'll have a time"

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