MENOMINEE—NU Group LLC, which utilized for however was denied adult-use retail marijuana licenses for 2 Menominee places, is suing the Metropolis of Menominee and asking the forty first Circuit Court docket to problem an injunction to forestall the licensed marijuana retailers from opening till the case will be determined.
The case is scheduled for a pre-trial convention at 1 p.m. Tuesday to be held by cellphone.
The Metropolis of Menominee may have prevented this lawsuit and others prefer it by utilizing one other technique to problem licenses to marijuana retailers, an legal professional for NU Group mentioned.
“There are a couple of other ways to restrict the variety of retailers,” mentioned Legal professional Denise Pollicella, founder and managing companion at Pollicella PLLC in Howell, Mich. The agency is representing NU Group.
“Usually that could be very strict zoning and no caps,” she mentioned, noting the cities of Ferndale, Kalamazoo and Muskegon did so and weren’t “overrun” by marijuana shops.
“It’s somewhat too late for Menominee. I don’t assume it’s good for the town to have this a lot litigation,” Pollicella mentioned in a cellphone interview with the EagleHerald Thursday.
When a metropolis places a restrict on the variety of retail marijuana licenses it’s going to problem, it’s required by legislation to make use of a aggressive merit-based course of. However aggressive processes usually lead to litigation, she mentioned.
NU Group, which hoped to open Nirvana Menominee shops at 2350 tenth St. and 2900 tenth St., referred to as Menominee’s utility course of flawed and mentioned the town violated legal guidelines involving due course of, open conferences and equal safety, in accordance with the Oct. 7 authorized grievance ready by attorneys Christopher Royce and Jacqueline Langwith of Pollicella. The paperwork had been launched to the EagleHerald final week.
“We’re clearly involved that the town’s utility course of just isn’t squarely throughout the scope of what the statute permits,” Pollicella mentioned.
However the problem isn’t distinctive to Menominee, she mentioned. “That is throughout Michigan. I attempt very onerous to coach municipalities to not interact a merit-based utility course of that’s going to finish in litigation,” Pollicella mentioned. “It’s almost not possible for a municipality to have a merit-based utility course of that won’t open itself as much as litigation merely due to the best way these are written,” she mentioned.
“It’s not good for the municipalities. It’s not good for the business. It’s not good for anybody however the legal professionals,” she mentioned.
Pollicella mentioned it’s unlucky the municipalities find yourself in courtroom. “I actually don’t wish to litigate towards a municipality,” she mentioned. However except NU Group sues, it gained’t be granted reduction. “We do really feel we’ve got the accountability to signify our shoppers after we do really feel they’ve a declare,” she mentioned.
A number of marijuana firms have made related arguments in lawsuits towards the town, and so they’ve raised a number of the identical points different Michigan municipalities have been sued over. They embrace violations of the Open Conferences Act, Michigan’s Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act (MRTMA) and the due course of and equal safety tenets of the U.S. Structure’s Invoice of Rights.
The Metropolis of Menominee “tried to pre-emptively discourage legitimate challenges to its choice course of and strip candidates of due course of rights within the choice course of by stating that scoring is closing and never topic to attraction,” NU Group mentioned within the submitting.
Whereas the Marijuana Choice Committee’s conferences to look at purposes for licenses had been anticipated to be open to the general public, “Choice Committee members and metropolis attorneys repeatedly left the room to debate issues, and the Choice Committee refused to contemplate proof erroneously neglected throughout the non-public periods,” the submitting mentioned.
Metropolis council members had been reviewing litigation final week and declined to remark. Metropolis legal professional Mike Celello was unavailable for remark.
Choice committee members deducted factors from NU Group’s utility as a result of it didn’t use the time period “FTEs,” which the corporate known as “magic language,” the submitting mentioned.
NU Group’s utility additionally misplaced factors within the class of earlier expertise in different regulated industries, regardless of the very fact NU Group’s proprietor Nighat Ullah has owned and managed companies that concerned liquor and gasoline, two extremely regulated industries. He additionally has 12 years of expertise working marijuana companies in Michigan, Oregon, Maryland and Maine, the submitting mentioned.
By not discussing these factors overtly, the choice committee failed to permit NU Group to take part within the dialogue and proper the committee’s oversights, violating the Open Conferences Act (OMA) and the corporate’s rights to due course of and equal safety, the submitting mentioned.
The choice committee held “secret closed-door conferences and unnoticed conferences in violation of the OMA with no lawful reason why these conferences had been closed,” NU Group mentioned.
In deciding whether or not to grant an injunction, the courtroom should think about whether or not the hurt is larger to the businesses that have already got been awarded licenses in the event that they’re requested to place their plans on maintain or to the businesses that say they had been handled unfairly within the choice course of as a result of the town violated legal guidelines, attorneys for NU Group defined within the courtroom paperwork. The hurt to the general public if an injunction is issued additionally will probably be thought-about.
Injunctions aren’t unparalleled. NU Group refers within the filling to a case in Traverse Metropolis, the place Circuit Court docket Choose Thomas Energy determined in favor of the marijuana firms suing the town and issued a preliminary injunction.
“Michigan affords residents the precise to hunt redress of hostile decision-making of presidency businesses, together with a municipality’s determination on a enterprise license or a particular use allow,” in accordance with NU Group’s submitting.
However the course of may take months. “I’m actually not going to opine on what the choose goes to do. These specific lawsuits don’t are likely to resolve in a short time sadly,” Pollicella mentioned.
