- April 26, 2024
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PALM COAST — Just days before the court date, Palm Coast resident Dennis McDonald officially filed a motion to dismiss his injunction against the city of Palm Coast over plans to remove trees. The lawsuit will no longer be pursued.
The motion to dismiss the injunction was signed Jan. 23. It was scheduled to go to court Jan. 27.
City officials, however, said they still plan to move forward with their motion for sanctions against McDonald, essentially asking the court to make McDonald pay for the city’s costs to pay attorneys to fight the injunction.
City Manager Jim Landon sent an email Jan. 23 to inform the City Council that Dennis McDonald’s lawsuit was being dismissed. Landon wrote: “This is not a surprise as this was obviously just a publicity stunt. I have instructed our attorneys to continue to pursue reimbursement of the attorney fees we wasted on this stunt. Your attendance is obviously no longer requested at the court house next Monday.”
In an interview with the Palm Coast Observer, Landon said the first indication that the lawsuit was for publicity was the fact that McDonald’s attorney sent out a press release immediately after filing the lawsuit.
“I think people would be astounded if we could calculate the amount of resources and staff time the city wastes on these stunts,” Landon said. “And many of these are projects that are actually saving the taxpayers money or benefiting the community, such as bringing a shopping center back to life.”
Legal costs for this lawsuit are at $8,400 for the city of Palm Coast, Landon said, and that’s only through the middle of December. By the time the bills have gone through, the cost will be over $10,000, he estimated.
In October 2013, when the city filed a motion for sanctions, Joshua Knight, the attorney representing McDonald, said the city’s move was a “scare tactic.” Last week, after filing the motion to dismiss, Knight said his client has no intention of “fading away into the background.”
“The new information we've obtained will allow us to amend, refine and thereby strengthen our claims and grievances against the city,” Knight wrote in an email. “To be honest, the scale of this matter has grown so exponentially that we needed to take this opportunity, as I'm sure that opposing counsel would not have stipulated to allow us leave in order to amend.”
Knight said he wasn’t comfortable discussing future legal strategies.
Now that the lawsuit has been withdrawn, the city is considered the victorious party and will seek to recoup the cost of the fees.
— Brian McMillan contributed to this report.
