Judge Dismisses Case to Stop Ferry Shutdown

A lawsuit by the Town of Lyme and First Selectman Ralph Eno against the Department of Transportation and the state comptroller to stop the closure of the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury and Hadlyme-Chester ferries was dismissed Thursday morning in Superior Court in New Britain.

On July 15, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy submitted a plan to close the  $1.6 billion gap in his two-year budget if an agreement couldn’t be reached with the unions. Part of that plan included eliminating the ferry services and and all eight workers would be laid off.

The administrative in front of the court Thursday argued that Malloy’s plan is under at least two separate state laws. The first requires the state to maintain a ferry service, and the second requires the state to seek input before altering a scenic highway.

Assistant Attorney General Jane Rosenberg, who represented the DOT and comptroller, stated the lawsuit should be dismissed for three reasons.   

First, she stated that a ”final decision” had not rendered, meaning that SEBAC has not voted yet on whether to accept or deny Malloy’s current plan.

At this point, negotiations with the unions are ongoing, and if Malloy’s plan is accepted, all layoffs and cuts could be reversed.

Judge Henry Cohn agreed with Rosenberg. He stated that “nothing is set in stone” and it is unclear when or if the layoffs and cuts would occur.

Lyme Town Attorney Kenneth M McKeever argued that the ferry workers have already been handed pink slips with a termination date of Aug. 25 and Malloy himself has recently stated that the layoffs will continue as planned if the unions did not agree to the plan.

Rosenberg told the court that even though the employees received pink slips they would not be laid off before a resolution occurred and the commissioner could extend their time. She added that she did not have a timetable for when the boats would be taken out of the water.

However, McKeever argued that the boats would be taken out of the water on Aug. 12.

“As far as I know those boats are still scheduled to come out of the water on Aug. 12,” Eno said following the decision. “Once the boats are out of the water, it makes it harder to get them back into the water. Once they are taken out they are not going back in.”

Rosenberg said the lawsuit should be dismissed because the plaintiff’s claims are not "ripe," which means that the lawsuit by the town of Lyme is not clear enough.

Also, Rosenberg said the plaintiff lacked standing, which meant that the town of Lyme lacked the authority to represent the towns of Rocky Hill, Glastonbury and Chester in this lawsuit.

Cohn said the lawsuit was a sovereign immunity case, which in legal terms means you cannot sue the state without its consent. He said the DOT commissioner has the right to stop the ferry service and was sending out a public notice to inform people that alterations were going to be made to Route 148 and Route 160, which are scenic roads.

A public notice will be placed in four local papers tomorrow to gather written comments, because the closing of the ferries would cause alternations to Route 148 in Hadlyme and Route 160 in South Glastonbury.

Cohn never allowed Rocky Hill to intervene in the lawsuit. However, he told Rocky Hill Town Attorney Morris Borea that the town should bring its own lawsuit.

The Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry is the longest continuously running ferry service in the country and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Because of that, it has special protections, Borea said.

“It is our claim that sovereign immunity won’t protect them in regard to historic structure claims,” Borea said.

The Rocky Hill Town Council will hold a special meeting Monday at 7 p.m. and “pending claims and litigation” regarding the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry will be discussed in public and executive session.

Eno said that the Board of Selectmen would have to meet and decide if there is an alternative legal approach.

“I don’t think we are going to sit back and just wait,” Eno said.