The plaintiff in a lawsuit that might decide the way forward for a Fort Smith cultivator filed a movement Tuesday asking a decide to step in to order state regulators to comply with the decide’s orders and never maintain a license revocation listening to later this month.
The submitting, by 2600 Holdings, the plaintiff in a swimsuit that resulted in Circuit Decide Herb Wright discovering that the state Medical Marijuana Fee improperly issued a license to River Valley Reduction Cultivation of Fort Smith, says the state is just not shifting correctly or quick sufficient in revoking River Valley’s license.
In Tuesday’s submitting, 2600 Holdings (doing enterprise as Southern Roots) requested Wright to order the Alcoholic Beverage Management division to adjust to the decide’s earlier order, enjoin the ABC from holding a license revocation listening to scheduled for Nov. 28 and require the defendants to indicate why they shouldn’t be held in contempt.
In Wright’s Nov. 3 ruling, he sided with the plaintiff that the state Medical Marijuana Fee erred when it awarded a cultivation license to River Valley Reduction. Wright discovered that the license was awarded regardless of River Valley’s facility being located nearer than 3,000 ft from the Sebastian County Juvenile Detention Facility, which met the fee’s definition of a college. Wright additionally discovered that the license was issued to a enterprise entity that was completely different from the one on River Valley’s software.
Tuesday’s submitting states that the decide ought to “order Defendants to adjust to the court docket’s November 3 Order with out additional delay.” In Wright’s ruling, he stated the license was issued improperly however stopped wanting revoking the license. As a substitute, Wright stated the state ought to “take all steps essential to treatment these violations.”
The submitting asks Wright “enjoin ABC from holding a listening to to rethink this Court docket’s order.” Final week, Arkansas Cannabiz and the Arkansas Instances reported that the ABC would maintain a revocation listening to during which River Valley, owned by brothers Storm Nolan and Kane Whitt, would argue its case earlier than Chandler.
The lawsuit cites an article posted to the Arkansas Times last Thursday.
Chandler’s ruling may very well be appealed to the complete ABC board, in keeping with ABC spokesman Scott Hardin. A ruling by the ABC may very well be appealed to circuit court docket, Hardin stated.
The revocation listening to is ready for 1 p.m. Nov. 28. The ABC’s subsequent board assembly is ready for 9 a.m. Dec. 21.
In his ruling, Wright stated that, in awarding the license to River Valley, the defendants acted “unreasonably, unlawfully and capriciously” and gave “Nolan thread to sew up the holes within the RVRC software.”
The plaintiff took {that a} step additional in its submitting Tuesday.
“It’s now clear that Director Doralee Chandler was the grasp tailor,” the plaintiff state within the submitting.
Abtin Mehdizadegan, lawyer for the plaintiff, stated by way of electronic mail final week that he was displeased with the tempo and course of by which ABC would contemplate revoking River Valley’s license. Mehdizadegan stated Chandler’s actions are usually not per the decide’s orders.
“In fact, the ABC will argue that it’s only following its guidelines,” Mehdizadegan stated. “That specious logic presupposes that the foundations even apply. Based on Decide Wright, RVRC’s software didn’t go go and it didn’t acquire 200 {dollars}. As a result of the MMC erred in accepting the applying, ABC’s procedures have been by no means activated within the first place. This bureaucratic maneuvering — like Director Chandler’s try to overrule the Structure by issuing RVRC a high-quality as an alternative of revoking its license within the first place — is exactly the misconduct that resulted within the Writ of Mandamus.”
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