AIRPORT FLAP PREPARED TO LAND IN COURT.Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer Despite a self-imposed cooling-off period An interval of time during which no action of a specific type can be taken by either side in a dispute. An automatic delay in certain jurisdictions, apart from ordinary court delays, between the time when Divorce papers are filed and the divorce hearing takes place. that was supposed to last until next week, a legal battle erupted between Burbank Airport and the city of Burbank on Tuesday, with both sides taking the offensive. Just as the Burbank City Council was preparing to announce plans to sue the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, the council learned that the airport had struck first. The authority filed a lawsuit against Burbank in federal court Tuesday aimed at stopping the city from using a section of the California Public Utilities Code to veto air terminal expansion plans. The authority claims the code section is unconstitutional. The filing came just hours before the council announced its own legal action in state court - a request for a court order aimed at halting the purchase of 120 acres of land from Lockheed Martin For the former company, see . Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. for an expanded air terminal. Burbank Mayor Bill Wiggins William David Wiggin (born June 4, 1966) is a British Conservative Party politician, Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister for Agriculture & Fisheries. He has held the seat of Leominster since the 2001 election. said the lawsuit would be filed today in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Superior Court and would name the cities of Glendale and Pasadena as defendants. Burbank officials are asking for a court order to block the Airport Authority from taking any action that might increase noise impacts ``without the concurrence CONCURRENCE, French law. The equality of rights, or privilege which several persons-have over the same thing; as, for example, the right which two judgment creditors, Whose judgments were rendered at the same time, have to be paid out of the proceeds of real estate bound by them. Dict. de Jur. h.t. of the Burbank representatives on the commission.'' Carl Raggio, a Glendale airport appointee APPOINTEE. A person who is appointed or selected for a particular purpose; as the appointee under a power, is the person who is to receive the benefit of the trust or power. and president of the Airport Authority, doubts that the city of Burbank has the power to block the land purchase. ``We're a separate government entity,'' Raggio said. ``It's awfully hard to get people in Burbank to realize that. To initiate the purchase of land happens to be our prerogative An exclusive privilege. The special power or peculiar right possessed by an official by virtue of his or her office. In English Law, a discretionary power that exceeds and is unaffected by any other power; the special preeminence that the monarch has over and above all others, .'' The legal actions come just one week before the scheduled end of a six-month ``truce'' by which city and airport officials had agreed to abide. The truce, which began in December, was scheduled to expire June 19. Officials called for the truce after the two sides became sharply divided over plans by the authority to construct a $355 million air terminal that would be triple the size of the existing 163,000-square-foot facility and would have 19 gates instead of 14. The city of Burbank has opposed expansion because of complaints from residents about noise. But the Glendale and Pasadena airport commissioners favor the project for safety reasons and the economic benefit to the area. Burbank officials fully expected that once the truce ended June 19, the Glendale and Pasadena commissioners would use their six-person majority on the nine-member panel to buy the land from Lockheed. In its suit filed in U.S. District Court, the authority contends that Burbank is trying to stop it from buying land for the expansion. Burbank officials maintain that under the California Public Utilities Code the city has the power to veto the purchase. But the authority is claiming in its suit that the code section violates the U.S. Constitution, specifically the supremacy, commerce and due process clauses. The Airport Authority has asked the U.S. District Court for a judicial order to stop Burbank from enforcing the code section against the authority. Part of the cooling-off period called for airport officials and Burbank officials to sit down with two mediators to work out a permanent peace. But the talks proved fruitless fruit·less adj. 1. Producing no fruit. 2. Unproductive of success: a fruitless search. See Synonyms at futile. . The authority and the Burbank City Council have accused one another of violating the standstill agreement Standstill agreement Contract by which the bidding firm in a takeover attempt agrees to limit its holdings of another firm. standstill agreement . For example, Glendale and Pasadena airport commissioners decided to resume negotiations with Lockheed Martin to buy land for a new expanded terminal over the objections of the three Burbank airport commissioners. Then the city of Burbank filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control challenging its approval of the airport's expansion proposal. |
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