Metro lawyers got a bit of a shock Wednesday afternoon.
Chancellor Carol McCoy called the city’s Law Department, asking if the city was prepared to contest the case in which state fair backers are seeking a writ of mandamus against Metro, requiring the city to continue allowing a state fair at the south Nashville fairgrounds.
With the hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday — and having heard nothing from the city — McCoy thought she’d check and make sure everyone was on the same page.
McCoy said Metro attorney Lora Fox “was surprised” to hear a court date had been set.
“I have been advised Metro was not aware of the hearing,” McCoy said Thursday morning.
The chancellor re-set the case for a 9 a.m. April 6 hearing.
Representing the defendants — a fair vendor and a neighbor of the fairgrounds — attorney Robert Rutherford indicated that, in the meantime, a temporary injunction preventing the state fair from shuttering might be in order, in light of recent news the fair board is working with contractors [1] to keep the fair alive through 2010.
McCoy said she would not grant such an injunction and said the bigger issue — the future of the state fair past 2010 — would not be resolved by the fair board’s latest move.
“That does not resolve your petition,” she said. “The overriding question needs to be addressed.”
Preservationists maintain a 1923 act of the state legislature cancelling a state lease on the fairgrounds requires the fair board to host, in perpetuity, a state fair at least six days long.
Links:
[1] http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/private-companies-vying-host-state-fair