After several months of silence, the appellate recently stated that its decision on C.O.M.E.T.’s appeal of the Superior Court’s granting of Redlands’ Motion for Summary Judgment in C.O.M.E.T. v. City of Redlands, will be handed down “on or before October 1, 2024,” according to Joyce Caraway, C.O.M.E.T.’s attorney for the case. (Ed.’s note: A motion for Summary Judgment provides for the dismissal of the case without a trial and is based only on documents and oral argument.)
In January 2024 C.O.M.E.T. filed its Reply brief, responding to Redlands’ Opposition to C.O.M.E.T.’s Appellate Opening Brief. “The appeal addresses the errors in the trial court’s granting of a Motion which was designed to negate all of COMET’s allegations in its Complaints, but we believe failed to do so and thus the judgment was unsupported,” said Caraway. “We’re fighting Redlands’ takeovers of Mentone territory in a piecemeal fashion since 1888, continuing through its 1956 takeover through the middle of Mentone’s Section 7, out Mill Creek almost to Bryant, and its extortionate 1997 ordinance that requires annexation before Redlands will provide new water service from the wells underneath Mentone’s streets,” she added.
“We are scheduled to appear at a status conference in the trial court on October 7; what we do next in the case will depend on what the appellate court decides, she concluded.
Caraway is prosecuting the case pro bono (Ed.’s note: without charging C.O.M.E.T., which is a public benefit corporation that does not generate funds and has to borrow from the Chamber of Commerce. Interested residents who wish to support further court filings may donate to the Chamber at P. O. Box 246, Mentone, 92359, with the notation “for the lawsuit.”