WESTMINSTER : Suit Dropped After Deadline Not Met

A lawsuit filed last month against four City Council members was dropped after the lawyer for the plaintiffs failed to file the necessary documents before a hearing scheduled for Friday.

However, resident Grace Epperson, who filed the suit with Margie L. Rice, vowed to refile the lawsuit. “I certainly feel we should continue our case in all fairness to the taxpayers and voters in the community,” Epperson said. Rice, a defeated candidate in the 1988 election and member of the Westminster School District Board of Trustees, was out of town and not available for comment.

Rice and Epperson filed the lawsuit on Jan. 23 against Mayor Charles V. Smith and council members Joy L. Neugebauer and Frank Fry Jr. to fight the action of the three in voting to extend the two-year term of Councilwoman Lyn Gillespie. The residents also named Gillespie in the suit.

Kenneth E. Mick, the attorney for the residents, failed to file a summary of the issues in the lawsuit five days before the hearing as required by court rules, a court clerk said. Mick requested that the matter be dropped from the court calendar, the clerk said.

Mick could not be reached for comment on Friday.