Feb. 3 Court Date Set On Wal-mart Approval
By Scott C. Boyd
(December 2009 Civil War News)

ORANGE, Va. — Feb. 3, 2010, is the first court date set for the lawsuit to stop construction of a 138,000-square-foot Wal-mart Supercenter at the entrance to the Wilderness battlefield in Orange County.

A coalition of the plaintiffs comprised of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield and six individuals living near the proposed store site, filed a complaint in Orange County Circuit Court on Sept. 23.

The complaint made allegations about the actions of the Orange County Board of Supervisors (BOS) in its Aug. 25 approval of the special use permit (SUP) Wal-mart requires and asked the court to provide relief by invalidating the SUP and one of the county ordinances involved.

The Board of Supervisors answered the complaint on Oct. 13 with a motion asking the court to dismiss the coalition’s lawsuit outright and seeking payment of its attorney fees by the coalition. The board claims the plaintiffs lack standing and that the plaintiffs presented no valid cause of action for the lawsuit.

The next step, according to coalition attorney Robert D. Rosenbaum (senior counsel for Arnold & Porter), is for the court to tell the opposing sides when they should file legal briefs regarding the BOS motion to dismiss the case.

“These briefs will contain our legal arguments based on the facts alleged in the complaint. Then, we will have an argument in front of the judge about these legal points,” said Rosenbaum. “This will not be the trial on the case, just lawyers arguing to the judge.”

This argument in front of the judge is what is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 3 in Orange County Circuit Court.

Then the court will decide the legal questions.
“If the court says we have standing and we have alleged facts that, if true, would justify the court giving us the relief we seek, the case moves ahead,” Rosenbaum said.

Otherwise the court will dismiss the case and the Wal-mart special use permit will remain valid and allow construction to proceed.

If the case moves ahead, however, the BOS will have to provide to the plaintiffs “the record on which the board acted,” Rosenbaum said. “After that, the court gives us a schedule for how we are going to litigate whether our factual allegations are true or not.”