After more than three years, the legal battle between the City of Smithville and the DeKalb Utility District (DUD) has come to an end.
Chancellor Ronald Thurman dismissed a DUD complaint against the city and the city’s counter claim against the DUD on May 22, with both sides agreeing to the measure.
The affair began when the DUD filed a complaint in February, 2014 after city aldermen raised the rate it was charging the DUD from $2.67 to $5.00 per thousand gallons, the rate that all other city water customers were paying. The DUD argued that the move would force them to pass along rate increases to its customers.
Thurman granted a DUD motion for a temporary injunction in May, barring the city from charging the $5.00 rate until the city gave proper notice to DUD and justification for raising the rate above $2.67 per thousand gallons.
Then the city filed a counter claim in March, 2014, saying that the DUD had underpaid for water purchases from July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2013, and claiming the utility owed more than one million dollars.
In his Order of Dismissal, Thurman wrote: “It appearing to the Court from statements of counsel for the parties and a review of this matter that a dismissal of both the Complaint of the plaintiff (DUD) and Counterclaim of the defendant (City of Smithville) is warranted and proper, the Court finds that all causes of action pursued by both parties in this matter shall be dismissed with prejudice.
“Therefore, the Complaint (by DUD) and the Counterclaim (by City), and all causes of action asserted in this cause by both parties, are hereby DISMISSED with prejudice and this case is closed. Concurrent with the dismissal of the Complaint and Counterclaim, the temporary injunction entered on May 12, 2014 is hereby dissolved and the injunction bond posted by the Plaintiff shall be released and returned to the plaintiff. Any unpaid court costs shall be assessed equally between the parties.”
The DUD’s new water treatment plant on Yolanda Drive has been finished, and is now ready to pump.
