Court grants Edgar County’s Motion to Dismiss v. RIDES Mass Transit –

PARIS, IL. (ECWd) –

A hearing was held on October 25, 2018, in Coles County for the RIDES Mass Transit District’s lawsuit against Edgar County filed in August of 2016. (here)

Judge Glenn heard arguments from Edgar County and from RIDES and later granted dismissal of RIDES’ second amended complaint, with leave to file a third amended complaint within 60 days.

Edgar County’s Motion to Dismiss was granted in part because the evidence did not indicate any contract was ever entered into between Edgar County and RIDES.

The Court determined that there was no contract, oral or written, the original Resolution was not good enough to create a contract, there was no unambiguous promise and the 4^th paragraph of the Resolution was a statement of policy and not a contract, there was no relief available to a local Mass Transit District.

RIDES was given until December 24, 2018 to file its third amended complaint, ask for an extension to file one, or this decision would be a final, appealable decision.

This lawsuit was filed by RIDES MTD after RIDES claimed Edgar County failed to pay them more than $150,000 of the funds remaining after the East Central Illinois Mass Transit District dissolved from years of mismanagement by its Board of Trustees.

Edgar County has maintained the claim that those remaining funds were to be deposited into the county’s general fund upon dissolution of the district as required under the Local Mass Transit District Act. RIDES maintains they had a contract with Edgar County and those funds should have gone to them.

Our previous articles on RIDES Mass Transit District and this issue can be found at this link (here).

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