« Ind. Gov't. - Governor Daniels Makes His Executive Orders 1 through 18 Available Online | Main | Ind. Decisions - More on Save the Valley Ruling »

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Ind. Decisions - Save the Valley wins right to represent members

"Save the Valley wins right to represent members " is the headline to this story today in the Madison Courier. Some quotes:

The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that organizations like Save the Valley have the right to represent their members before governmental agencies. An appeal is planned.

The Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corp. and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management had contended that Save the Valley, the Hoosier Environmental Council and the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana had no legal right to challenge the state’s renewal of the Clifty Creek power plant’s permit for its coal-ash landfill.

IKEC and IDEM contended that the organizations lacked “associational standing,” or the right to take action on behalf of members, and that Indiana law has no provision for such representation.

“We are just as elated as could be about this,” said Bob Gray, chairman of the Save the Valley board of directors. “It has national implications, really.” * * *

When the legal process began in 2002, Save the Valley was acting as an organization but did not specify the names of individual members it was representing. When Save the Valley’s position challenging the permit was objected to, it amended its complaint and listed individual members who live, work or participate in recreation in the area affected by the permit, and they contended they would be adversely affected by the landfill’s impact on groundwater and by dust from the landfill.

But even then Save the Valley was challenged by IKEC and the state environmental agency, who maintained that Indiana law does not allow associations to represent members in actions such as administrative regulation. The three-judge appeals court disagreed that Hoosiers don’t have such a right, citing a federal court case.

Tony Sullivan, one of the attorneys for IKEC, said Tuesday that the ruling will be appealed to the Indiana Supreme Court. Two of the main grounds for the appeal will be that the state appeals court’s opinion referred primarily to a federal court ruling and that the appeals court judges didn’t correctly apply an Indiana state law to the case, he said.

The decision, Save the Valley, Inc., Hoosier Environ. Council, Inc., and Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana v. Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corp. and Indiana Dept. of Environ. Mgmt. (1/11/05 IndCtApp), is summarized in this ILB entry from yesterday (3rd case).

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 13, 2005 07:00 AM
Posted to Environment | Ind. App.Ct. Decisions