Quotes attributed to Superior Court Judge Donna Geck in a Dec. 17 News-Press story about the Flightline Restaurant lawsuit and settlement, which alleged bad faith intentions and actions by the city of Santa Barbara, were not made by her in her ruling denying the city’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by High Sierra Grill and Flightline Restaurant.
In fact, those comments were unproven allegations made by the plaintiffs in their complaint they filed against the city which the judge included in the background section of her Oct. 7 ruling, and elsewhere in the ruling. They were not findings of the court.
As City Attorney Sarah Knecht explains, “Yes, the court denied the city’s motion for summary judgment (even though she found) there were triable issues of fact. The Court did not, however, find that the city breached the contract or acted in bad faith.”
She noted in the Dec. 17 article that summary judgment motions are rarely granted, and the city’s motion was made by the city in an attempt to narrow the legal issues to be tried.
