Both State of Emergency Lawsuits Postponed Wednesday

Those waiting for a decision on either the Chelan county or Douglas county lawsuit against Governor Inslee's emergency declaration will need to wait at least a day longer.

Wednesday's hearing in Okanogan County Superior Court for the lawsuit filed in Douglas County was postponed until the end of the week.

Joel Ard, who represents the plaintiffs in both cases, said the reason for the delay is because Douglas county and Okanogan county use different court filing systems, and Okanogan Superior Court Judge Henry Rawson had not received all of the filings.

"It wasn't immediately apparent to the folks with boots on the ground in Okanogan county some of the last-minute filings that came in after 5:00 pm last night." Ard explained, "The judge wasn't aware of them, the judicial system wasn't aware of them. We as council weren't aware that they weren't aware of them. We sat down to argue the case, and from the comments of council, it very quickly became clear to (Judge Rawson) that there were filings he hadn't seen."

The hearing was rescheduled for the earliest time available, 10:30 am Friday.

The suit was moved to Okanogan county due to conflict of interest concerns as all three Douglas County Commissioners, who are acting in a private capacity, are plaintiffs in the case.

The hearing for the Chelan county lawsuit against the governor's emergency declaration was put off until Thursday.

Ard said that although his side had agreed with the court to a 4:00 pm hearing Wednesday, many hours later the attorney general's office did not agree to the time as well.

The hearing now defaults to 10:00 am Thursday in Chelan County Superior Court.