Two New Court Rulings Support Mullin – January 6, 2012

Two important rulings today pave the way for Turkia Mullin to pursue her claims against the Wayne County Airport Authority.

This morning, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Robert J. Colombo ruled against the Airport’s attempt to “stay” (delay) her claim that the Airport terminated her employment in violation of the Open Meetings Act. The Airport filed a motion to stay her case until the court had the opportunity to rule in another case (Davis II) that is challenging the validity of her employment contract. The Judge denied the Airport’s request, and stated he had concerns about whether her contract could even be attacked in the Davis II case.

Judge Colombo also nixed Robert Davis’s attempts to have the court hold an expedited evidentiary hearing next week to determine the validity of the Mullin/Airport contract. The Judge stated that this case should not be expedited and that it will be treated as an ordinary case. The Judge also ruled that Davis’s attorney would have to ask for permission to subpoena witnesses in this case due to his failure to use proper subpoena procedures in the first Davis v Airport case.

Ms. Mullin will be filing her own case shortly seeking to enforce her three-year employment contract with the Airport. The Airport terminated her abruptly after only two months on the job, despite the protests of a board member’s protest that she did an excellent job for the Airport. The Airport is required to pay her for the entire three-year term unless it can show it fired her for “cause,” but has refused to indicate any cause for her termination.

The Airport has recently taken the peculiar stance that it did not have legal authority to enter into the contract, although the contract itself was reviewed and approved by the Airport’s legal counsel and the Airport board voted 7-0 to hire her with a three-year contract.