Jan. 15, 2010 -- The Nebraska Supreme Court today reversed a district court opinion and dismissed a lawsuit brought by Falls City, Neb., against the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool and three NMPP staff members.
The lawsuit against NMPP and staff members J. Gary Stauffer, John Harms and Evan Ward was filed in 2006 over issues relating to long-term natural gas purchases with the National Public Gas Agency and its individual members.
In its opinion, the Supreme Court stated, “neither the Nebraska Interlocal Cooperation Act nor the agreement Falls City signed when it joined NPGA granted Falls City the right to bring suit against NMPP or the individual defendants. NPGA is a public body and its duties are owed to the public. Therefore, Falls City did not have standing to bring the cause of action and the action must be dismissed.”
NMPP Executive Director J. Gary Stauffer said, “We are very pleased with the Supreme Court ruling. As we maintained from the beginning, NMPP was seeking the best pricing for natural gas. Neither NMPP nor its employees stood to benefit from the outcome. We are grateful to the boards of directors and members of NMPP who supported us throughout this difficult time.”
Official statement by the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool regarding the ruling:
Although we have not had an opportunity to fully review the Nebraska Supreme Court’s opinion, we are pleased with the ruling in favor of the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool and the employees involved. As the Court affirmed, NMPP was simply investigating improved ways of purchasing low-cost natural gas supply for the benefit of citizens served by our member communities. For the past three decades, NMPP has successfully sought economical and reliable energy solutions on behalf of its member communities.
Throughout this process, we maintained our staff acted properly in exploring new and better ways to buy natural gas at the lowest cost. Staff kept the NPGA board informed of the progress of a study seeking low-cost natural gas supplies. Although Falls City did not wish to change suppliers the board never instructed the staff to discontinue the study.
It’s now time to move forward from this judgment as an organization. We are eager to continue working together to find energy solutions with our member communities as we have done the past 34 years.