Attorneys Suing Over Citywide Sale of Beer, Wine Have Filed Motion to Get New Trial

You knew this was coming; you were warned.

While searching the Dallas County Civil District Court's website for something unrelated, I took a look at the virtual case jacket concerning the lawsuit over the citywide sale of beer and wine -- a suit brought by attorneys Andy Siegel and Leland de la Garza on behalf of long-time real-estater Marcus Wood and, per the city's filings, "unidentified business interests," meaning liquor stores. And, sure enough, there was a new item in the jacket: Earlier this week de la Garza filed a motion for a new trial, since Judge Laurine Blake of Bonham dismissed the suit on September 2, 10 days before it was set to go to trial, much to the delight of the City Attorney's Office, which said, "The ruling ... validates the decision of the Dallas voters." Since, after all, the sale of beer and wine citywide was made possible only after voters decided to drink up last November.

The motion follows, but de la Garza once more makes the claim that when then-City Secretary Deborah Watkins validated the signatures on the petitions that triggered the local option election, she counted invalid ones. Says the motion, there exists "a fact issue on the number of qualified voters signing the petition because" the city and Kroger-backed Keep the Dollars in Dallas, which led the petition drive, "placed in the record evidence that is contradictory on the number of valid petition signatures." Far as they're concerned, the city was short some 3,800 signatures needed to call the election.

Jump. Take a drink with you.

Request for New Trial in Citywide Sale of Beer, Wine