In response to Mariposa County’s motions to dismiss, Federal Court Judge Anthony Ishii dismissed nine of the claims alleged by Jerry Cox and his land-holdings company, JDC Land Company, LLC, against the County. The Court also dismissed the Sheriff’s Department as a defendant.
A motion to dismiss is an initial proceeding in which a judge is required by law to take the allegations in the complaint as true, regardless of how baseless they may be, and then determine if those claims are legally allowed to proceed. In this case, the Judge threw out nine claims, determining they were barred by law.
As of October 2022, there are still six outstanding claims remaining. Since the Judge is required by law to take the allegations as true, his ruling on the remaining claims does not indicate any merit or truth. Mr. Cox and his land company still need to prove those claims. To date, they have presented no evidence to support them.
“Plaintiffs’ claims essentially boil down to a groundless allegation that the County proceeded with the receivership and breach of contract action against JDC Land Company, LLC to punish Mr. Cox somehow. However, the dozens of violations that the state court determined existed on his property, along with the clear breach of a land use-tax agreement Mr. Cox had with the County, are clearly established facts. There was no relationship between the District Attorney’s case and the County’s code enforcement case. Pictures don’t lie. And in this preliminary ruling in Mr. Cox’s federal lawsuit, the Judge does not rule on the merits of his claims but simply determines which ones can’t proceed further along the process for legal reasons. Since plaintiffs file an amended complaint, as the Judge ordered, they will finally have to show evidence to support their remaining claims.”
SILVER & WRIGHT LLP PARTNER JOHN FUJII
Recently, in an article that was published on September 22, 2022, the Mariposa Gazette published misleading quotes from this case, which the newspaper attributed to Judge Ishii, stating, “The [federal] judge wrote that the Mariposa Superior Court put Bison Creek Ranch into a corrupt receivership.” However, Judge Ishii quoted from Cox’s and JDC Land Company, LLC’s complaints, not agreeing with them. While the Mariposa Gazette relayed those quotes from the Judge as though they were the Judge’s own opinions, they were not; the Judge was quoting the plaintiffs’ groundless allegations against the County.
Currently, there is no trial date in the Federal Court lawsuit. The remaining claims will now proceed to the evidence-gathering phase.
Click here to read related articles about the ongoing Jerry Cox and JDC Land Company, LLC case.