PRESS RELEASE
November 17, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Janet Kern, City Attorney
510-747-4570
City of Alameda Wins Four-Year Lawsuit
In its Defense Against Former Alameda Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant
In a unanimous opinion issued Friday, November 13, 2015, the California Court of Appeal dealt former Alameda Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant a resounding defeat in her long running legal battle against the City of Alameda. The Court of Appeal found that Gallant’s entire complaint made in 2011, alleging unlawful termination, was without any merit and dismissed the lawsuit in total. The City was awarded $250,000 in attorney's fees and costs and will be able to recoup additional attorney’s fees from a previous defense.
City Attorney Janet Kern hailed the decision, “Alameda taxpayers are the victors today, since an unscrupulous former public official has failed in a meritless lawsuit aimed at obtaining a large payout financed by limited public funds.”
Gallant was appointed as a temporary 24-month Interim City Manager in 2009 after the permanent City Manager left. Gallant’s employment contract stipulated that the City intended to competitively recruit for a permanent City Manager during that period. When the City Council in 2010 initiated that competitive recruitment and gave her notice that her temporary employment would not be renewed, Gallant did not apply for the permanent position. Instead, she filed suit claiming that the Council’s action was illegal and she was entitled to continuing payment as an interim City Manager.
The Alameda County Superior Court in 2014 and the California Court of Appeal in its recent opinion, agreed that Gallant had failed to make any plausible arguments to support any of the four counts of her lawsuit. The Court of Appeal, in an earlier June 2013 opinion had determined that Gallant’s lawsuit was a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
A copy of the court's opinion is available at http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/A141508.PDF
