McGettigan v. Town of Freeport
Annotate this CaseThe town manager of the Town of Freeport signed a contract transferring the Town's emergency dispatch services to another town. Plaintiffs, two Town residents, filed an amended complaint requesting a declaratory judgment that the contract was void because it was inconsistent with section 6.10 of the Town's charter, which provides that multi-year contracts must be "made or approved by ordinance," and seeking an injunction. The Town Council later voted in favor of an ordinance that ratified the contract. The superior court subsequently dismissed the complaint, finding that the case was moot because the Town had approved the outsourcing contract by ordinance, thereby complying with section 6.10. The Supreme Court vacated the judgment and held (1) the court erred by dismissing the amended complaint because the passage of the ordinance ratifying the transfer of dispatch services contract did not render the case moot, as the contract did not conclude until the year 2016; but (2) the passage of the ordinance did satisfy the "made or approved by ordinance" requirement of section 6.10 of the charter. Remanded for entry of a judgment in favor of the Town on the merits of the amended complaint and denying the request for an injunction.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.