Railroad Museum Files for Temporary Restraining Order, Wants City to Back Off

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Feb. 22 2010 at 4:15 PM

Categories: Crime

So, 'round 3ish tomorrow, expect the latest update in the case of the City of Dallas v. the Museum of the American Railroad. At 2:30 p.m. tomorrow a hearing been scheduled in Associate Judge Teresa Guerra Snelson courtroom, during which city attorneys and lawyers representing the museum will face off in person for the first time since the city filed suit on January 28 demanding it leave Fair Park and move to Frisco, as it said it was going to do two years ago.

In short, the museum wants the city to leave it alone. Don't send out code enforcement officials. Don't send out food inspectors. Don't cut off the power and water. Says the museum's request for a restraining order, it wants the city to stop "pester[ing] defendant with frivolous actions."

To which First Assistant City Attorney Chris Bowers responds: "They believe they're above the law," he tells Unfair Park.

Assistant City Attorney Chris Caso met with museum attorney William Brotherton in Judge Martin Hoffman's courtroom moments ago, but Hoffman refused to rule on the request for a TRO since the city didn't have two hours to respond, as the law requires. I am in the process of getting today's filing and will post as soon as it arrives.

Update: After the jump, you'll find the museum's counter-claim and request for a TRO, which includes correspondence between Caso and Brotherton ... not to mention an Unfair Park item, comments included. Brotherton more or less offers a crash course in the museum's history, going back to 1949, when the Texas & Pacific Railway Company donated to Fair Park the T&P 638, a retired steam locomotive for which the city donated land to house and display the gift that was ultimately vandalized and scrapped, leading to a partnership with the Southwestern Railroad Historical Society.
Railroad Museum's Response to City's Lawsuit

Railroad Museum's Request for the TRO