MEDIATION RECESSED --- AGAIN!
(Dec. 4, 4 p.m.) It has just been announced that the mediation has been recessed----again! This time it is put off until January 11-12, 2018. This is all the information we have at the moment. I will relay news as I receive it.
This is the second month-long delay in the mediation talks. The first round was on November 6-7. It was ended on the second morning (Nov. 7). The next date was set for today and tomorrow, December 4-5. Obviously the two sides hit another brick wall in the first day and called it off for another month.
No one involved is allowed to talk about what is going on in the mediation but clearly it is stalling. The cause of the delays remains a mystery.
Between the first (Nov. 6-7) and the second (Dec. 4) rounds, two crucial events happened: 1-the South Carolina Supreme Court reaffirmed its Aug. 2 decision recognizing TEC/TECSC control over 29 of the 36 parishes and Camp St. Christopher; and 2-DSC made two new legal actions, a new lawsuit against TEC/TECSC demanding payments for "betterments" of the 29 properties, and announcing plans for an appeal of the SCSC decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. It appears to me as if TEC/TECSC parties want to get a settlement on the enactment of the SCSC decision while DSC is throwing up delays. How much longer is anyone's guess. I for one am deeply disappointed but not surprised.
My guess was that DSC had one of two motives in raising the two new legal actions: 1-to use as a bargaining chip in mediation, or 2-long term strategy of delay. I was already leaning toward the latter. Now, with the second long recession of mediation, it is clearer than ever that delay is the probable motive of DSC. It is in DSC's interest to strike the best deal possible in the mediation. If they cannot see this, they are blind. If the DSC leaders persist ahead with more litigation, they are playing a dangerous game. They are risking losing everything. More about this later.
My guess was that DSC had one of two motives in raising the two new legal actions: 1-to use as a bargaining chip in mediation, or 2-long term strategy of delay. I was already leaning toward the latter. Now, with the second long recession of mediation, it is clearer than ever that delay is the probable motive of DSC. It is in DSC's interest to strike the best deal possible in the mediation. If they cannot see this, they are blind. If the DSC leaders persist ahead with more litigation, they are playing a dangerous game. They are risking losing everything. More about this later.
