Judge rules in favor of plaintiff on key points of Lummi Island ferry lawsuit against county
A Lummi Island resident has won key points of a lawsuit against Whatcom County, alleging that it was setting ferry rates illegally.
In a seven-page ruling issued Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Evan Jones agreed with plaintiff Peter Earle that ferry rates were calculated incorrectly for a 2024 fare increase. Jones said the higher fares can’t be collected until rates are restructured to exclude about $800,000 in maintenance and repair costs that county officials were seeking to recoup from ferry passengers.
Jones rejected other points of Earle’s lawsuit, which sought to keep ferry users from being charged for tideland lease payments.
Earle filed his lawsuit in April, seeking prevent the fare increase. Jones issued an injunction against the higher rates until the matter was decided and he heard arguments on the merits of the case in October.
Named in the lawsuit were Whatcom County, County Executive Satpal Sidhu and Public Works Director Elizabeth Kosa.
Efforts to reach Earle were unsuccessful Thursday.
“We are in receipt of the ruling, and the attorneys are meeting next week to determine how this ruling will impact the parties,” Whatcom County spokesman Jed Holmes told The Bellingham Herald.
According to previous Herald reporting, Earle’s lawsuit revolved around the way that fares are calculated for the Whatcom Chief, the ferry that carries cars and pedestrians on an eight-minute ride across Hale Passage between Lummi Island and Lummi Nation. It’s the only access to the mainland for most of the island’s 934 residents, in addition to tourists, Whatcom Medic One ambulances and other service providers.
Earle, who was acting as his own counsel, claimed that county officials were illegally including emergency maintenance repairs and tideland lease costs.
Whatcom County’s code requires ferry fare payers to generate annual revenue to cover 55% of the ferry’s operating costs, and is known as the ferry fare box.
Earle’s lawsuit claimed the county violated the county charter and codes by including recent emergency maintenance costs for the ferry “dolphins” in the ferry fare box.
Dolphins are a group of pilings that can serve as a stabilization or mooring point for a dock, bridge or other waterway structure.
Earle’s lawsuit also claimed that the county has violated its own charter since 2011 by including the monthly real estate leasing costs the county pays to the Lummi Nation for the tidelands the Lummi Island ferry system is on as operating costs in the ferry fare box, according to court records. Jones rejected that part of Earle’s lawsuit.
This story was originally published January 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
