Another brutal court fight ends with Middletown coming out as the loser.
Back in 1998, before all the infighting and bad blood between life long resident and former NJ State Asemblyman Joe Azzolina and the Republicans that run Middletown, the township issued a 3rd liquor license to Mr. Azzolina's company, Circus Liquors Inc.
In 2005 when the battle over Mr. Azzolina's "Town Center" project was boiling over, Middletown "realized" that the 3rd liqour license that they issued was illegal because the State limits the number of licenses a person or company can hold to two, so they wanted it back.
Mr. Azzolina said "No", he paid the town for it, it was his and he would sell it.
This of course sparked another lengthy and expensive court fight, that the township hoped would force the Azzolina family to cave in under yet another retaliatory, expense and pressure filled, drawn out legal battle.
Last year it seemed that Middeltown won the battle when the State Appellate Court ruled in favor of Middletown. Not conceding that the battle was lost, Joe Azzolina appealed the case to the State Supreme Court.
So, in today's Asbury Park Press comes word that the Supreme Courts has made it's decision.
The Justices ruled unanimously yesterday to overturn the lower courts ruling, which would have allowed Middeltown to confiscate the illegal liquor license and sell it to another party.
Once again Joe Azzolina comes out on top and wins the war. He can now sell the lquor license himself.
No doubt, this loss cost Middletown big time legal fees that could have gone to better uses if they would have just swallowed their pride and allowed Azzolina to sell the license himself in the first place. But because of the hard feelings and bad blood between the ruling Middeltown GOP and the Azzolina family over "Town Center" they decided to fight him in court.
This is just another example of how the Republicans have screwed Middletown over the years. And when you think of it, the one to have made out the most from this is Bernie Reilly, the Township Attorney, it must have made him a fortune.
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