Indiana appellate court rules landowners, others can’t challenge riverboat law

Tuesday, July 18, 2000 | 10:51 a.m.

The court upheld a 1999 ruling in Harrison Circuit Court that the plaintiffs had not shown they were sufficiently harmed by the law to enable them to sue. A judge dismissed the lawsuit last year.

Walter Schulz of New Albany, Earl Becker and Jack Phillips of Harrison County had claimed in their October 1996 lawsuit that their property would be damaged by the traffic, noise and other effects of a riverboat casino on their surroundings.

The appeals court ruled Friday that the landowners alleged no right to use the private land on which the riverboat would be located.

"This harm is outside the zone of interests and simply too remote to confer standing," Judge James Kirsch wrote in the opinion.

The suit also said the General Assembly violated the state constitution's single-issue clause when lawmakers approved the riverboat gambling law in 1993. The language legalizing gambling was included in the state budget, and the lawsuit contended that such a provision would not have passed as a separate bill.

The appeals court ruling addresses only whether the plaintiffs have the right to sue the state. It does not address the merits of their arguments.

Schulz, the leader of the Southern Indiana Citizens Against Gambling, said the group will likely appeal the decision to the Indiana Supreme Court.

"They're saying we don't have the right to challenge the law, which I think should be alarming to most people - that the legislature gets a free hand to do whatever they want," Schulz said.

American Legion Post 497 in Marion County joined the suit in 1998 because its leaders believed the organization was one of the groups denied special gambling privileges.

The post had been raided for illegally operating video poker machines, and the Indiana Excise Police shut down its machines in 1997. The post's attorneys said all groups should be allowed to profit from gambling.

But the court ruled the Legion post, and all other groups, were free to seek one of the state's 11 riverboat licenses. Because the post did not apply for a license, it lacks standing to challenge the law, the court said.