CONCORD – The state Supreme Court has denied what would appear to be former city Alderman Fred S. Teeboom’s final opportunity to keep alive his spending-cap lawsuit against the city and Mayor Jim Donchess.

In a brief, single-page order, the Supreme Court justices reaffirmed their July decision, which upheld Superior Court Judge Charles Temple’s 2018 determination that the city’s spending cap is unenforceable because the city charter does not contain an override provision.

Teeboom, a key figure in crafting spending cap legislation that voters approved in November 1993, filed suit in 2017, accusing the city of violating the spending cap by passing an ordinance that exempted the city’s wastewater treatment funds from the general municipal operating budget.

Shortly after Temple handed down his ruling dismissing Teeboom’s allegations that the city violated the spending cap, Teeboom appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court.

The justices ultimately affirmed, or agreed with, Temple’s findings pertaining to the enforcability of the spending cap.

That prompted Teeboom to file his motion for reconsideration, in which he was required to “state with particularity the points of law or fact that he claims the court overlooked or misapprehended” in reaching the ruling that affirmed Temple’s findings.

But the justices, after reviewing the claims Teeboom made in his motion for reconsideration, concluded “that no points of law or fact were overlooked or misapprehended in our decision.

“Accordingly,” the justices wrote, “we affirm our (earlier decision) and deny the relief requested in the motion.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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