Ultra Wins In Court (Again)

“Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Rodolfo Ruiz explains his ruling denying an injunction against the City of Miami regarding the Ultra Music Festival at the end of a two-hour hearing March 15. Key News/Tony Winton”

A challenge to the Ultra Music Festival was turned aside by a Miami-Dade County judge Friday after he found no merit in any of the claims brought by critics of the process the City of Miami used to approve the concert set for the weekend of March 29.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Rodolfo Ruiz denied a request by the Brickell Homeowners Association and Miami resident Christopher Mullin for an injunction that would have declared Ultra’s contract with the City void because of an alleged failure to follow competitive bidding rules in the City Charter. Plaintiffs attorney David Winker said his clients were not trying to stop the concert, they just wanted the City to amend its agreement with Ultra.

“They can have their concert, they just have to do it lawfully,” Winker said.

But Ruiz wasn’t persuaded. He ruled that because the plaintiffs failed to claim a specific injury from the City’s contracting process, he was required to reject the challenge.

“The injury requirement and its inextricable connection to standing remains the law of the United States,” Ruiz ruled from the bench after hearing two hours of argument. He said that while Miami voters approved a charter amendment that grants residents standing to sue for violations of the City Charter, that amendment cannot trump long-established Constitutional requirements.

“Plaintiffs attorney David Winker makes his point in court March 15. Key News/Tony Winton”

In another rejection of the critics’ claims, Ruiz ruled against the central contention that the Ultra contract was an unlawful lease. To the contrary, he ruled that because the City’s contract allows some public access to the Virginia Key park area during the concert period and can be revoked, it is a license, not a lease, and therefore not subject to the competitive bidding requirement.

“I am very disappointed,” said Ernesto Cuesta, the president of the Homeowners Association, who spoke out loudly from his seat in the courtroom, waving his finger at the judge. Winker said he would appeal the judge’s ruling to the Third District Court of Appeal and would also amend his complaint to allege a specific injury.

The ruling Friday is just the latest win for Event Entertainment Group, which produces the Ultra concert. A federal judge last month denied an effort to stop Ultra made by organizers of another smaller concert, the Rapture Music Festival. Rapture claims it was unlawfully displaced from Virginia Key by Ultra in violation of antitrust laws. The judge is holding a scheduling hearing March 22, but without an injunction, Rapture would be limited to claiming monetary damages if it can prove its allegations.