Plaintiffs in Cruise Ship Case File To Exclude Sidman Expert Rebutter Testimony
BAR HARBOR—Plaintiffs in Association to Preserve and Protect Local Livelihoods (APPLL) et al vs. Town of Bar Harbor have filed documents in federal court to exclude Charles Sidman’s expert rebutter testimony.
Sidman is a defendant intervenor in the case, which means he and the town are defending the recent cruise ship limit caps, which limit disembarkations by cruise ship passengers to 1,000 or less each day and places the changes within the town’s land use ordinance. That limit stemmed from a citizens’ referendum that was led by Sidman and passed 1,780 to 1,273 in November, 2022. Sidman is also a candidate for Town Council.
Since May, there have been numerous documents filed in APPLL’s federal lawsuit
APPLL has also been joined by other businesses that work with cruise ships such as B.H. Piers, L.L.C.; Golden Anchor L.C.; B.H.W.W., L.L.C.; Delray Explorer Hull 495 LLC; Delray Explorer Hull 493 LLC; and Acadia Explorer 492, LLC. It was also joined by the Penobscot Bay and River Pilots Association. The suit was filed in late December, 2022. An early case summary is here.
This latest 39-page filing includes appendixes (below) and argues that Sidman’s statements were not a rebuttal to Dr. Todd Gabe, an economy professor at the University of Maine, the plaintiffs’ and plaintiff intervenor’s expert. Therefore, the plaintiffs argue that “Mr. Sidman’s rebuttal expert designation fails and this court should reject his status as such.” It continues to argue that his testimony is “personal experiences and knowledge, not scientific research.”
The Plaintiff-intervenor Penobscot Bay and River Pilots Association also filed a two-page document asking to join the motion to exclude Sidman’s expert rebuttal testimony (below).
“Their filings (a farrago of incomplete, misleading, and false statements) speak for themselves; they are desperate for me (a "hard" scientist and experienced businessperson and academic) not to speak to and criticize the methods and conclusions of their "soft" scientist expert, Dr. Gabe. Another legal maneuver - que sera, sera!” Sidman said about the filing
A few pages of the brief question Sidman’s assertion that cruise ship passengers negatively affect law enforcement, the fire department and emergency services, and public works department’s work in Bar Harbor, saying that Sidman did not talk to the fire chief, police chief, and public works directors to bring forth data to show this impact. It also says that Sidman, who is an immunologist and biochemist offers an unreliable opinion “on the scientific study of an economist.”
In the first page of Sidman’s deposition that is including in the APPLL filing, he says that Gabe’s work is “sloppy and non-reproducible methodology. It’s bad science and it’s pseudoscience.”
Gabe’s study, ECONOMIC IMPACT OF CRUISE SHIP PASSENGERS VISITING BAR HARBOR (MAINE) IN 2016, was released in February 2017. It received funding from the Maine Port Authority/Cruise Maine USA and the Town of Bar Harbor as well as from Harbor Place and the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce.
Sidman later says in the testimony, “I know from approximately 80,000 hours of Bar Harbor downtown experience that at those times it is positively unsafe to be on the sidewalks of Bar Harbor. You walk in the streets, you’re hidden in crowds. Should someone fall over, have a medical emergency, you would be unseen for a long time. Medical personnel would take an extra length of time to be aware and to reach the incident.”
Another brief in opposition to Sidman’s request to compel disclosure of the plaintiffs’ members and finances was filed by APPLL on June 5, stating that the parties involved have yet to make a good faith effort to resolve the dispute. That brief is below.
The case is scheduled to go to trial this summer.
The Bar Harbor Story has reached out to the Town of Bar Harbor for comment as well as a representative of APPLL. We will update the story if we receive a comment.
LINKS AND RESOURCES
For more background and earlier stories, you can search on the site for “cruise ships” or “APPLL.”
Our most recent story:
https://barharborstory.substack.com/p/appll-issues-statement-saying-new
The link to the court site:
https://pcl.uscourts.gov/pcl/pages/search/results/parties.jsf?sid=65b19fa498664d11b3aef51118db4470