Furie, feds ending legal battle

Furie Operating Alaska LLC and the federal government have jointly asked a federal judge to dismiss their longstanding legal case over a Jones Act violation and fine.

The company and a group of federal agencies and officials led by the U. S. Department of Homeland Security filed a stipulation on March 24 dismissing their claims and counterclaims against the other, and each agreeing to pay their own costs.

A proposed order associated with the stipulation asked the U.S. District Court Judge John W. Sedwick to dismiss the claims “without prejudice,” which would end the matter.

The stipulation makes no reference to an earlier settlement that the two sides reached last summer in an attempt to resolve the nearly five-year-old case. The settlement needed final approval from the U. S. Department of Justice but was delayed for several months during the end of the Obama Administration and the start of the Trump Administration.

- ERIC LIDJI