Dover’s legal battles continue with Dover Chemical, former mayor
DOVER – Two legal disputes that have gone on for years and together cost the city of Dover more than $1 million in legal expenses are continuing.
Dover has been fighting the Dover Chemical Company in court since 2021 and former Mayor Richard Homrighausen since 2022. In both cases, the city started as a defendant before countersuing. There were developments in appeals court for both cases in January.
Dover officials met in a closed-door session with the city’s attorney on Jan. 21. Mayor Shane Gunnoe says he cannot speak on the city’s next steps.
“It’s our obligation to our residents to continue to follow the advice of our attorneys and act in our residents’ best interests, and we’ll see where this goes from here,” Gunnoe said.
Dover Chemical in April won its $1.1 million lawsuit against the city over a punitive electric surcharge. Both the city and Dover Chemical appealed aspects of Judge Elizabeth Thomakos’s ruling.
The Fifth District Court of Appeals in January sided with Dover Chemical, calling Dover’s surcharge arbitrary, unjust and unconstitutional. It also handed Dover a second loss, sending the case back to Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court where Dover Chemical can pursue additional damages in a claim for “unjust enrichment.”
In the Homrighausen case, the city last year won a six-figure countersuit against the former mayor over suspension pay and wedding payments he pocketed. It held up in the local appeals court. However, Homighausen attorneys in January notified the lower court of their intention to appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.
This is Homrighausen’s second time going before the State Supreme Court in recent years. He unsuccessfully appealed his criminal conviction for theft in office, which was related to those wedding payments, to the Ohio Supreme Court and then to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he also was unsuccessful.