LYNN — The claims brought against the City of Lynn by North Reading Transportation (NRT) for breaching its contract by failing to pay NRT since March 2020 were dismissed last week.
Although buses were not being used because students were remote during this time, NRT brought claims against the city saying that NRT still provided services to the Lynn Public Schools throughout the pandemic and the contract states the city needs to pay for those services.
An NRT representative listed some of those services as fixed costs that include vehicle equipment, maintenance, excise tax and insurance, and rent and utilities.
Essex Superior Court Judge Brian A. Davis wrote in the public document depicting the court’s decision that “the language of the contracts, read in their entirety, is clear and unambiguous.”
The court ruled that the city was fully entitled to proceed as it did and it can have no liability to NRT for breach of contract as a result.
The document also says that the court found that “the city simply exercised its contractual rights in accordance with the express terms of the parties’ agreements,” saying that there was nothing “brazen, unusual, or improper in the City’s decision to compensate NRT, as it expressly is permitted to do under the contracts, only for actual bus routes run by NRT.”
When NRT filed the lawsuit against the city in April, the city responded and submitted six counterclaims against NRT, alleging breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, fraud, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, and unfair or deceptive business practices.
Lynn Assistant City Solicitor James F. Wellock said the city’s claims against NRT are still actively being litigated, and he won’t be commenting on those at this time.
