WESTBROOK – A suit filed by former Fire Chief Daniel Brock, who is suing the city for his dismissal from the Westbrook Fire Department, has moved to federal court, and may be decided in a summary judgment motion if the city has its way.

The city filed the motion on Feb. 7 to request a judgment in its favor. Brock filed a response last month. The court has not yet ruled on the matter.

Mayor Colleen Hilton announced during her inaugural address on Jan. 4, 2010, that she would not be reappointing Brock to serve as the city’s fire chief. Brock then filed a wrongful termination suit, in a complaint originally filed in Cumberland County Superior Court, on July 20, 2010.

Brock is seeking punitive damages, saying he not only lost wages, but also suffered damage to his reputation and emotional distress. Brock also is asking for reasonable compensation for his lost job and for attorney’s fees and other legal costs.

The city’s attorney, Ed Benjamin, asked that the case be referred from Cumberland County Court to the U.S. District Court in Portland. Benjamin said he requested the transfer because Brock claimed his constitutional rights had been violated, and also because federal court tends to process cases faster than state court.

The core of the case revolves around whether the city charter allowed Hilton to dismiss Brock by not reappointing him, or if instead she would have had to actually terminate him to remove him from office.

Benjamin argued for the city that Brock was never terminated in the legal sense; Hilton simply decided not to reappoint him.

“The mayor has that plenary authority to appoint or not appoint,” Benjamin said.

The mayor did not give a reason for not reappointing Brock and, Benjamin said, she didn’t need to.

In response to the city’s motion to dismiss, Brock’s attorneys agreed that the mayor is free to appoint most town officers at her discretion, but that the fire chief is not one of those positions. The response points to a law passed by the state Legislature in 1967 amending the Westbrook charter to include a section that, Brock’s attorneys argue, allows the chief to remain in office “until retirement, resignation or death, or removal by good and sufficient cause, on complaint of the Mayor, such complaint being sustained by a majority vote of the full Council.”

The response argues that the city denied Brock’s right to property – in this case, his job – against his rights spelled out in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Benjamin, arguing for the city, said case law differentiates between “terminated” and “not reappointed.”