Town of Lead Hill, Arkansas, Appellants v. Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority of the State Of…

Summary

The court affirmed summary judgment enforcing a forty-year wholesale water-purchase contract and upheld the associated writ of mandamus. It held that the contract did not violate the Arkansas Constitution or federal law, that Ozark had capacity to contract, and that Lead Hill failed to establish defenses based on impossibility, impracticability, frustration, unconscionability, or lack of mutuality. Justice Hart and Justice Danielson dissented, principally contending that mandamus was improper and that material factual disputes remained concerning the constitutional funding restriction and contractual defenses.