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Supreme Court No. 97-144-Appeal. (PC 96-4076) Catherine E. Graziano and John P. Hawkins v. :

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Rhode Island State Lottery Commission et al. : Present: Williams, C.J., Lederberg, Flanders, JJ. and Weisberger, C.J. (Ret.) OPINION Weisberger, Chief Justice (Ret.) This case comes before us on the appeal of plaintiffs Catherine E. Graziano and John P. Hawkins from a summary judgment entered in the Superior Court in favor of the defendants on all issues raised in the plaintiffs' second amended complaint, save only Count I, which alleged a violation of the Rhode Island Open Meetings Act. The defendants have cross-appealed from that portion of the Superior Court judgment entered after trial, which held them to be in violation of the Open Meetings Act, G.L. 1956 chapter 46 of title 42. The plaintiff Hawkins also appeals from the open meetings portion of the judgment on the ground that it failed to award him reinstatement to his position as Director of the Rhode Island Lottery Commission. We affirm the summary judgment entered in the Superior Court in favor of the defendants but reverse that portion of the judgment which held the defendant Lottery

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Commission to have been in violation of the Open Meetings Act. The facts and procedural history of this case insofar as pertinent to the appeal are as follows. Facts and Procedural History This controversy arises out of the dismissal by the Lottery Commission of plaintiff John P. Hawkins (Hawkins) as the Director of the Lottery Commission on March 25, 1996. Hawkins had been appointed to the Lottery Commission on October 28, 1993, by then Governor Bruce Sundlun. This appointment was confirmed and approved by the majority of the members of the Lottery Commission. See G.L. 1956

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Rhode Island Law