“Injunctions are extraordinary remedies, and courts should not grant them,” Owens said, “except in cases where irreparable harm is demonstrated.”

In his suit, filed Feb. 10, Ress accuses the hospital board of violating Wyoming open meetings law by making decisions behind closed doors. He asked that the court prohibit St. John’s trustees from taking further action to fill the vacancy created Jan. 11 when Scott Gibson announced his resignation, and forbid Gibson from voting on his successor.

After weighing comments from two lawyers and two witnesses, Owens said petitioner Ress did not meet the burden of proving irreparable harm if the St. John’s Health board appoints a new trustee on Tuesday using the process that Ress contends they didn’t publicly vote on.

“But I do find, after hearing testimony and evidence here today,” Owens said, “there are some valid points being made in this case, and we will take those up at a later date.”

Laramie attorney Jason Tangeman, arguing for the hospital board, minimized Ress’ standing as a citizen not formally involved in the board.

“You have a citizen who wants to micromanage the board and tell the board what to do,” Tangeman said. “In this particular case on the merits, it just ain’t there.”

Owens ruled that Ress met the bar for standing to file his complaint, and she did not dismiss the case as the hospital board attorney requested.

“I do believe Mr. Ress has standing as an active member of the public concerning government actions,” Owens said.

Ress’ attorney Bert Wolfley said that while the decision at hand might not be one that rings across the state, it is important to residents of Teton County who have an interest in the hospital board’s openness.

“This isn’t micromanaging,” Wolfley said. “This is trying to get the hospital to do things in the public view.”

Afterward, Ress said he was glad Owens recognized his standing in the case.

“I think it’s rather disingenuous of a board to try to tell a citizen they don’t have the right to know what it’s doing,” Ress said.

Katharine Conover-Keller, chair of the hospital’s board of trustees, spent about an hour in the hot seat answering questions from Tangeman and Wolfley about the process for appointing a new trustee.

Although the board voted on a process to replace Dr. Lou Hochheiser after his sudden death in November, the board did not publicly vote to follow the same process to replace Scott Gibson, who sent a letter of resignation Jan. 11.

On the witness stand, Conover-Keller said she made telephone calls to board members Cynthia Hogan, Dr. Pam Cutler and Gibson, and had coffee with Dr. Bruce Hayse to discuss following the same process for Gibson’s seat as they had for Hochheiser’s.

Ress and his lawyer contend this violates Wyoming’s open meetings law. Statute 16-4-403 states that “communications outside a meeting, including, but not limited to, sequential communications among members of an agency, shall not be used to circumvent the purpose of this act.”

After the hearing, Conover-Keller expressed frustration about the lawsuit siphoning off resources from the hospital and said she’s interested to hear what Owens believes the merits of Ress’ case are. She said Owens’ ultimate decision could shape operations of all the valley’s public boards.

“If she wants us to vote on every single process we do, OK, it’ll be a little more cumbersome,” Conover-Keller said. “We could do that. But it’ll have a ripple effect.”

That’s precisely what Ress wants.

“Imagine how good that would be for the community if we could get people to write a set of rules for boards,” Ress said, “if they all universally agreed, ‘This is the gold standard of how you do things in public and in private.’ ”