Fall River files countersuit against the marijuana retailer suing the city over $4.6 million in fees
The city's first licensed marijuana retailer says Fall River charged it fees from 2019 to 2022 without showing what they paid for. The city's Oct. 26 filing says the company owes it money instead, in an amount to be set at trial, The Herald News reported.
FALL RIVER The City of Fall River is countersuing Northeast Alternatives, the city's first licensed marijuana retailer, which sued the city in June to get back $4.6 million in community impact fees it says it was charged without any explanation of what they paid for, The Herald News reported Friday.
In a filing made Oct. 26 in Bristol County Superior Court, the city denies the claims in the company's complaint and accuses Northeast Alternatives of breach of contract, according to the Herald News report. The city says the company agreed to make "certain payments" as the city worked to shepherd it through the permitting and licensing process, the newspaper reported.
"In or about 2022, NEA ceased making certain payments required under the Agreement," the counterclaim says, as quoted by The Herald News. "As a result, the City has sustained damages, including unpaid amounts due under the Agreement." The city asks for judgment in the amount of those payments, damages "in an amount to be determined at trial," its costs and other relief the court allows, the newspaper reported. The filing does not spell out which payments the company stopped making or put a dollar figure on what the city says it is owed, according to The Herald News.
What the company claims
Northeast Alternatives runs its store at 999 Canning Blvd., near the Tiverton line, the Fall River Reporter wrote. Its lawsuit names the city and Mayor Paul Coogan, in his official capacity, as defendants, according to The Herald News and WSAR, which each described the complaint.
The company says the city charged community impact fees from April 2019 to September 2022 under its host community agreement without explaining what costs the money paid for, The Herald News reported. The Fall River Reporter wrote that the complaint says the company asked for documentation of the city's costs at its annual license renewals and never received it, and that it seeks more than $4.6 million plus interest and its legal fees.
The agreement "mandated flat percentage-based fees calculated as a percentage of gross sales, with no tether to any documented or anticipated municipal expense," the complaint says, as quoted by WSAR in August. WSAR also reported that a Superior Court judge on Aug. 10 allowed the appointment of a special process server to serve the city with documents in the case.
The 2018 agreement
Company CEO Christopher Harkins and then-Mayor Jasiel Correia II signed the host community agreement April 13, 2018, The Herald News reported. The agreement called for "a payment of 4% of Gross Revenue annually derived from retail sales in the city of Fall River," plus 4% of wholesale receipts above the first $1.25 million for marijuana made in Fall River and $40 a pound for marijuana made in the city and sold at retail elsewhere, according to the newspaper, which said a December 2018 amendment cut the percentages to 3% and the per-pound charge to $30.
Exhibits filed with the lawsuit show the state Cannabis Control Commission told the city in November 2024 that the agreement was "noncompliant" with state law and needed to be revised, according to The Herald News.
State law now limits what a city may charge. A community impact fee must be "reasonably related to the costs imposed upon the municipality" by the marijuana business, may not be more than 3% of the business's gross sales, may not be charged after its eighth year of operation and may not "mandate a certain percentage of total or gross sales," according to Section 3 of Chapter 94G of the General Laws. The city must document those costs and send them to the business not later than one month after each annual license renewal, and the documents are public records. A business that believes the costs are not reasonably related to what the city actually spent may sue for breach of contract and recover damages, attorneys' fees and the parts of the fee that are not reasonably related to the city's actual costs, the law says.
How the deal was signed
Correia worked briefly as a consultant for Northeast Alternatives in 2018 while he was mayor, after telling the state Ethics Commission the work would not involve city business, and signed the agreement seven days after the commission's approval, according to Ethics Commission filings described by The Herald News and the Fall River Reporter. Correia was later convicted in federal court of extorting cannabis business owners for the paperwork they needed to open, and was sentenced to six years in prison, the two newspapers reported. Northeast Alternatives was not among the businesses in that case, The Herald News reported, and the Fall River Reporter wrote that Harkins was never accused by federal prosecutors of paying bribes.
What happens next
The city has hired the law firm Mead, Talerman & Costa to handle the case, according to The Herald News.
South Coast 360 News asked the city's Law Department for comment Friday morning, along with the docket number, a copy of the counterclaim and the next court date. Any answer from the city or from Northeast Alternatives will be added to this story.
The dispute is moving through the courts as voters decide Question 8 on the Nov. 3 ballot, which would repeal, effective Jan. 1, 2028, the laws that allow retail sales of recreational marijuana. Here is what Question 8 would keep and what it would end.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
The lawsuit's claims come from three newsrooms that each described the complaint: The Herald News (Oct. 30, as syndicated), WSAR (August) and the Fall River Reporter (Aug. 14). The city's Oct. 26 answer and counterclaim, and the words quoted from it, come from The Herald News report alone and are credited to it in each sentence. The limits on community impact fees come from Chapter 94G, Section 3, of the General Laws, which we read on the Legislature's site on Oct. 30. We checked each date against the reports. Claims in both filings are the parties' claims, not findings by a court. Not heard by publication: the City of Fall River's Law Department (asked Oct. 30 at 9:02 a.m.).
Corrections
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Sources (5)
- The Herald News: Facing $4.6M lawsuit from pot shop, Fall River files countersuit (Dan Medeiros)Published Oct. 30, 2026, 4:03 a.m., as syndicated; the only source for the city's Oct. 26 answer and counterclaim, the quotes from it, the agreement's terms, the November 2024 Cannabis Control Commission notice and the city's law firm. Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly republished the same report Oct. 30. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- Fall River Reporter: Northeast Alternatives Sues Fall River for Return of $4.6 Million in Cannabis Impact Fees (Jo Goode)Published Aug. 14, 2026; second newsroom describing the complaint (the $4.6 million plus interest, legal fees, the documentation requests, the Canning Boulevard store, the 2018 consulting and the federal case). Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- WSAR: Marijuana company says Fall River owes $4.6M in illegal feesAugust 2026; the June filing date in Bristol County Superior Court, the complaint's quoted line on percentage-based fees and the Aug. 10 special process server order. Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- South Coast 360: Question 8: what repealing recreational marijuana sales would keep, and what it would endOur Oct. 21 explainer, built on the Attorney General's official summary of Question 8 on the Nov. 3 ballot (repeal of retail sales; effective Jan. 1, 2028). Read Oct. 30, 2026.
- General Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 94G, Section 3 (local control; host community agreements and community impact fees)Subsection (d)(2), clauses (i) to (iii), as in effect Oct. 30, 2026. Read Oct. 30, 2026.