RAYMOND — A Rockingham County Superior Court Justice has ordered the town to reimburse conservation commission chairman Cheryl Killam $10,000 in legal fees.

In March, the same superior court justice, Marguerite Wageling, found that the town had violated Killam’s constitutional right to due process when they removed her from the conservation commission without a proper public hearing in June 2011.

Killam was reinstated as conservation commission chairman following the court decision.

She and the Town have been filing motions back and forth for the past month regarding legal fees.

On May 22, Wageling found that Killam’s action in filing suit against the town “conferred a substantial benefit on not only [Plaintiff] who initiated action, but on the public as well[,] and that she should be awarded legal fees.”

However, the court limited the award to the proportional share attributable to constitutional due process violations rather than statutory violations.

The town argued that most of Killam’s filings and the legal work behind the filings regarded state statute and not constitutional violations, and that she should only be reimbursed $235.

Killam sought about $20,856.85 in incurred legal expenses.

On June 18, Wageling ruled that $10,000 is a “fair and reasonable fee to be borne by the Town of Raymond.”

Killam is to be paid within 20 days of the ruling, according to the court decision.

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