Some legal rulings bring a sense of justice to the aggrieved party; others offer a measure of clarity to an unresolved dispute.

Sadly, this is not one of those cases. No, last week’s ruling from the Western District Court of Appeals creates the sickening sense of déjà vu.

You know how the game is played. Two governing boards are embroiled in a squabble. Both sides exchange harsh words and retribution. Before you know it, the lawyers are involved.

This time, it’s a fight between the city of St. Joseph and Country Club Village over annexation and sewers. While the appellate ruling affirms Country Club Village’s position and took the city to task over its lack of fair play, neither side has reason to celebrate.

Country Club Village, which has consistently prevailed in court, will get its wish and separate itself from St. Joseph’s sewer system. The village’s reward could be higher fees when its own treatment plant goes on line.

For five years, St. Joseph has vacillated between antagonizing its neighbor with sharply higher sewer fees and waiting passively for its own losing hand to play out in court. Its reward will be an unwieldy system of competing sewer infrastructure and a limited hand in future growth north of the county line.

What’s needed isn’t a divorce, or some Rube Goldberg system that dumps treated waste into Blacksnake Creek, but rapprochement. This will take political courage, a commodity in limited supply these days.

St. Joseph’s elected leaders — Mayor Ken Shearin and City Council members — need to take the first step in approaching Country Club Village to find a solution that doesn’t involve side-by-side duplication (sound familiar, library patrons?). This is difficult when you’re no longer negotiating from a position of strength.

Perhaps St. Joseph could look to the most contested real estate on Earth to see that cooperation is possible. A quarter century ago, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat shocked the world by addressing Israel’s Knesset and pursuing peace with a sworn enemy. Showing tremendous political courage, he negotiated from a position of weakness following military defeat.

In our own little tussle over lines on a map, a similar grand gesture is necessary.

Yes, feathers have been ruffled and compromise is not as pleasant as a slam-dunk victory. But there’s too much at stake for the city to walk away and say it can’t get along with its neighbor.