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March 14, 2007
Challenging demolitions, renters’ lawyer faces a skeptical judge
Atlantic Yards Report
It was an uphill battle in state Supreme Court yesterday for George Locker, the attorney for 13 rent-stabilized tenants challenging the demolition of their buildings by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), as state Supreme Court Justice Walter B. Tolub seemed skeptical that the case belonged in his Manhattan court.
The plaintiffs, who live in two buildings in the planned Atlantic Yards footprint--624 Pacific is four-story building at right--claim that their landlord, Forest City Ratner, should be subject to the tougher regulations of the via the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), rather than be able to convey the buildings to ESDC for “friendly condemnations.”
Locker also argues that the creation of private roads for the project requires a jury trial--a case never tested in court. The ESDC disagrees with those arguments, but also argues that the case belongs in the Appellate Division, designated to hear cases challenging eminent domain, not the lower trial court. In that lower court, the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs would have more of an opportunity, via discovery, to extract documents bolstering their case.
The federal eminent domain challenge to Atlantic Yards also has so far also turned on procedural grounds, and procedural issues occupied most of the hour-long argument yesterday.
Locker appeared solo, with three ESDC attorneys facing him at the lawyers' table. Watching in the audience were a cluster of lawyers associated with the defense case, as well as a few plaintiffs. Only this reporter and a reporter for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle represented the press.
"This reporter" provides a blow-by-blow account of the legal arguments.
Posted by lumi at March 14, 2007 8:37 AM