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October 17, 2007
As expected, one of AY rental tenants' legal cases dismissed
Atlantic Yards Report
As expected, one of the two lawsuits filed by 13 renters in the Atlantic Yards footprint has been dismissed by a state appellate court. During oral arguments on September 26, a panel of five judges in the First Department was steadily skeptical of attorney George Locker's argument that the tenants are not actually condemnees, with an ownership interest in their leases.
Courts had previously not decided that issue; however, state law defines a condemnee as “the holder of any right, title, interest, lien, charge or encumbrance in real property subject to an acquisition or proposed acquisition.”
Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub had dismissed Locker's challenge in May, saying his clients did not have standing in trial court and instead should have gone to a separate appeals court, the Second Department, which has exclusive jurisdiction over the Eminent Domain Procedure Law, or EDPL, and would not hold a trial to hear a broader array of evidence.
The court's brief ruling yesterday would seem to open the door to planned "friendly condemnations," in which Forest City Ratner-owned buildings are transferred to ownership by the Empire State Development Corporation. That would end the leases far more speedily than the process would occur under New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), which oversees rent-regulated buildings.
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(Two other cases, organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, are pending; one, in federal court, challenges the use of eminent domain, while the other, in state court, challenges the environmental review of the project.)
Posted by lumi at October 17, 2007 9:50 AM