New York Law Blog

The New York City Buildings Department and their commissioner Robert LiMandri are implementing new rules to keep better track of crane parts to prevent further construction accidents from occurring. This is great news for construction workers all over the City, and Jeffrey Lichtman had this to say on the new regulations:

This is another example of how our legal system attempts to address critical safety issues. The Buildings Department is now focused on new rules and regulations aimed at preventing another devastating crane collapse in New York City. The crane parts are finally going to be better tracked so that crane operators can be more confident that they are working a structurally sound machine. Last May, a crane collapse took the lives of Donald Leo (30) and Ramadan Kurtaj (28). The age and mechanical condition of the crane are the focus of a federal probe and lawsuit. It is my hope that the lawsuit and probe are successful in creating strict crane-oversight programs preventing these types of events from ever occurring.

Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman: Don’t settle for less!

-New York governor David Patterson signed a new bill this month that puts more stringent rules on private attorneys who have been collecting public pensions. Roughly 29 neighborhoods in Long Island alone have attorneys that are also employees of the village, many of which get both a salary from the city as well as from their private law firm.

Although most public employees must file time sheets, work regular hours and meet other criteria to qualify as public employees, the comptroller’s office says elected and some appointed officials do not have to. As a result, hundreds of officials statewide are allowed to earn coveted pension credits without having to keep time sheets of the hours they actually worked in what essentially is an honor system.

-The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, will sign the new term limit bill on Monday, November 2:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has scheduled a Monday bill-signing ceremony for the law that gives officeholders the option of a third consecutive four-year term.

The bill narrowly passed the City Council last week after just three weeks of debate. Bloomberg pushed the law through the council because he wants to run for a third term. His critics say term limits changes should not be up to the council but should be decided by the voters.

-After warning AIG about using federal bailout money as rewards for executives, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has cautioned nine other banks about using government bailout payments as bonus money for executives, as it is illegal under state law.

In a letter sent to Bank of America Corp, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp, and Wells Fargo & Co, he also asked their boards to explain what mechanisms they have put in place to protect taxpayer money.

"Specifically, corporate expenditures and payments, made in the absence of fair consideration of undercapitalized firms, may well violate NY Debtor and Creditor Law 274, which deems such payments illegal fraudulent conveyances," Cuomo’s letter said.

-An Ithica, New York man is appealing his charge of convicted murder of New York state trooper Joseph Longobardo. Ralph Phillips allegedly killed Mr. Longobardo and injured two other troopers.

His attorneys are scheduled to appear in a state court in Rochester this morning to appeal his convictions. The 46-year-old Phillips claims he entered his guilty pleas only because he got bad advice from a court-appointed lawyer.

-Anger is rising in New York City over affordable housing and the laws surrounding it. Many advocates for affordable housing believe the laws that deal with housing issues in New York are not properly followed or implemented.

The group outside the DHCE [Department of Housing and Community Renewal] on Tuesday wants a review of a law that allows landlords to raise rent after basic repairs and renovations, as they say it is being abused. They also take issue with what they describe as increasing harassment from their landlords in an effort to get them out of rent-stabilized apartments, and then increase rent.

“A housing law with too many loopholes and too few protections, a steady decline in the number of affordable housing units available citywide, and now a devastated economy, are about to create the most disastrous environment for New York City tenants in recent memory,” said Michelle O’Brien, Campaign Director of the New York Home Coalition.

-Lawrence Lessig, a champion of fair use copyright laws, wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times entitled “Copyright and Politics Don’t Mix”. In the piece, Mr. Lessig cites mainstream media outlets who are requesting their copyrighted materials be pulled from political ads in what he deems to be censorship over political campaigns.

Last year, Fox News ordered John McCain to stop using a clip of himself at a Fox News-moderated debate. Last month, Warner Music Group demanded YouTube remove an amateur video attacking Barack Obama that included its music, while NBC asked the Obama campaign to pull an ad that included some NBC News video with Tom Brokaw and Keith Olbermann. No doubt, these corporations are simply trying to avoid controversy or embarrassment, but by claiming infringement, they are effectively censoring political speech.

Senator McCain has taken a lead in responding to this copyright extremism. In a letter addressed to YouTube last week, the McCain campaign rightly criticized the Web site’s decision to remove work that is “clearly privileged under the fair use doctrine” of copyright law and called upon YouTube to be more protective of political speech by conducting a more extensive review of material before it gets taken down.