Posted on 12/26/2004 6:06:19 PM PST by wagglebee
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani left City Hall with a legacy as "America's Mayor" -- but he left something else behind: a whole slew of lawsuits costing the city big bucks.
In the three years since Michael R. Bloomberg succeeded Giuliani, the New York Times reports that the city has spent almost $2 million to settle lawsuits brought by residents and city workers who accused the Giuliani administration of running roughshod over their free speech or other constitutional rights.
Among them, the Times reports:
In 2002 the city settled with limousine driver James Schillaci for $290,000. He had sued because the very day he was quoted in a newspaper article about a red-light sting set up by the police in the Bronx, police arrived at his home to arrest him for a 13-year-old unpaid ticket. The next day, Giuliani obtained - illegally, Schillaci said - the record of his arrests from decades earlier and discussed it, inaccurately, at a news conference.
A correction worker charged that he was bypassed for promotion because he supported a Giuliani political opponent and that city investigators videotaped the guests arriving at his home for a political fund-raiser. The city paid him $325,000 this year but the city's lawyers argued they agreed to pay to make the best deal for the public and not because of any alleged wrongdoing by Giuliani or other officials.
Dantae Johnson of the Bronx has charged in a lawsuit that after he was shot by a police officer in May 1999, Giuliani and the then-police commissioner, Howard Safir, falsely described him as a criminal to justify the shooting. The officer was convicted of assault. The city denies responsibility.
Eric H. DeVarin III, an assistant deputy warden in the Correction Department, has claimed in a lawsuit that he was denied promotion because of a dispute with former police commissioner Bernard Kerik's former girlfriend. Kerik has said that is untrue.
The city paid $490,000 in February 2002 to Timothy Donovan, a police captain, and promoted him to settle his suit claiming that he was punished by police commissioner Howard Safir because he would not rewrite a sexual harassment investigation document to put certain senior chiefs in a more favorable light. "It was a case that Bloomberg quickly cleaned up," said Matthew Brinckerhoff, the lawyer for Mr. Donovan.
In March 2000, after Patrick Dorismond, a Times Square security guard, was shot to death in a confrontation with an undercover police officer, Giuliani responded to criticism of the shooting by releasing Mr. Dorismond's sealed juvenile record. In a wrongful-death suit against the city, his family cited Mr. Giuliani's release of the criminal records as part of a pattern of smearing people hurt by the police. The city paid $2.25 million to settle the suit in 2002.
According to the coming issue of the journal CityLaw a federal magistrate has said that an AIDS housing group can proceed with a suit to recover $35 million in government contracts that it claims to have lost as punishment for protests against Giuliani's policies. The city lawyers say the Giuliani administration had many sound reasons to stop doing business with the group, called Housing Works.
The Housing Works case is part of "a continuing saga of the policies and litigating tendencies of the Giuliani administration," Ross Sandler, director of the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School, which publishes CityLaw told the Times.
Speaking about the mounting total of cases directly involving senior officials in the Giuliani administration, Jeffrey D. Friedlander, the first assistant corporation counsel in the city's Law Department, told the Times "Decisions to settle cases involve questions of litigation judgment, and should not be taken as an acknowledgement of truth as to the validity of a plaintiff's argument - or the city's acceptance of that argument."
Moreover, says Michael D. Hess, the city's chief lawyer under Giuliani and now his partner in a private consulting firm, settlements often were preferable to risk a jury trial with a jury that could prove to be irrational or biased. Given that the city spends hundreds of millions on lawsuits, Hess told the Times: "Two million is nothing. Sadly, this is a drop in the bucket."
While the city is sued more than 20,000 times a year, The Times reported, cases have been rarely brought in which a mayor - or top City Hall aides - are accused of personally harming an individual. Even more rarely have they succeeded.
While Giuliani was widely applauded for his leadership after Sept. 11, questions continue to be raised about his judgement. In the months after Sept. 11 Giuliani was rebuffed in his attempt to suspend the 2001 Mayoral elections in an effort to prolong his stay in office.
In the wake of the Kerik fiasco, the Times report indicates the major media will continue to put a spotlight on Giuliani, touted as a possible 2008 Republican presidential candidate.
Gee. Disgruntled employees mad at the boss. What astonishing "news."
I agree, but the Kerik fiasco will haunt him for a long time.
2 million? How the horror. NYC spends that by the hour.
The New York Times is to journalism what a snuff film is to cinema.
No Republican could expect to serve in NY without this kind of BS. The surprise, if any, is that he was elected at all.
"Given that the city spends hundreds of millions on lawsuits, Hess told the Times: "Two million is nothing. Sadly, this is a drop in the bucket...(W)hile the city is sued more than 20,000 times a year, The Times reported..."
New Yorkers suing is about as common as taking the subway.
I'll gladly take the tradeoff of a few disgruntled employees vs. the wonderful job Rudy did taking back the city from the inmates.
what you do not understand is that the law firms bringing these plantiffs cases, probably have an "in" with Bloomberg's corporation council legal teams. they agree to settle these cases not because they have merit (some may), but because its their "buddies" on the plantiff side that are getting the fees - at taxpayer expense.
That wouldn't surprise me at all.
There is some truth to this. Otherwise, the city wouldn't be settling with them. I know the lawyers who are on the city payroll. They are not the ones who crumble under pressure.
Not so. We have the toughest defense lawyers in the country working for NYC, they always fight to the bitter end. Otherwise, the city would really be broke.
I suspect that the other side may have a good case if they're willing to settle.
and I will also add - this same practices goes on in every municipality in the US - every state, city and county. sue the government for something, hire a lawyer that is friendly with the municipalities lawyers - your chances of getting a settlement are much greater. same with a traffic ticket - hire a lwyer to fight it who "knows the right people" at the assistant DA's office, your chances of getting the ticket reduced or dismissed in court is far greater.
that's the game.
There are a whole lot of jurors who would love to sock it to Rudy and NYC.
Good decision to settle and not put him on the stand, although it would be tabloid heaven.
That's called damage control.
no way, I know some of them. and the sad part is, out here in Nassau County - the new Democratic county executive is bringing alot of former NYC lawyers out here to the county attorney's office - and you see the same pattern emerging here with regards to which firms now "get settlements" when they sue the county.
by the way, one of the biggest "winner" cases - defective road design. get into almost any kind of car accident where there are injuries, they can find some issue with the design of the road to bring the county or town into the case. and those cases settle, and plantiffs win money. what do you think is keeping all these lawyers employed?
Good news - thanks for helping out this criminal.
What do you mean by "helping out this criminal?"
Say what you want-- I hated NYC before Guiliani and it became a wonderful place to visit again after he became mayor... sometimes you have to do the unpopular things when you are in a place of power and tee off the few for the common good of the majority... he may be a RINO as so many here love to call him, but I like him. I'm not certain he believe deep down in abortion; would be interesting to have a conversation with him.
However, I do not want Guiliani to be the standard bearer for the GOP. Bush was given mandates in 2002 and again last month. These are mandates for the conservative agenda; and unfortunately, Rudy Guiliani is at serious odds with significant portions of this agenda.
In the meantime Hillary is already raising money and all but campaigning. What I fear is we will be so intent on an ultra-conservative that "we'll" miss the forest for the trees and she'll win... now THAT would be a disaster of true proportions.
So I think the key is for Guiliani to run for senate in 2006. If he wins, Hitlery is out of the running for 2008. And if he loses (and he is more popular in NY than she is), would the GOP really want him in 2008?
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