Judicial Reports: LexPress: I'm no Contractor, Mr. Cuomo

By Jesse Sunenblick
jsunenblick@judicialstudies.com
Posted: 05-16-08 

Attorneys in the sights of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for receiving public pension benefits strike back with a lawsuit. In other news, a judge rules the Red Cross can license the logo it shares with Johnson & Johnson for commercial use.

CHECK RAISE
Lawyers outraged by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s assault on public pension benefits filed a lawsuit yesterday in Albany Supreme Court. The Albany Times Union has the story. The lawsuit — which seeks a declaratory judgment stopping Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli from stripping the benefits from lawyers who did work for school districts and other government entities, which Cuomo calls a “politically motivated gambit”  — alleges the investigation is “contrary to the law, threatens to, and in some cases already has, improperly deprived or divested individuals of contract and property rights recognized and protected by the New York State Constitution and statute, and trammels the rights granted individuals by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.” It also says the lawyers receiving the benefits could, theoretically, qualify as employees of the municipalities they served, rather than independent contractors. “As state comptroller, I have the legal authority and the fiscal responsibility to state taxpayers and to the members of the Retirement System to make sure that only eligible employees receive state pension benefits,” said DiNapoli. “That authority will not be threatened by lawyers filing lawsuits.”

RED CROSS FOR GREEN  
Southern District Judge Jed S. Rakoff yesterday threw out most of Johnson & Johnson’s trademark case against the American Red Cross, reports The New York Times. The two have amicably shared an identical business slogan — a Greek red cross against a white background — since 1895. But Johnson & Johnson sued after the Red Cross began licensing the symbol to other companies for use on commercial items as part of the organization’s fund-raising program. “The fact that the ultimate purpose of these licensing activities is a ‘charitable purpose’ — i.e. to raise funds that A.R.C., a not-for-profit organization, can utilize for its charitable endeavors — only further emphasizes their legitimacy,” Rakoff wrote. “We have been vindicated by the court on the major issues,” said the Red Cross’s acting chief executive, Mary S. Elcano. “We want them to get rid of this case. It’s been meritless from the very beginning.”

A NOTE AND A TOY GUN
Steven Bertuglia, the former crack addict who cut a swath through the New York banking industry with a series of robberies during a three-month span last year, has pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from eight robberies before Eastern District Judge Jack Weinstein. The Daily News has the story. “He wants to plead guilty to all of them,” said Peter Kirchheimer, chief of the federal defenders office in Brooklyn. “We have a verbal agreement with local prosecutors in New Jersey and Connecticut that they will not prosecute him.” Bertuglia faces 10 years in prison under the plea agreement.

DOG DAY AFTERNOON 
Finally, two judges yesterday heard arguments in cases involving rogue dogs, but the circumstances couldn’t have been more different. While Rensselaer County Judge Robert Jacon must decide the fate of a three-year-old male Rottweiler that nearly ripped off an 11-year-old girl’s scalp, Newsday reports that Acting Suffolk County Supreme Court Judge Joan Genchi ruled that 56 dogs removed from a “deplorable” East Northport home by county animal welfare officials cannot be placed for adoption as prosecutors decide whether to bring charges against their owner. Irene Monroig says she was not shown a warrant authorizing officials to enter her home and remove the animals, and contends she is a well-known animal lover in the town. ”My possession of the aforesaid dogs was not part of a ‘puppy mill,’” Monroig said, “but was an animal rescue endeavor which I have been engaged in at this same location for more than 45 years.”

 

Posted by Jesse on May 16, 2008 08:55 AM to Judicial Reports