SCHOOL MONEY
The 13-year litigation over how New York City public schools will be funded ended yesterday. The New York Court of Appeals ruled that the state owes only a fraction of the money demanded for schools by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the papers report (we’re looking at the New York Sun.) The decision yesterday affirmed previous rulings that NYC has been unable to provide sound basic education but rejected lower court rulings that the city needs as much money as it says it does to remedy the problem. Judge Eugene Pigott, Jr., wrote for the 4-2 majority, and Chief Judge Judith Kaye wrote a dissent, concluding that “our trust was misplaced” in state officials “who still have failed to fund the New York City public schools adequately.” The issue now goes to Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer, who said he would move to quickly settle the lawsuit, which asked for between $4 billion and $6 billion a year in additional operating aid — the court mandated $1.93 billion instead. The plaintiffs said they won’t settle for less than $4.6 billion, which could mean the end isn’t in sight after all. But that will likely be a matter of politics, as the state Constitution's primacy here means no federal appeal is viable.

DEFENSE COUNSEL'S WIFE DIES
The wife of disbarred criminal defense lawyer Carlos Perez-Olivo, the who told police the couple were shot over the weekend in their car near their home in the Westchester suburb of Chappaqua, died yesterday. Perez-Olivo, who was disbarred three months ago for misappropriating bail money, said a man cut off the couple's car on a desolate stretch of road and opened fire. Police are pursuing various scenarios, according to The New York Times.

PATAKI IMPORTS ANOTHER
An upstate judge is going to the city — Supreme Court Judge Michael Kavanagh will fill the remaining vacancy in the Appellate Division, First Department. The New York Law Journal says Governor George Pataki “continued a controversial practice of reaching outside of the First Department in making his appointments” in tapping the Ulster County judge.

KATRINA JUSTICE
Little progress in returning the New Orleans court system to health after Hurricane Katrina, the Times reports. As many as 500 defendants, mostly in drug, theft, and assault cases, have been freed because of problems with evidence following the storm. The missing evidence — or missing witnesses in some cases — means more acquittals ordered by judges who say they can’t allow the cases to proceed. Frustrated prosecutors want the number of trials, down by two-thirds, back on track. “We can’t just tuck our tails between our legs and run just because it’s difficult,” one district attorney told the Times. The lack of planning before the hurricane is most staggering: Only about “10 percent of the hundreds of thousands of items of evidence had been sealed in plastic bags. The rest were in paper bags and scrap boxes holding clothes, guns and drugs, some of which disintegrated in the swirling waters.”