Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Breaking News: Judge orders City to show cause for condemnation

Judge Madden, of New York State Supreme Court, has signed an order directing the City to show cause why her 2010 order dismissing WPU's Article 78 proceeding should not be vacated, due to the City's actions going forward with condemnation without having obtained approval for the proposed Van Wyck ramps.

Judge Madden rejected the City's arguments that she should only consider the procedural issue of whether the Eminent Domain Procedure Law provides the exclusive procedure for adjudicating WPU's new claim pertaining to the lack of approvals of the proposed Van Wyck ramps, and not the substantive environmental issues; the parties' briefing will consider both of those issues. The City will prepare a brief; WPU will reply; and Judge Madden will hear oral argument in open court on July 20 at 2:30 pm. If she decides to reopen the case after that argument, each side will have the opportunity to submit detailed technical affidavits. Today WPU's objective was to get a court-ordered schedule for arguing all of our issues, and WPU's attorney, Michael Gerrard, fully achieved that objective.

Ardizzone Signed Order to Show Cause