Elizabeth M. Lacey Trust v. Van Ridge Farms, Cayuga County Supreme Court (2018) – Dairy agribusiness sued neighboring family-owned farm for $1 Million, claiming a ten-year lease. The Court granted our motion to throw out the agribusiness’ lawsuit, and we later obtained a large financial settlement on claims for trespass and interference with contract.
Link: https://auburnpub.com/news/local/scipio-center-farm-landowner-settle-lawsuit/article_7bf62c58-c7c3-5fd3-8b23-8e8e347ea012.html
Board of Trustees of Village of Groton v. Pirro, 152 AD3d 149 (New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, 3rd Dep’t, June 15, 2017) – In a first-of-its-kind decision, the appellate court unanimously overturned a village nuisance abatement law that would have held my landowner client financially responsible for unproven claims of tenant and guest misconduct, holding that the law violated the tenants’ First Amendment rights. The village law was modeled on a New York City ordinance that had been used to target owners since the 1970s, and that had been copied by hundreds of jurisdictions throughout the country.
Link: https://ithacavoice.com/2017/06/groton-property-law-found-unconstitutional-appellate-court-hearing/
Harrison v. Westview Partners, LLC, 79 AD3d 1198 (New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department 2010) – Appellate court unanimously rejected a developer’s attempts to make neighboring residents pay for the water supply infrastructure for the entire development.
Shirley Turner Kinge v. State of New York, 79 AD3d 1473 (New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, December 23, 2010). Appellate court upheld Court of Claims’ $250,000 award to a woman who was framed as the participant in a family of four’s 1989 murder. I had covered the case as a reporter in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Featured in Investigation Discovery channel’s documentary “Village of the Damned” (2017), in which I am interviewed.
Link: https://ithacavoice.com/2015/09/shirley-kinge-wrongfully-convicted-after-1989-murders-dies-at-80/
ALLEN & MAINES 