New York Lawyers Sue Atty General and Comptroller Over Pension Probe

If you live in New York, you must be aware of the alleged pension scam where by several lawyers were put on the payroll of school districts in order to be eligible for a public pension. The only problem is that they did not work for the school district. New York Newsday has extensively reported on this issue. One such article is available here. 

Now, a May 16, 2008 New York Law Journal article entitled Lawyers Fight Back Over Pension Probe is reporting that some of the lawyers, in turn, have sued the AG and the Comptroller by claiming that they are acting in excess of their jurisdiction and that their pension plans vested under the NYS constitution. There 52 page complaint is available here. As the article states:

Their suit contends that the actions of Mr. Cuomo and Mr. DiNapoli "are contrary to the law, threaten to, and in some cases already have, improperly deprived or divest 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."

The action, Swergold v. Cuomo, 3897-08, seeks a declaratory judgment prohibiting Mr. Cuomo and Mr. DiNapoli from investigating the pension fund and striking the names of members they deem ineligible for benefits. It also asks that class action status be granted to the plaintiffs and other attorneys who may face a challenge to their public pension eligibility based on the part-time work they performed for government entities.

The suit was filed in Albany Supreme Court.

This lawsuit does not directly involve many of the named attorneys uncovered by Newsday. However, the underlying investigations were likely caused by those incidents which these plaintiffs complain of. Look for the suit to go no where.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

[via google images, esl.vc.ca]