New York Law Blog

We’ve been talking about this frequently in the last few weeks, but according to today’s New York Times, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is planning to announce on Thursday that he will seek a third term, which is still currently against the law. Mr. Bloomberg believes that with the financial crisis facing our nation, his experience with Wall Street will go a long way to helping the city survive in this particularly difficult time. Some fear that changing of the law would not go over well with voters, who voted against the amendment in both 1993 and 1996, but many think the city council is ready to vote yes on the term limit law change.

The move represents an about-face for Mr. Bloomberg, who has repeatedly said he supports term limits and once called an effort to revise the law “disgusting.” He will apparently try to do so through legislation in the City Council, rather than the ballot box.

With his decision, Mr. Bloomberg is overruling the advice of this top three aides at City Hall — Edward Skyler, Patricia E. Harris and Kevin Sheekey — who have all told associates that they oppose a third term.

Those aides have told the mayor — at times forcefully — that any campaign to challenge the term limits law would look like an end run around voters, and could sully his strong legacy over the last eight years, according to people familiar with the conversations.

According to the Times, if Mayor Bloomberg did indeed win a third term, he’d be only the fourth New York City mayor to do so.

Something for the “I never thought I’d hear that!” category, lawsuits against New York City landlords are coming fast and furious for none other than bedbug infestations. For over 100 years (a 1908 case, Jacobs v. Morand stated that tenants must pay rent, regardless of vermin infestation), the bed bug law stated that the tenant was responsible for any infestation problems, but that all changed with a 2004 court case.

According to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which keeps track of complaints about bed bugs and issues violations against property owners who fail to exterminate them, there were 8,830 bed bug complaints in fiscal year 2008, which ended June 30, up from 1,839 in 2005. This year, the department issued 2,757 bed bug violations, up from 366 in 2005.

In New York City, landlords are responsible for getting rid of bed bugs in infested buildings and units and they must pay for extermination.

This was not always the case, but a turning point was a 2004 case, Ludlow Properties, LLC, vs. Young, in which Judge Cyril Bedford sided with a tenant who refused to pay rent for six months because of a persistent bed bug problem.

"Although bedbug are classified as vermin, they are unlike the more common situation of vermin such as mice and roaches, which, although offensive, do not have the effect on one’s life as bedbugs do, feeding upon one’s blood in hoards nightly turning what is supposed to be bed rest or sleep into a hellish experience," Judge Bedford wrote.

Proof of infestation origins are hard to prove and being called into question, but the issues are real and being heard in New York City courts frequently.

-Two men who were helping dismantle a tower crane have been charged with four violations of city construction codes stemming from the death of a worker after her fell over 40 stories to his death. The men have been accused of illegally cutting the safety guardrail on a platform that the worker fell from.

“Despite months and months of public pleas for construction safety, our investigators found glaring violations at a high-rise work site where a construction worker fell to his death,” Rose Gill Hearn, the Department of Investigation commissioner, said.

Robert LiMandri, the buildings commissioner-designate, said that the removal of the safety railing played a critical role in causing the accident, noting, “It was a shortcut gone terribly wrong that compromised rigging operations and put the lives of fellow workers in jeopardy.”

-A proposed federal bill aims to tighten security on electronic health records as well as giving financial incentives for doctors who use the system.

The bill would require notification when personal health information is breached and extend federal privacy laws to organizations that conduct business with providers. It would also require providers to receive patient consent to use or disclose protected information, according to a committee news release.

An amendment to the bill would require health information exchanges and other entities to comply with security rules included in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, in addition to the privacy rules included in the legislation, according to a summary of revisions to the bill.

-New findings show that over 90 percent of Long Island Rail Road workers have been allowed to collect disability as well as their pension plans after retirement. Federal officers have seized documents from the Long Island office of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board and are now investigating the situation and law loopholes.