Four years ago, a jury found a Montessori school teacher guilty of having sex with a 13-year-old student back in the 1990s and guilty of bribing another underage student with whom she was having a relationship. Ever since then, Lina Sinha had been trying to get the convictions overturned. Yesterday, an appeals court gave her mixed news: They threw out the bribery conviction but upheld the sodomy conviction. more ›

In 2009, Claude Williams was awarded $1.8 million after allegedly being hit by a bus blowing a red light on E. 125th Street and Madison Avenue in 2003, but an appeals court threw out the verdict because Williams admitted that he hadn't looked to see if a bus was coming. Which prompted the court ruling to ask, "Who would step off the curb and into a bus after looking and seeing it coming?" Someone who wanted a $1.8 million payout? more ›

Federal judge Denny Chin, known for sentencing Bernard Madoff to 150 years in prison and his proclivity to Google rain hats, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a seat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The NY Times reports that this will make Chin the first Asian-American on the Appeals Court. Also: "His father worked as a cook in Chinese restaurants, while his mother worked as a seamstress in Chinatown garment factories. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School and Princeton, and obtained his law degree at Fordham University." Above the Law dressed up as Chin for Halloween. more ›

A building can be the target of a hate crime, not just a person, or so ruled an appelate court in the case of man who threw Molotov Cocktails at a Bronx synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur. Thirty-year-old Palestinian-American Mazin Assi is currently serving 5 to 15 for the crime he committed in 2000, with three other men. His lawyer said he should have been convicted only of attempted arson, but a judge decided the stricter charges apply. "It is self-evident that, although the target of the defendant's criminal conduct was a building, the true victims were the individuals of Jewish faith who were members of the synagogue,'' Judge Victoria Graffeo wrote in a ruling that "broadens the hate crimes act," according to the New York Law Journal. more ›

According to Councilman Bill de Blasio, the billboard industry is "synonymous with New York," and sure, billboards are always cause for a bit of fun and controversy in this city, whether depicting orgies or co-opting Woody Allen. But there have been some real game-changers lately—revenge billboards, billboards co-opting the President, and even an FBI's Most Wanted billboard. But with such rampant innovations spurring greater and greater feats of billboarding, it was inevitable those titans of advertising might find themselves falling toward the rough waters of appeals courts. more ›

After Governor Paterson's appointment of Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor was struck down again recently in a state appeals court, it appeared to be curtains for one of Paterson's most popular moves in an attempt to combat the state senate takeover this spring. But yesterday the state's top court gave the governor and Ravitch a glimmer of hope after they were unexpectedly tough on the state senator who took the appointment to court, Republican Minority Leader Dean Skelos. more ›

Well you had a good run, Richard Ravitch. After conflicting decisions from the courts in the days immediately following him signing his name as lieutenant governor in Peter Luger's blood, a state appeals panel in Brooklyn has once again struck down Governor Paterson's appointment of Ravitch as unconstitutional. In the panel's unanimous decision today, they said, "We have no quarrel with those who say that having a man of Mr. Ravitch’s stature, knowledge, and experience in the office of lieutenant governor would promote the public interest by providing help and counsel to the governor in difficult times and by bringing much-needed stability to the government of this State...(but) the governor’s purported appointment of Mr. Ravitch was unlawful because no provision of the Constitution or of any statute provides for the filling of the vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor other than by election." While the panel encouraged that Paterson take the fight all the way to the Court of Appeals, the Daily News says that is not likely since that court consists mostly of Pataki appointees. more ›

Sorry, poor elderly, disabled and/or blind legal residents of New York State; the Court of Appeals has ruled that you're still limited to $352 a month in public aid, about half of what lower courts ruled you should get. Of course, since many of you have died since lawyers filed the class action lawsuit in 2004, Tuesday's decision might not matter much. But thousands of poor legal immigrants desperate for public assistance are shattered by the 5-2 ruling, which held that the state had no duty to fill in for a federal program that ended benefits to most disabled legal immigrants in 1996. Since the early '50s, legal NY residents who fell on hard times were entitled to a higher level of aid if they were elderly, blind or disabled, but when D.C. took over the program in the '70s, the state supplemented the benefit to reach the higher level it had set earlier. That's over now. The NY Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance applauded the ruling, saying it could save the state and local governments $100-270 million. But in a strongly worded dissent, two judges wrote that "the majority today has turned its back on the history of New York’s commitment to protect its most fragile and vulnerable populations." more ›

An appeals court ruled that a doctor who had been missing before September 11, 2001 died during the World Trade Center attacks. The family of Dr. Sneha Anne Philip, last seen at Century 21 on September 10, had in courts for years trying to do so. more ›

The Supreme Court essentially upheld an Appeals Court ruling that said New York City must pay the private education of disabled students. The twist is that the students and their parents don't even need to try to see if the public school programs are adequate for them. more ›

A 1992 NY State Appeals Court ruling that we'll definitely keep in mind: Women have the right to go topless since men can show their chests whenever they want (like this guy). This equal opportunity decision wasn't something a police officer was cognizant of when he arrested Jill Coccaro, who was walking around topless in August 2005 (she was trying to cool off). more ›

The State Appeals Court has found that the NYC Transit Authority - the NYC division of the MTA - is responsible for maintaining subway exits and entrances. The thing is, the MTA doesn't even own the exits and entrances. Still, the court found that the NYCTA is liable for injuries that a woman suffered while falling down steps at the Columbus Circle station back in 1995. Here's an excerpt of the opinion:

In the case before us, the evidence at trial was sufficient to establish that the stairway in question was used primarily as a means of access to and from the subway. Therefore, defendants had a duty to maintain the stairway or to warn patrons of any dangerous condition. So imperative is the duty to provide a safe means of access to and from the subway that such duty may not be delegated to another. Thus, even if the responsibility to maintain the stairway resides in another entity, defendants may not avoid their responsibility "to at least provide against injury to its passengers by erecting such barricades, or giving such warning, as [would] guard against accidents" (Schlessinger, 49 Misc at 506).

Oh Governor Pataki, you can only screw New York City so much thanks to the State Appeals Court. As if his budget shortchanging the city wasn't bad enough, Pataki didn't comply with a previous court order to increase spending in city schools. Perhaps yesterday's decision by the Appellate Division will actually convince Pataki that it's time to pay up. It's the 2nd time that a court has said that New York State owes New York City at least $4.7 billion for its schools. The monies owed could be as high as $5.63 billion. But what's a few billion to Pataki. Maybe he can come and visit some schools and go over the math with the kids he's hosing. more ›

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The New York Court of Appeals ruled that New York State has been shortchanging New York City's ability to provide children "to the point of creating systemic failure in its schools and depriving students of their constitutional right to a decent education" as the Times puts it. Now the State has to figure out how much money to allocate to city schools, which then requires a reassessment of how much surburban schools should get. Newsday discusses the ruling and its impact on the suburban schools of Long Island. more ›