As you may know, we sort of adore Courtney Love, so we're happy to hear that she will not be evicted from her Manhattan townhouse. Late last year the owner of Love's West Village townhouse, Donna Lyon, claimed the rocker fell behind on rent, damaged property, and altered the appearance of the home. Now TMZ has learned that a judge just tossed the case out, "because it turns out Courtney did exactly what a good tenant is supposed to do—pay her rent." more ›

Sure, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff has overseen some big cases, but has any been as important as Arm & Hammer v. Clorox: Battle of the Kitty Litters? Rakoff wrote, " The court agrees with [Arm & Hammer]'s expert that it is highly implausible that eleven panelists would stick their noses in jars of [cat] excrement and report forty-four independent times that they smelled nothing unpleasant." more ›

The thousands of police and fire call boxes that are sprinkled across our fair metropolis are not going anywhere. Though the city would really, really, really like to get rid of the 14,500 boxes around town (and save a few million bucks) a judge yesterday denied a motion to let the city take them down. Besides being a win for the deaf, this is also good news for those without cellphones and fans of non-Cemusa-branded street adornments! more ›

Prisoners do not have a constitutional right to daily matzoh and weekly grape juice, a federal judge has ruled. Even if they ask really nicely! The decision from U.S. Southern District Judge Shira Scheindlin came in response to a suit brought forth by a man named Christopher Henry, who is serving time on Rikers for first-degree sodomy. more ›

A woman has been fighting for the right to keep her teacup Yorkshire terrier with her at her Queens condo, after the Village View Condominium board tried to evict the 4-pound-pup (and spent $100K doing so!). Last year the Queens Supreme Court ruled the board had the right to ban pets, but the Appellate Division rejected their ruling this week, according to the Daily News. more ›

It's been over four years since daredevil Jeb Corliss attempted to parachute off the Empire State Building. Last year he was sentenced to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service, and yesterday a ruling was made public that has banned him from the landmark for life! more ›

A federal judge rejected former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate's attempt to block his expulsion, clearing the way for a March 16 special election to decide who will hold his now-vacant seat. In a 24-page ruling, Judge William Pauley III wrote: "The question of who should represent the 13th Senatorial District is one for the voters, not this court." more ›

A federal judge ruled today that the NYPD did not violate the Constitution by requiring cyclists to file for parade permits when riding in groups of 50 or more. Two years ago, the NYPD began enforcing the controversial new rule, which gave legal legitimacy to a police crackdown on the monthly Critical Mass bicycle rides in Manhattan, which have been a source of tension between cyclists and cops ever since the Republican convention in 2004. more ›

For hundreds of transgender people trying to establish new identities, Manhattan courts have played a crucial role. Nearly 400 transgender people have sought and been granted name changes either from male to female, female to male or ambiguous, making New York a name change capital of the country. They've enlisted the help of city advocates who specialize in the emerging field of transgender law—now the network is almost 200 lawyers strong. more ›

A judge has refused to throw out the criminal case against a TV producer who is accused of trying to blackmail David Letterman. Robert "Joe" Halderman, the former CBS News producer, had allegedly demanded $2 million from Letterman in exchange for keeping quiet about a film script that dramatized Letterman's affairs with staffers. A lawyer for Halderman had argued that "his client simply had valuable information and wanted to get paid for it." In ruling against Halderman, Justice Charles Solomon wrote, "Defendant argues that the statute is overbroad as it applies to him because he has a constitutionally protected right to write a book or screenplay about a public figure. Since the defendant is not being prosecuted for authoring either a book or a screenplay, his constitutional right to free speech is not been impacted." more ›

The justice system wants to save you the heartbreak of meeting the man of your dreams... and having him tell you he's, like, sort of into kiddie porn. Ignorance is bliss? The NY Post reports that 51-year-old Lamont Reeves got himself 40 months behind bars after being busted for possessing three DVDs of the sickening genre and stealing $100K in Social Security payments sent to his dead father. And ladies, he's single! more ›

If you've ever tried to fight a ticket handed to you by a cop in the subway system, you'll be familiar with the "hearings" held by the NYC Transit Adjudication Bureau (TAB), during which you waste half your day in Brooklyn waiting to plead your case before a bored bureaucrat in a small room with a tape recorder. These typically anticlimactic hearings are closed to the public, unless the accused consents to an observer’s presence. Naturally, the NYCLU opposes these closed doors, because they "deprive the public of information about the fairness of the hearing process and accused transit riders of an understanding of the adjudication process." more ›

The judge who convicted NY1 political anchor Dominic Carter of attempted assault for "punching, choking, and kicking" his wife, ruled that his spouse's conflicting testimony blaming a day laborer for the attack was "preposterous." more ›

Yesterday one ebullient Stuyvesant Town tenant said he expected his market-rate apartment to revert back to rent-regulated rent levels "immediately," now that the state's highest court has ruled that property owner Tishman Speyer improperly raised rents while also receiving tax breaks from the city. But tenants are almost definitely in store for more legal foot-dragging from Tishman Speyer, which could be liable for some $200 million in damages. After fighting off the tenants' lawsuit for years, Tishman Speyer isn't just going to roll over, especially since the company is at high risk of default on some $4.4 billion in loans. Every million counts! more ›

Yesterday the state's highest court ruled that it was illegal for Tishman Speyer to raise rents at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village beyond certain set levels while also receiving tax breaks from the city for major renovations. Now landlords are afraid the ruling will impact their ability to flip rent-regulated apartments into luxury units. Ed Kalikow, whose family owns 2,000 apartments in town, tells the Times, "It's terrible for the industry. A lot of people bought property with the thought that they would get the rents up. People made decisions on that. Banks made loans. This decision is another nail in the coffin." There is not a violin on Earth tiny enough to play at that funeral! more ›

Someone slipped the 44-page ruling in the Jeremy Piven sushi saga to the Times, and it's a must-read for the Piven completist. You'll recall (because we wouldn't let you forget) that last December the Smokin' Aces star abruptly quit the Broadway production of Speed-the-Plow, claiming that excessive seafood consumption—not excessive partying—had left him exhausted with "dangerously high" mercury levels. But we never found out exactly what unfolded during the emotional, three-day arbitration hearing in June. Until now. more ›

Yesterday a federal judge threw out a cookbook author's plagiarism lawsuit against Jessica Seinfeld, but left open claims of defamation against Jerry. It's outrageous, egregious, preposterous! You'll recall that back in 2007, "Sneaky Chef" author Missy Chase Lapine sued Jessica Seinfeld because her hit book "Deceptively Simple" contained striking similarities to Lapine's book—which was rejected twice by HarperCollins, the publisher that later bought Seinfeld's book and got her on Oprah to promote it. Then, appearing on Letterman, Jerry tore into Lapine on air, calling her a "wacko" and noting that "if you read history, many of the three-name people do become assassins. Mark David Chapman. And you know, James Earl Ray. So that's my concern." So Lapine slapped the comic with a defamation lawsuit, which is still pending. Lapine's lawyer, Howard Miller, told reports yesterday that his client would appeal the copyright ruling and pursue the defamation claim: "Her young daughter came home from school and said, 'Mom, what is an assassin?' That's not helpful. That can't just be excused as a joke." But maybe that's just how funny-boy Seinfeld gets his kicks—him and his good-time buddies. 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 ›

Yesterday a federal judge ruled against a coalition of billboard owners trying to overturn a 2001 city zoning resolution that restricts advertising near highways and implements tougher permitting procedures. A giant billboard for Platinum Gentleman's Club is just one recent example of advertising outraging a community, and lawyers for the city hailed the ruling for "minimizing visual clutter, preserving neighborhood character and reducing unnecessary distractions to drivers on its major roadways." Clear Channel Outdoor and other sign owners had chafed at the zoning regulations, but the Buildings Department has been slow to enforce the changes, and has been criticized for a faulty approach to everything from crane safety to building inspections. But with the city strapped for revenue, we may see the department emboldened by yesterday's ruling, and one illegal billboard near Astor Place has already incurred almost $1 million in fines. (Whether the offendors will ever pay up is another question.) more ›

A State Appellate Court gave Bruce Ratner's embattled Brooklyn development plans a big boost yesterday, ruling that an environmental impact review conducted by the Empire State Development Corporation [ESDC] was properly completed. Opponents of the multi-billion dollar project, which in its first phase would build a basketball stadium and two residential towers, argue that Ratner exerted "inappropriate influence" over the ESDC and disagree with the assessment that property seized for the development was blighted. The Brooklyn Paper notes that real-estate values were in fact rising in the area when the project was unveiled, and yesterday one of the judges wrote a separate opinion disagreeing with the blight finding, opining that the ESDC was "ultimately being used as a tool of the developer to displace and destroy neighborhoods that are 'underutilized.' " Opponents will ask the Court of Appeals to review the ruling. And on Monday oral arguments were heard in a second lawsuit challenging the state’s use of eminent domain; that ruling is expected this spring. more ›

Late last month, architect Frank Gehry dismissed more than two dozen staffers working on designs for the embattled Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, the Wall Street Journal reports. The terminations came despite the fact that most of the proposed $4.2 billion project—which would include a Nets basketball arena, office towers and thousands of apartments—has not been designed, as Develop Don't Destroy points out. Both Gehry Partners LLP and Forest City Ratner, the company behind the project, declined to comment. But earlier this month Forest City abruptly stopped work at the site, and they don't even have the $100 million to buy the Vanderbilt Rail Yard from the MTA. In a thorough article in this week's Observer, the venture is viewed as being on the verge of "collapse," and Bruce Ratner "seems to be rushing to patch a leaky dam." Ratner may clear the last of his legal hurdles next year, but it's unclear if he'll have the financing to move forward in this current economy. more ›

In a striking reversal, developer Bruce Ratner has halted work at a location that is integral to his controversial $4.2 billion plan to build a Nets basketball arena, office towers and thousands of apartments in Brooklyn. Ratner has previously insisted that work would continue despite lawsuits attempting to stop the project, even vowing to break ground on the stadium this month. Now a spokesman for his comany, Forest City Ratner, tells the Daily News that "preliminary construction" at the MTA-owned Vanderbilt Rail Yards is being put on hold. more ›

A Manhattan Supreme Court Justice has delivered another defeat to a developer's long-delayed plan to turn a century-old school in the East Village into a massive dormitory. You may recall the heated controversy surrounding developer Gregg Singer's plans to build a 19-story university dorm where a five-story school on East 9th Street stands—the school, finished in 1906 and abandoned by the Department of Education in the '70s, had been revived as the vibrant Charas community arts center. more ›

Two years after the IRS proposed tightening rules governing the use of tax-exempt bonds, officials have finally issued a ruling that comes as a huge relief to developer and Nets' owner Bruce Ratner, who has been counting on raising up to $800 million in tax-exempt bonds to pay for a new Brooklyn arena. Though the IRS ruling limits the way tax-exempt bonds can be used in the future, the regulation doesn't apply to "certain projects substantially in progress." That includes not just the Nets arena, but also the new Yankees and Mets stadiums, which are being built with more than $1 billion in tax-exempt bonds and will now take advantage of the ruling to issue more bonds, according to the Times. more ›

Justice was meted out swiftly yesterday in the case of Pfizer vs. the Long Island Viagra enthusiast who gets his kicks cruising around Manhattan with a 25-foot decommissioned missile emblazoned with the priceless message 'Viva Viagra.' Yesterday we learned that the man, 48-year-old Arye Sachs, had no trouble getting the missile in and out of Manhattan through the tunnels because police were just so tickled by the gag. Not amused, of course, were the suits at Pfizer who, instead dismissing their overpaid marketing staff and hiring the obviously inspired Sachs, unleashed the lawyers. Now Sachs has to find a way to fill the empty hours that doesn't involve promoting a pharmaceutical company. And it gets worse—the humorless judge also ordered Sachs to abandon his hilarious plan to distribute politically-themed Viagra condoms. What's next—no more sidesplitting Viagra joke emails??? more ›

A judge has thrown out an insurance broker's lawsuit against AMC Lincoln Square Cinema over a fractured tooth he incurred from an unpopped kernel in a tub of popcorn. 46-year-old Steve Kaplan broke the tooth last year during a screening of Superbad, and wanted the theater to cover the cost of his $1,250 in dental work. Judge Matthew Cooper tossed out the claim yesterday, having some fun in the process: "Until such time as the same bioengineers who brought us seedless watermelon are able to develop a new strain of popping corn where every kernel is guaranteed to pop, we will just have to accept partially popped popcorn as part and parcel of the popcorn-popping process. [Or] resist the urge to devour the bag by the handful in favor of more cautious nibbling by the piece." more ›

Infamously litigious Ladies' Night foe Roy Den Hollander got bounced from federal court yesterday by judge Miriam Cedarbaum, who rejected his lawsuit against several nightclubs for discriminating against men with their discounts for females. Hollander denounced Cederbaum as "a feminist" and told the Daily News that "this lawsuit would have put an end to guys financially subsidizing girls to party at nightclubs." The judge ruled that private clubs can charge as much as they want and dismissed Hollander's claim that a precedent was set in the '60s when two women successfully sued McSorley's after being denied alcohol. (One Daily News commenter theorizes that Den Hollander simply "hates not being a woman. He wants to be in the bars with all men to get his grease on.") His lawsuit against Columbia for offering women's study courses is still pending. more ›

Developer Bruce Ratner's plan to build an office tower, 15 apartment buildings and a basketball arena for the Nets in Brooklyn as suffered another setback after a state Appellate Court refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by nine property owners in the footprint of the project who are challenging the use of eminent domain. Earlier this month, Ratner had vowed to finally break ground in December, despite formidable opposition from community groups and some elected officials. more ›

Yesterday a Manhattan judge ruled that socialite Tricia Walsh-Smith, the scorned and furious wife of Philip Smith, could continue slandering her husband via YouTube as long as she stopped filming the series in the luxury apartment Smith owns. The 77-year-old president of the Shubert organization is in the midst of a nasty divorce proceeding against Walsh-Smith and, per their prenuptial agreement, is trying to evict her from the Park Avenue residence. more ›

A federal appeals judge has issued a delay on enforcement of the new law that would require NYC restaurants with 15 or more establishments nationwide to prominently display calorie information for all foods and beverages. The rules had been scheduled to take effect on Saturday; the new delay will last until Tuesday, when the three-member appeals court will formally consider an even longer delay. more ›