Author: mjpospis

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What does it mean to “engage in a call” for purposes of New York’s general cell phone driving statute, VTL § 1225-c(2)(a)? That section provides:  ”[N]o person shall operate a motor vehicle upon a public highway while using a mobile telephone to engage in a call while such vehicle is in motion.” Specifically, does using an iPhone’s “Siri” feature to…

Read More Activating “Siri” Feature Did Not Amount to Using Phone to “Engage in a Call” Within the Meaning of New York’s Cell Phone Driving Statute
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Last week in Taveras v. City of New York the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department permitted a drowning death lawsuit to continue. In June 2005, Luis Alberto Peralta (a.k.a. Luis A. Peralta Taveras) drowned while swimming at the public ocean beach at Coney Island in Brooklyn. (New York Post story here). The administrators of…

Read More Drowning Death Lawsuit Proceeds
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Below (and here) is the New York State Supreme Court (Manhattan) complaint filed on July 11, 2013 by Natalie Thorpe against Williams Lea, Inc. The relevant events occurred while plaintiff was placed by defendant at the Manhattan law firm Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. The suit claims that Tyrone Turner, defendant’s manager, made offensive sexual advances and comments…

Read More Erotic Poetry Sexual Harassment Suit
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Last week the Second Circuit held, in Palma v. NLRB, that undocumented aliens were not entitled to back pay following a determination that their employer engaged in unlawful employment practices in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The court based its decision on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v.…

Read More Second Circuit: No Back Pay For Undocumented Aliens For NLRA Violation
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The Second Circuit recently held, in Irizarry v. Catsimatidis, that John Catsimatidis – the chairman, president, and CEO of defendant Gristede’s Foods, Inc. (and, of course, New York City mayoral candidate) – was an “employer” within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and was hence individually liable for damages in a lawsuit…

Read More John Catsimatidis Held Individually Liable For FLSA Wage Violations
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Traffic lights are everywhere, and drivers typically take it for granted that they will work properly. But, like everything, there are no absolutes.  Furthermore, like any man-made object, they are subject to malfunctioning (see, for example, the below video, taken by me at the corner of Broadway and Murray). What then? Turns out that there’s…

Read More New York City Traffic Tidbit: Malfunctioning Traffic Signals
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Below is the complaint recently filed by an employee of Capital One Bank for sexual harassment under the New York State and City Human Rights Laws. Plaintiff claims that she was subjected to a sexually hostile work environment, that the company failed to take steps to stop it, and that she was fired for complaining about…

Read More Bankers (Allegedly) Behaving Badly
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A recent decision from the Southern District, Wiltshire v. Williams, reiterates that acquittal of criminal charges is not inconsistent with a finding of probable cause to arrest (which, if shown, is a complete defense to a false arrest claim): In the instant case, Plaintiff has contended that the dismissal of his criminal case precludes a finding…

Read More Probable Cause to Arrest May Be Found, Even After Acquittal
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A gender discrimination claim may lie where, for example, an employer takes an adverse action against an employee based on preconceived notions about women’s roles (so-called “gender stereotyping”). In the Eastern District’s recent decision in Apicella v. Rite Aid, the plaintiff was a pharmacist who claimed that defendant engaged in gender discrimination under Title VII, the Equal…

Read More Adverse Action Based on “Gender Stereotyping” Supports Discrimination Claim
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A story that has been making the rounds is of a 1962 NASA rejection letter to a hopeful female astronaut. It thanks the author for her “offer to go on a space mission” but advises her that “we have no existing program concerning women astronauts nor do we contemplate any such plan.” Maybe they couldn’t…

Read More NASA: No Girls Allowed
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