CDP utilizes litigation as a means of supporting grassroots organizing efforts in New York City. We work together with our community partners to develop litigation that arises out of the issues facing their low-income constituents and members. In this way, our litigation is both innovative and truly based in the desires, priorities, needs and goals of the communities we serve. In addition, this litigation is always fully integrated into the other strategies we use on behalf of our clients – for instance, a survey by CDP's Research and Policy division on housing conditions can lead to litigation against negligent landlords to compel them to perform needed repairs, and both of these strategies can be used by community groups to organize and galvanize tenant associations. By working closely with our client groups to develop litigation in a way that supports their community efforts, we are able to strengthen those efforts and make them more effective and more powerful.
CDP's litigation work focuses on three areas of critical importance to our client groups: workers' rights, housing advocacy and civil rights. Below are examples of our work in these areas; please visit our get help page for information on how to contact us for litigation-related assistance.
Tenants' Rights
On April 1, 2010, almost 30 Bronx tenants filed a suit with attorneys from the Urban Justice Center, seeking to have an independent administrator appointed to take over their building at 2710 Bainbridge Avenue. The building has some of the worst conditions of any property in the city and is controlled by Frank Palazzolo, who just this month made the Village Voice's annual list of the city's 10 worst landlords. The property currently has almost 1000 open housing code violations and was placed into NYC HPD's Alternative Enforcement Program in November 2008, reserved for the 200 buildings each year that the City determines have the most severe housing code violations.
"Bronx tenants sue to oust their landlord,"
Crain's New York Business,
April 1, 2010
A complaint filed by CDP and many tenants at 1600 Sedgwick Avenue seeking to have the New York State Public Service Commission investigate the recent conversion of the tenants' building to electrical utility submetering. The complaint alleges that tenants have received unusually high electrical bills and that the landlord, Riverview Redevelopment Co. LP, has failed to adhere to the procedural and substantive requirements of the Home Energy Fair Practices Act (HEFPA).
Workers' Rights
CDP works with grassroots organizing groups and represents members of these groups in litigation to combat fair wage and hour violations, workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliatory discharge. Plaintiffs in these cases include domestic workers, restaurant workers, spa workers and garment factory workers. The plaintiffs are members of such grassroots groups as Domestic Workers United and Chinese Staff and Workers Association. In this advocacy, we have secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost wages for our clients. Examples of our recent litigation work in this area include:
Lin, et al. v. Great Rose Fashion, Inc., et al.
The Community Development Project is representing a group of workers in a federal lawsuit against a Long Island City garment factory. The suit alleges that the workers often were required to work very long work weeks – sometimes more than 100 hours per week – while being paid below the minimum wage and not receiving any overtime pay. In addition, the workers allege that they were retaliated against, and ultimately fired, when the employers found out about the lawsuit.
Fernandez et al. v. Flor de Mayo et al.
The Community Development Project, together with the law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell, represents four delivery workers suing the Flor De Mayo Restaurant for significant minimum wage and overtime violations. The Complaint, filed July 20, 2007 in Federal Court, alleges that the workers routinely worked approximately 70 hours per week, yet received weekly salaries of as little as $90, a rate equivalent to approximately $1.25 per hour.
Gui Ming Li, et. al., v. 2875 Restaurant Inc., et. al.
Amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court for the case of Long Island Care at Home, Ltd, et. al., v. Evelyn Coke
Hai Ming Lu, et al., v. Jing Fong Restaurant, et al.
A suit against a Chinatown restaurant brought on behalf of a group of waiters who allege that the restaurant has been retaining part of their tips, failing to pay the minimum wage, and failing to pay legally-mandated overtime.
Viada, et al., v. Osaka Health Spa, Inc., et al.
A suit against two luxury midtown-Manhattan spas brought on behalf of employees who allege failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, tip stealing, and hostile work environment.
Housing Preservation
CDP represents tenant associations organized by community-based organizations in litigation to combat landlord abandonment, and correct such housing conditions as lead paint, inadequate heat and hot water, inadequate security, faulty plumbing, and unsafe elevators and staircases. In this advocacy we have been able to obtain millions of dollars worth of repairs in low-income housing throughout New York City. The following is an example of our recent litigation work in this area:
3569 DeKalb Avenue Tenant Association v. Quest Property Management
This lawsuit on behalf of a tenant association in the Bronx seeks a court-appointed administrator for the building owner's alleged failure to make necessary repairs.
Defending the Right to Organize
The partner organizations with which CDP routinely works engage in grassroots organizing efforts to improve the lives of the communities they serve. Sometimes, the targets of these groups' organizing efforts try to thwart such efforts by bringing litigation against the groups. CDP works to defend these groups' activities and their right to organize their communities.
Sheridan, et al., v. Carter, et al.
In this case, CDP attorneys, together with pro bono counsel from Weil, Gotshal and Manges, LLP, represent Domestic Workers United (DWU) in an action brought by an employer of a domestic worker for DWU's advocacy on behalf of that worker. In a decision issued in June 2006, State Supreme Court Justice Anthony Parga dismissed all claims against DWU.
New Line Realty V Corp., et al., v. United Committees of University Heights, et al.
In this action, brought by several landlord corporations, the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition ("the Coalition") was sued for engaging in organizing in those landlords' buildings. In a decision issued in June 2006, Bronx Supreme Court Justice Sally Manzanet ruled that the Coalition can file counter-claims against the five landlord corporations under NY State's anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) law aimed at preventing harassing lawsuits that hinder organizing efforts. NWBCCC was attempting to organize tenants in the corporations' buildings to call attention to substandard housing conditions and press for much-needed repairs. CDP's co-counsel in this matter is Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, PC.
Pro Bono Co-Counsel
CDP would like to gratefully acknowledge the many law firms that have served as co-counsel and donated countless pro bono hours in support of our legal work, including:
- Alterman & Boop, LLP
- Archer, Byington, Glennon & Levine LLP
- Arnold & Porter LLP
- Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
- Chadbourne & Parke LLP
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
- Clifford Chance US LLP
- Covington & Burling LLP
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
- Dechert LLP
- Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP
- DLA Piper
- Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC
- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
- Kaye Scholer LLP
- Koob & Magoolaghan
- Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
- Latham & Watkins LLP
- Linklaters LLP
- Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
- Morrison & Foerster LLP
- O'Melveny & Myers LLP
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
- Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
- Proskauer Rose LLP
- Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP
- Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
- Seward & Kissel LLP
- Shearman & Sterling LLP
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates
- Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
- Troutman Sanders LLP
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
