New York City's rent stabilization law has long permitted a building's owner to recover possession of an apartment when the owner seeks to use the apartment as a primary residence for himself or members of his immediate family. Suppose, however, an owner seeks to convert an entire apartment building to single-family use. May the owner refuse to renew the leases of multiple rent-stabilized tenants? In a decision certain to be appealed, a Manhattan Supreme Court justice has held that the answer is no ' unless the landlord seeks and obtains approval from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR).
The impact of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) on the power of local zoning authorities has been the subject of much concern across the country. In New York, the primary focus of attention has been on efforts by the Village of Mamaroneck to thwart the expansion plans of the Westchester Day School (WDS), which has operated a Jewish day school in a residential neighborhood for more than 50 years. The latest chapter in the saga is an opinion by Judge Conner of the Southern District ordering the Mamaroneck Zoning Board of Appeals to approve the Day School's special permit application. The opinion is noteworthy on two fronts: first, for its broad construction of 'religious exercise,' and second for its treatment of the compelling government interests that might justify placing a substantial burden on religious exercise.
With trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.
“Baseball arbitration” refers to the process used in Major League Baseball in which if an eligible player's representative and the club ownership cannot reach a compensation agreement through negotiation, each party enters a final submission and during a formal hearing each side — player and management — presents its case and then the designated panel of arbitrators chooses one of the salary bids with no other result being allowed. This method has become increasingly popular even beyond the sport of baseball.
Insiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
While the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.
