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Home > City Departments > Law Department > High Profile Matters

High Profile Matters

Following our public service philosophy, the Law Department  has undertaken an affirmative approach in either strongly litigating matters important to our city or aggressively moving cases to a settlement posture.  We are proud to share the following list of high profile matters this office has been handling.

HICKORY WOODS

Residents  of the “Hickory Woods” neighborhood sued for damages for personal injuries and property damages resulting from alleged contamination in connection with steelmaking operations at a site formerly owned and/or operated by The Hanna Furnace Corporation, Donner-Hanna Coke Corporation, National Steel Corporation and LTV Steel Company, Inc., located adjacent to or near the plaintiffs’ residences. The lawsuits had been on-going for 8 years.  In 2007, under Mayor Brown’s direction, Corporation Counsel’s office took a lead position in aggressively pursuing settlement of this historic claim.

Through this office’s efforts and the presiding judge’s assistance, settlement was reached that ended the  four lawsuits against the City of Buffalo and BURA, brought by or on behalf of 227 plaintiffs who presently or formerly resided in the Hickory Woods neighborhood. 


City of Buffalo vs. ABN Amro et al

In this landmark case, the City of Buffalo is holding more than forty lending institutions accountable for their part in the real property neglect and abandonment that has caused blight and decrease in property values within our city borders. We are alleging that the lending institutions were commencing foreclosure proceedings against their  borrowers/homeowners and once the homeowners abandoned their dwelling, the lenders allowed the structures to fall into decay and cause all related issues such as lowering property values, criminal activities and sometimes arsons.  We have managed to settle with some of the defendants and the case continues in State Supreme Court.


In Rem 41- Stay of Foreclosure Agreements

In the year 2007, the In-Rem division supervised and coordinated the implementation of the New Notice Requirements of Section 1125 of the New York State Real property Tax Law (RPTL), following the Jones v. Flowers, decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006.  This warranted the sending out of 55,000 pieces of mail/legal notices to owners and lien holders involved in In-Rem No. 41, foreclosure proceedings.
 
This Division also coordinated, supervised and processed four thousand six hundred and twenty-nine (4,629) title/stub searches prepared by eleven (11) vendors/title companies retained by the City for the properties in the In-Rem foreclosure for delinquent taxes, user fee, sewer and water charge liens.
 
Under the direction of Mayor Brown, the Division led the effort to assist four hundred seventy-seven (477) Pro se, property owners who are ineligible to secure legal assistance on their own or from other legal agencies to secure Court Order stay of sale of their property at the Erie County Courthouse on October 17th, 18th and 19th, 2007 prior to the auction sale.

The goal was to keep as many taxpayers as possible in their homes while making reasonable arrangements they could commit to.