.png) |
| Artist Peter Max attends Gotham Magazine Celebrates its Summer Issue with Peter Max and The Humane Society of the United States at Loews Regency Hotel on June 25, 2014 in New York City. Photographer: Ben Gabbe/Getty Images for Gotham Magazine |
by Holly Barker
The Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for New York City Courts has won dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that she allowed judges presiding over artist Peter Max’s guardianship to engage in ex parte communications with court-appointed fiduciaries and counsel in the highly-contested proceedings.
The claim didn’t belong in federal court, and plaintiff Libra Max, Peter Max’s daughter, lacks standing, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said Monday.
“Max does not have standing to bring the claims because any injury she has suffered is not fairly traceable to the conduct of the defendant and is not likely to be redressed by a favorable decision.”
Max sued Judge Deborah Kaplan in her official capacity, rather than the four judges who she claims engaged in the one-sided, out-of-court communications in her father’s case, because “they enjoy judicial immunity,” and because her challenge was to the guardianship’s policies and practices more broadly.
But “given that the four Guardianship Court judges have allegedly engaged in substantive ex parte communications that are against the law, it is speculative whether any policy issued by Kaplan would redress the plaintiff’s injury,” the court said.
Even if Libra Max did have standing, Southern District of New York Judge Denise L. Cote said it wouldn’t be appropriate for a federal court to weigh in under principles of abstention.
Max’s lawsuit asked the court to require Kaplan to issue a policy prohibiting ex parte communications between judges and guardians in contested matters. But “such an injunction would be an impermissible intrusion into state guardianship proceedings,” which is an area that is considered to be of “particular state interest,” Cote said.
After granting Kaplan’s motion to dismiss, Cote directed the clerk to close the case.
“No one has denied these secret conversations routinely occur among guardianship judges. The federal court sidestepped the important constitutional issues at play to dismiss the case but did not bless this ongoing practice of secret communications,” said Libra Max’s attorney Andrew Celli, partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP.
“We are appealing and look forward to working to lift the shroud of secrecy over the guardianship system,” he said.
Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP and Jonathan G. Martinis in Stafford, Va. Kaplan is represented by the New York State Office of Attorney General.
The case is Max v. Kaplan, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:22-cv-06156, 2/13/23.
Full Article & Source:
NY Judge Beats Suit Over Guardian Talks in Peter Max Case (1)
No comments:
Post a Comment