Oopsie: Hempstead Lawyers Forgot They Are Suing Over Congestion Pricing

Disorder in the court!

Lawyers representing the Town of Hempstead in its efforts to throw out congestion pricing did not show up to a scheduled court hearing on Tuesday morning, and claimed that they simply didn’t know about it.

A collection of confused lawyers for the MTA and the State of New York rose as Justice Arthur Engoron headed to his bench inside the New York State Supreme Court, and then informed Engoron that they hadn’t heard from the people suing them for days.

“Maybe they don’t want to pay the toll,” said a bemused Roberta Kaplan, obviously aware that phone and email do not trigger congestion pricing.

Engoron briefly stalled for time by quizzing a pack of law students and interns who were in the audience to get a real-time look at how the state court system works how they decided to come see his hearing, but that did not take very long. Eventually, Brandon Trice, one of the MTA’s lawyers, managed to reach one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, so Engoron summoned Trice and the phone to the bench, when the Hempstead attorney claimed that he was unaware that the hearing was scheduled.

Engoron’s outraged clerk noted that the MTA’s attorneys were on hand, live, and clearly knew about the hearing.

“This was duly scheduled weeks ago,” the clerk said, before reminding plaintiff’s Josh Liebman and Judah Serfaty that New York State Supreme Court provides updates on E-courts, not NYS Courts Electronic Filing (NYSCEF).

As your slackjawed reporter gaped at the goings-on, Engoron offered to allow the cloud-minded Town of Hempstead attorneys to show up at 2:15 p.m. for an hour-long hearing. The attorneys hemmed and hawed about whether they could make it in time, and eventually everyone in the room settled on trying to hold the hearing virtually.

“We’re doing a Microsoft Teams meeting, so you might want to get dressed,” Engoron’s clerk informed the missing lawyers.

“As Gilda Radner said, ‘It’s always something,'” a bemused Engoron said aloud before allowing Trice to begin the MTA’s arguments for why the Town of Hempstead’s case should be thrown out.

But before Trice could finish the history of congestion pricing in New York State, Liebman and Serfaty interrupted multiple times to complain of choppy audio.

After the third such complaint, the parties threw in the towel on Microsoft Teams, and Liebman and Serfaty agreed to get to court by 2:15 p.m. today.

“Drive fast, but keep to the speed limit,” Engoron said, perhaps in jest.

The snafu is yet another farce in the legal efforts to destroy congestion pricing. Weeks ago in federal court, attorneys for the federal government accidentally uploaded a memo to open court laying out the weaknesses in Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s attempt to kill congestion pricing. A spokesperson for the U.S. DOT later suggested the attorneys did that on purpose.

This is a developing story and will be updated if and when the scheduled hearing actually takes place