Verdicts & Settlements

judgment

$4,250,000

Labor & Employment

Working with a team of forensic accountants and skilled union-member investigators discovered an employer maintained off the books payrolls used to avoid fringe benefit liability. After judgment was obtained, the benefit funds recovered $4.25 million from the personal assets of the employer’s principal. District Council Benefit Funds v. On Par, 2007 WL 1834706 (S.D.N.Y., June 25, 2007).

judgement

Judgment

Labor & Employment

Successfully defended pension trustees’ interpretations of plan provisions relating to pension plan break in service rules, eligibility and medical necessity in separate appeals decided by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Fiscina v. Pension Plan, 206 Fed. Appx. 8, 2006 WL 2686673 (2d Cir. 2006) and Diagnostic Medical Associates v. Welfare Plan, 2007 WL 1241539 (2d Cir. 2007).

judgement

Judgment

Labor & Employment

Judgment in a special proceeding taken to the New York Court of Appeals declaring the City violated the Administrative Code by failing to promote NYPD Officers to Detective after 18 months of “temporary” assignment, resulting in promotions of hundreds of deserving patrol officers. Scotto v. Dinkins, 85 N.Y.2d 209, 623 N.Y.S.2d 809 (1995).

judgment

Judgment

Labor & Employment

Obtained a federal court judgment holding the principal of contracting company personally liable for deficient benefit fund contributions because she engaged in a scheme to defraud the funds by maintaining concealed bank accounts that were used to pay workers off the books. Carpenter Benefit Funds v. Perimeter Contracting and Susan Reidy, 657 F. Supp.2d 410 (S.D.N.Y. 2009) and 2009 WL 362640 (S.D.N.Y., February 13, 2009).

judgment

Judgment

Labor & Employment

Won substantial back pay damages for city workers in a case that started with the Union’s filing of an unfair practice charge with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission and then moved into arbitration, where it was alleged the employer unilaterally changed the terms and conditions of employment by imposing a new method of calculating a covered worker’s hourly rate of pay for overtime. City of Elizabeth and Local 74, USWU.

judgment

Judgment

Labor & Employment

Successfully defeated a contractor’s attempt to set aside an arbitration award on the grounds that it was subjected to economic duress and fraud in the inducement when it entered in inducement to enter into the collective bargaining agreement. Benefit Funds v. Tadco Construction Co., 08 WL 540078 (S.D.N.Y., February 28, 2008).

judgment

Judgment

Labor & Employment

Obtained judgment against the principal of a contracting company who was personally involved in a scheme to defraud the funds by paying workers off the books from a concealed bank account. Carpenters Benefit Funds v. Quantum Construction and Noel Griffin, 2008 WL 5159777 (S.D.N.Y. December 9, 2008).

judgment

Judgment

Labor & Employment

Working with Union organizers, persuaded the NLRB to reject the employer’s attempt to flood the proposed bargaining unit of 35 permanent workers with 230 seasonal employees on the grounds that the two groups did not share a community of interest. In re USTA National Tennis Center.