Plea: Don't settle reassessment suit until every homeowner is heard

                                                                                 

(From Nassau County Court file)

A State Supreme Court justice today was to hear arguments over nearly a million dollars in legal fees before ordering the settlement of class action lawsuit that challenged the legality of  County Executive Law Curran's 2018 reassessment.

But now a member of that class is objecting.

Michael Margolis of Plainview has notified State Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bucaria that he is a homeowner in Nassau, a member of the class established by Bucaria in January and wants to participate.

"As a member and/or potential member of the class, I request that you please do not accept any settlement of this action until all class members and/or potential class members can be properly advised of such and given an opportunity to explore their rights," Margolis wrote in a letter to Bucaria on Friday. "If the original plaintiffs seek to settle and not pursue this matter, then I would be willing to step in as a member of the class so the action may continue."

""The whole premise of the case effects much more than the original plaintiffs in this action and its my belief the Court has an obligation and duty to see this case through.'

Sands Point homeowner Eric Berliner and three other Nassau residents filed suit against Nassau in 2019, claiming the reassessment was arbitrary, secretive and unconstitutional.  Bucaria granted class action status to the lawsuit in January after noting that 236,000 of Nassau's 386,000 homeowners had filed challenges again the new reassessment values

Earlier this month, the four homeowners proposed settling the suit in return for the county agreeing to be more transparent in the future, with a guarantee that they could pursue reduction in their own assessments. They asked Bucaria to decertify the class action. Their attorney has filed a new request asking the county to pay legal fees of $967,756.

Bucaria said last week he is willing to order a settlement if both parties make clear he is not deciding on the fairness, realiability, accuracy or constitutionality of the reassessment.

The county's Manhattan lawyer Mark Rifkin yesterday objected to Margolis request. In a letter to the court, he said Margolis has no interest or standing in the case because the county has settled Margolis' own assessment grievance.

Last night, Lynbrook homowner Dennis Duffy stepped up.

Duffy, who was the first to go to court over the reassessment, seeking the computer formula used to create the new values, emailed Margolis with a solution if the court finds he has no standing.

"You can represent me," Duffy said, explaining he has an outstanding grievance in small claims court, "if you wish."