The Latest Lawsuit Against the TLC

Another lawsuit against the TLC was filed today, this one challenging the TLC's hybrid cab rules, a program pushed by Mayor Bloomberg. The case is being prosecuted mainly by taxi fleet owners, not taxi drivers, who I have represented. The fleets say that the hybrid cars have nit been tested against the rigors of 24-hour driving on NYC streets. Legally, the major claims are that the TLC's rules regarding minimum mileage standards for taxi cabs are preempted by federal laws that mandate that only the federal givernment may regulate gas mileage standards. The lawyers on the case are from Emery Celli, a prominent civil rights firm that has some recent successes in strip search class action cases.

Given that NYC taxis drive almost exclusively in dense urban traffic, where a hybrid's advantage in mileage is most pronounced, why are the taxi fleets so adamantly against Mayor Bloomberg's plan? The answer is taxi economics.

While the taxi fleets (and other non-driving taxi owners) purchase and maintain cars, the taxi drivers pay for gas. So the fleets bear the costs of maintaining more expensive vehicles, which may be more costly to maintain, but the drivers get the benefit of better mileage. And the fleets have never much cared about drivers.

In stark contrast to the draconian programs that affect drivers, which have been enacted without any legitimate process, it is clear even from the complaint in the fleet's action that the TLC, in promulgating the mileage regulaitons, allowed for public hearings, notice and comment.

I do not recall

Everybody is up in arms about poor Alberto Gonzalez. It's partly about how he let politics subvert the Justice Department, partly about how he seems to have lied about what he did, and partly about how he can't seem to remember what happened. Reports note that Alberto testified he could not recall 45 times at one recent congressional session.

In this total recall failure, Alberto has nothing on former Mayor Giuliani and NYC TLC Chairman Matthew Daus. When I deposed Giuliani in Padberg et al v. McGrath-McKechnie et al, Giuliani said testified he could not recall 99 times-- in a three-hour deposition. Click here for a transcript of the deposition.

In a three-hour deposition in Nnebe et al v. Daus et al, Matthew Daus testified he could not recall 85 times, including many times as to events in the last year. Aberto is a piker by comparison.

More on the Padberg case