Feinberg Disbarred, Rosenthal Suspended
Former Brooklyn Surrogate Michael H. Feinberg, who was removed from the bench three years ago, was disbarred yesterday by the Appellate Division, Third Department.
In two disciplinary proceedings factually linked to Mr. Feinberg's, the Third Department also suspended Louis R. Rosenthal, the former counsel to the Brooklyn public administrator, for two years, and censured Stephen H. Chepiga, the chief clerk of the Surrogate's Court in Brooklyn since 1998.
Mr. Feinberg was disbarred upon the strength of the Court of Appeals decision in 2005 removing him from the bench for awarding Mr. Rosenthal $8.6 million in fees without requiring affidavits detailing the services he provided as required by law (Matter of Feinberg, D-69-08).
The Third Department found that Mr. Rosenthal had charged and collected "excessive fees" without following proper procedures (Matter of Rosenthal, D-68-08). In recommending Mr. Feinberg's removal, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct had found that Mr. Rosenthal consistently billed 2 percent more for his work than permitted, resulting in more than $2 million in excessive fees (Matter of Chepiga, D-70-08).
The Third Department decision appear on page 7 of the print edition of today's Law Journal.
Fabian G. Palomino, who represented both Mr. Feinberg and Mr. Rosenthal, did not return a request for comment. Mr. Rosenthal also did not return a request for comment, and Mr. Feinberg could not be located.
Mr. Chepiga's lawyer, Peter V. Coffey of Englert, Coffey, McHugh & Fantuzzi in Schenectady, said, "If you talk to anyone in the court system they will tell you that Mr. Chepiga is diligent, hardworking and a man of great integrity and truthfulness.
"He has unhesitatingly been retained in his position" as chief clerk, Mr. Coffey added.
All three decisions were issued per curiam by the same panel: Justices Thomas E. Mercure, Edward O. Spain, Robert S. Rose, Anthony T. Kane and Leslie E. Stein.
"The taint of favoritism is strong" in the relationship between Mr. Feinberg and Mr. Rosenthal, the Court of Appeals found in its removal opinion, Matter of Feinberg, 5 NY3d 206. The Court described Mr. Rosenthal as "a close personal friend and political supporter" of Mr. Feinberg whom the former surrogate appointed as counsel to the public administrator without considering any other candidates.
The counsel to the public administrator is responsible for handling Surrogate Court proceedings relating to people who died without wills and do not have close relatives to handle their affairs.
In disbarring Mr. Feinberg, who was Brooklyn's surrogate for eight years, the panel noted that an attorney may be charged with professional misconduct for the same acts for which he was disciplined as a judge.
Disbarment is necessary, the panel concluded, "to protect the public and preserve the reputation of the bar."
The principal Court of Appeals finding relied on by the Third Department that Mr. Feinberg had failed to familiarize himself with a 1993 amendment to the Surrogate Court's Procedure Act (SCPA), which requires the counsel to the public administrator to support his fee requests with affidavits detailing the services rendered, the time spent, and the method or basis upon which the compensation is computed.
Over five years and 475 proceedings, both the Court of Appeals and the Third Department had found that Mr. Feinberg had remained unaware of the 1993 amendment to SPCA §1108. That amendment had been enacted, the Third Department panel noted, after an investigation by the attorney general and comptroller had found abuses in the award of fees to public administrators' counsel.
The Court of Appeals had described Mr. Feinberg's "consistent disregard for fundamental statutory requirements of office" as demonstrating "an unacceptable incompetence in the law."
Counsel Suspended
With regard to Mr. Rosenthal, the Third Department found that he had collected "excessive fees" for his work by "regularly" requesting fees that reflected the same percentage amount of the total value of the estate he was handling.
In the conduct commissions ruling recommending Mr. Feinberg's removal, it had found that Mr. Rosenthal routinely requested fees pegged at 8 percent of the value of an estate.
The commission noted that surrogates in the city's other boroughs generally pegged compensation for counsel to the public administrator at 6 percent of the value of an estate.
In addition, the commission relied on agreement between the attorney general and Mr. Feinberg's predecessor, Surrogate Bernard Bloom, to limit compensation to 6 percent. The agreement was initially worked out in 1988 and renewed in 1994 (NYLJ, Feb. 15, 2005).
The Third Department also found that rather than submitting the required affidavits of service, Mr. Rosenthal had submitted his fee requests on Post-It notes affixed to formal decrees.
The practice did not change, the panel noted, until the Daily News in May 2002 published an exposé of Mr. Rosenthal's fees and the way they had been approved by the surrogate.
Even then, the panel wrote, Mr. Feinberg re-approved all of Mr. Rosenthal's fees after he retroactively submitted the required affidavits of service.
Clerk Censured
In censuring Mr. Chepiga, the Third Department found that, though he was aware of the agreement limiting fee awards in Brooklyn to 6 percent, he was "actively involved" in the process of approving awards set at 8 percent of estate value.
The panel described Mr. Chepiga's statement that he was unaware of the 1993 amendments requiring the filing of affidavits to support fee requests as being "somewhat disconcertin[g]."
But in deciding that a censure was the appropriate sanction, the panel cited his "unblemished disciplinary record" and letters attesting to his integrity submitted to the court by Kings County surrogates. Mr. Chepiga's lawyer, Mr. Coffey, identified the authors of the two letters as Surrogate Margarita López Torres and Justice Albert Tomei, a former interim surrogate who was appointed to fill in after Mr. Feinberg was removed.
Though jurisdiction over disciplinary matters normally lies in the department where an attorney has his principal business office, the Second Department issued an order transferring the three cases to the Third Department, said the court's clerk, Michael Novak.
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Aug 29, 2016 - Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Laura Jacobson's Aug. ...
Jacobson says real reason she is being blackballed from another 14-year
term is because she refused to let “political or social pressures …
impact her decisionmaking.”
“Such judicial independence did not sit well with the Kings County Democratic political machine,” the complaint states.
Jacobson quotes a subcommittee investigator as calling her “probably the smartest judge on the bench,” but the anonymous committee members who talked to the Post painted an insulting picture of the jurist. The suit claims Jacobson, who has 25 years of experience on the bench and is seeking re-election for a 14-year term, is being punished for rulings against lawyers affiliated with the Brooklyn Dems. It also alleges that the screening board has been stacked by Frank Seddio, the chairman of the Kings County Democratic County Committee, even though it is meant to be independent.
“Such judicial independence did not sit well with the Kings County Democratic political machine,” the complaint states.
Jacobson quotes a subcommittee investigator as calling her “probably the smartest judge on the bench,” but the anonymous committee members who talked to the Post painted an insulting picture of the jurist. The suit claims Jacobson, who has 25 years of experience on the bench and is seeking re-election for a 14-year term, is being punished for rulings against lawyers affiliated with the Brooklyn Dems. It also alleges that the screening board has been stacked by Frank Seddio, the chairman of the Kings County Democratic County Committee, even though it is meant to be independent.
166. Retaliatory, Vindictive and Malicious Deprivation of Judge Jacobson’s Right to “Equal Protection of Law” and “Due Process”!
In retribution for Judge Jacobson’s proper exercise of judicial discretion and independence which was
inconsistent with the desires of Mr. Carone who is defendant Seddio’s counsel and was
Seddio’s law partner, defendants Edelman and Decker abused their positions on the Edelman
Committee and defendant Seddio abused his position as County Chair of the Kings County
Democratic County Committee and aided, abetted and conspired with members of the Executive
Committee of defendant Kings County Democratic County Committee, members of the Edelman
Committee, defendant
Ajaiyeoba, defendants John and Jane Does and others not
named as defendants, including Mr.
Carone, in an effort to deprive Judge Jacobson of “equal
protection of the law” and “due
process,” in an effort to maliciously and vindictively
inflict maximum personal and
professional harm to Judge Jacobson.
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The
Surrogate Court is A Political Toll Booth Exacting Tribute From Widows
and Orphans - Robert Kennedy, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia
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A bookkeeper stole more than $600,000 in taxpayer money by creating a
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Corrupt Surrogate Court Groundhog Day
In
the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called Surrogate's Court "the most
expensive undertaking establishment in the world." He believed it was
control of the Surrogate's Court of New York County, more than any other
factor, that
kept the Tammany Hall political machine alive through the lean years
when he deprived it of city jobs and President Franklin Roosevelt denied
it federal jobs.
Corrupt Surrogate Court Groundhog Day
Not, We the People, WE THE MACHINE
Who are the judge makers? They're people like Jeffrey Feldman, executive director of the Brooklyn Democratic organization and husband of an elected judge. Feldman once boasted, "We haven't lost a judicial seat in over 100 years." He didn't mean "we, the people." He meant "we, the clubhouse." That says it all." - Daily News, Editorial, December 2, 2001
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Another Conviction from the Corrupt Surrogate Court
Stealing From the Dead Court
‘Sorry’ estate robber off to jail(NYP)
A crooked Brooklyn bookkeeper convicted of stealing $2.6 million from
the estates of people who died without wills expressed remorse Thursday
for his crime before a judge sentenced him to 6 to 18 years in prison. A
crooked Brooklyn bookkeeper convicted of stealing $2.6 million from the
estates of people who died without wills expressed remorse Thursday for
his crime before a judge sentenced him to six to 18 years in prison.
Crooked bookkeeper Richard Paul * Manhattan DA Statement
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Machine
Bronx Surrogate Judge Lee Holzman keeps his job despite breaking the rules(NYDN Ed) State Commission on Judicial Conduct goes way too easy on a rotten judge. In
one of the worst rulings in its history, the state Commission on
Judicial Conduct decreed that a judge may stay on the bench despite
giving a pass to a lawyer friend who’d grabbed hundreds of thousand of
dollars in excessive fees from the estates of the dead. When Holzman’s
counsel, Michael Lippman, got caught taking far larger amounts than he
was entitled to, Holzman kept him on the job. That way, Lippman was
supposed to earn more fees so he could repay the filched funds.Despite
citing all these facts, the panel painted Holzman, incredibly, as a
misguided soul who clumsily set out to make whole the estates damaged by
Lippman. Thus, he will leave his judgeship under his own power, setting
a precedent that casual malfeasance will be tolerated.
Machine
Feldman Returns to Vito's 2008 Judicial Convention
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We Are Above the Law
Against the law for the party to spend money on a primary
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Estates official resigns after office mishandles $2.2M inassets(NYP)The official who oversees estates of people who die without wills in Brooklyn —
and whose office was cited for sloppy work by the city comptroller last
year — has resigned, The Post has learned. Kings County Public
Administrator Bruce Stein stepped down earlier this month, in part
because of questions about his ability to perform the job, a source
said. Stein’s office was slammed by former Comptroller John Liu in 2013
for mishandling more than $2.2 million in assets, including misplacing a
fur coat and allowing $50,000 in cash to sit unclaimed in a safe
deposit box for five years. The money was claimed only after auditors
pointed it out. The auditors found shoddy work in more than half of the
50 cases that were examined. Stein was appointed to the role in January
2009, and was earning more than $123,000. He did not respond to a
request for comment.
The DN says ruling on Bx Surrogate Judge sends a "horrid" message: "Short of taking a bribe in a paper bag, anything goes."
