As New York Civil Law has written in the past, the decision in Graham v. Dunkley -- which held that the Transportation Equity Act of 2005 was unconstitutional -- has been consistently called into question (see prior post here). Yet another recent case has upheld the Act as constitutional -- Traitouros v. Goldstein here Download Traitouros.pdf . In Traitouros, the injured plaintiff was a pedestrian who was allegedly hit by an automobile leased by Defendant Hoffman, LaRoche and the LaRoche Group from Wheels, Inc. The lessors moved to dismiss Plaintiffs' claims based on the Act.
Justice Anthony Parga of Supreme Court, Nassau County rejected Plaintiffs' argument that the Act was unconstitutional. Justice Parga acknowledged Graham v. Dunkley and noted that he did not share its view. Justice Parga concluded that the Graves Amendment (the Act) was constitutional, citing the Second Department's decision in Kuryla v. Halabi.
As far as I know, the appeal in Graham is still pending at the Second Department. From its past decisions, we don't need a fortune teller to tell us what the Second Department will do with Graham. However, we'll all have to wait to see if the appeal makes it to the Court of Appeals and, if it does, how the Court will hold.
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