Court Updates
Welcome to our Court Updates section, designed to provide essential information for both retirees and active NYC employees.
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Announcements:
CURRENT Announcements
On Tuesday May 21, 2024, the NY Appellate Division found unanimously once again for the Retirees! They held, " “The City has made clear, consistent, unambiguous representations – oral and written – over the course of more than 50 years, that New York City municipal worker-retirees would have the option of receiving health care in the form of traditional Medicare with a City-paid supplemental plan. Consequently, the City cannot now mandate the proposed change eliminating that choice.” The City could seek permission to appeal to the Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in the state. But because the decision of the First Department was unanimous, it may be unlikely. The City has 30 days to file leave to appeal this decision.
Archived Announcements
MARCH 21 COURT HEARING ON BENTKOWSKI v CITY OF NEW YORK CAN BE LIVE STREAMED - GO TO THIS LINK AT 2 PM Appellate Division First Department
Court should be over by 5 pm. If not, this Live update from us will be delayed. Otherwise, expect to see us LIVE on YouTube And live Streaming into our FB page as well! Link to YouTube Live
Please Note:
The Latest Court Filings can be found on the Court Website:
All earlier Court Filings can be found on the Court Website in the Archived Announcements page:
Bentkowski v City of NY - This case is called the "nuclear option case" because the City eliminated all choices of health plans and only left the Aetna Medicare Advantage plan as the default, or if you lived in 10 counties of NY, the HiP Medicare Advantage Plan in violation of the promises made us.
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NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees v Renee Campion (NYS Court of Appeals) - This is our first case and the primary issue is what does Administrative Code 12-126 mean. Judge Lyle Frank ruled that the City’s attempt to force retirees to pay for their own medigap coverage was a violation of NYC Administrative Code 12-126. Campion is currently awaiting a court date in the Court of Appeals.
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Margaretann Bianculli et al v. City of New York Office of Labor Relations et al. - The City imposed copays on every treatment/visit/test in Senior Care as a deterrent to make staying in Traditional Medicare as painful as possible hoping retirees would go into the Medicare Advantage. This case is currently awaiting a court date in the Supreme Court in Manhattan before Judge Lyle Frank which should come towards July and appeals court. We refer to this case as "The CoPay Case."
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The CoPay Case has TWO dockets - one in Supreme Court and one in Appeals - This is the second case we filed.
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