A jury sitting in White Plains found the Town of Monroe not liable for any damages in a lawsuit brought by a resident.
On Tuesday, May 12, in the Charles L. Bryant Courthouse of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, a unanimous jury dismissed any claims for damages made by Pamela Lee on behalf of herself and five LLCs she controls. According to the verdict form obtained by The Photo News, Lee and her LLCs, did not prove by “a preponderance of evidence that [The Town of Monroe’s] enactment of Local Law No. 3 was the proximate cause of the damages they claim to have suffered.
Lee claimed a law passed by the town on Feb. 6, 2023, violated her Fifth Amendment Rights to use her property.
The law, called Local Law No. 3, was passed to establish a permitting system to “enhance the delivery of municipal services, such as sanitation and code enforcement services, and emergency services such as fire, water and police services when such services are needed, and effectively aid in the maintenance of the peace and good order and a tool for the establishment of efficient planning,” according to Town Supervisor Anthony Cardone.
However, Lee called it discriminatory because one section of the law prohibited any one person in the town from owning more than three residential rental properties within the town. She owns more than three.
Her attorney, Christopher Fromme of Brooklyn-based Levin Law Group told The Photo News in July the provision about the number of rental properties that can be owned “violates the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees government cannot seize property without making due compensation at market value, etc. My client owns more than three rental properties in Monroe and as far as I can tell there is no grandfather clause in the law. This also violates the Contract Clause because there are ongoing rental contracts.”
Fromme said there was no grandfather clause in the law to allow people who already own more than three units to continue.
The town was represented by Adam Rodd of Drake Loeb.
During the litigation, the town agreed not to enforce the law against Lee.
The local law was revised on February 5, 2024 to remove the limitation on the number of rental permits an owner could obtain within the town. The amendment was approved by the town, except for Councilwoman Maureen Richardson, who abstained from voting, saying she was not briefed on the legal action being taken against the town.
Timothy Mitts informed The Photo News that following the town’s decision to remove the stipulation limiting the number of rental properties one could own, the lawsuit was amended to remove the unconstitutionality claim, as the matter was already settled.
Mitts asked, “If the law wasn’t unconstitutional, why would you change the law?” Mitts stated that the plaintiffs are looking to appeal the decision, and noted that the original law impacted Monroe residents who were looking to invest in the community.
In email correspondence received on May 14, Cardone claimed that the original law was enacted in response to many negative complaints regarding rental units, quality of life issues and to assist local emergency services and law enforcement. He further claimed that at no point from the enactment until present was the Local Law 3 enforced on any residents of the Town of Monroe.