« JUSTE REWARD | Main | THE MANY FACES OF AIDS: A MESSAGE TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE GAY COMMUNITY »
December 7, 2007
WORD GAMES
 |
Bumpus shouldn't have to go through any more turnstiles to receive justice |
On Monday, December 3, just two weeks after the Ninth Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, Housing Works attorneys were back in court to continue battling the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) over its mistreatment of Tracy Bumpus, a transgender case manager at Housing Works.
As the Update reported last July, the case arose from a series of events which occurred in the summer of 2006, including a ten-minute homophobic and transphobic tirade by an NYCTA employee aimed at Bumpus as she waited to take the subway to work. This past July, Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Sylvia Hinds-Radix denied a motion by the NYCTA to dismiss the lawsuit on a legal technicality.
The NYCTA chose to appeal the Hinds-Radix decision, stating that the wording of Bumpus’ complaint was deficient. The NYCTA argued that Bumpus’ complaint never explicitly pled that the NYCTA “knew or should have known” of its employees’ potential for abuse.
But that argument is more about style than substance according to Matthew Carmody, Housing Works’ lead attorney on the case. “As long as you’ve stated the necessary facts in a complaint, you don’t have to go element by element using the exact language of the statute,” he said.
Housing Works Senior Staff Attorney, Armen Merjian, agreed. “Instead of focusing on the merits of the case, they are trying everything they can, pulling out all the stops, to defeat the claim on technical points.”
So what happens next?
If the demeanor of the four-judge appellate panel is any indication of where the case is going, the NYCTA can’t be too happy. “The court made pretty quick work of the argument today, so I anticipate that we’ll get a decision within a few months,” said Carmody, who is optimistic that the Hinds-Radix decision will be upheld. In the meantime, the NYCTA employee who launched the original attack against Bumpus has moved to dismiss the claim against her as an individual. That motion is still pending.
“I’m surprised they haven’t tried to settle this yet,” Carmody said. Given the facts, he said, he thought the case would be “open and shut.”
“Public authorities serve the public,” added Merjian, “and when they wrong the public like this, they should do the right thing. So far, they haven’t and that is unfortunate.”