Viola Plummer Trial On Hold
February 12, 2008
US District Court Judge William Pauley (PDF) has granted a stay in Viola Plummer’s $1 million civil rights suit against the city and Council Speaker Christine Quinn pending an appeal of his original decision that the ousted staffer’s suit can go forward.
Pauley tossed part of Plummer’s suit last month, dismissing her claim that she was fired from her post as Councilman Charles Barron’s chief of staff because she is black, but also ruled that the discrimination portion could go forward.
(For anyone who doesn’t recall, Plummer was fired after she refused to sign a statement saying she would abstain from future “disruptive” and “discourteous” behavior in the wake of her assassination comment regarding Councilman Leroy Comrie after the Sonny Carson street-renamin fight.
As I understand the Pauley decision, the city corporation counsel’s office argued based on the doctrine of qualified immunity, basically that Quinn would be irreparably harmed if Plummer’s case was “erroneously permitted to go to trial” because any immunity to which the speaker would be entitled would be lost before her appeal is decided.
Pauley acknowledged that the stay could push the trial beyond Barron’s term, which will end in 2009, and prevent Plummer from achieving one of her goals: Being reinstated to her job.
But even if Barron is out of office when - and if - the appeal on Quinn’s behalf fails and Plummer wins her case, Plummer will still be able to be compensated by the city, Pauley reasoned.
Source: NY Daily News
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