123 A.D.2d 548 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1986
Lead Opinion
By this article 78 proceeding petitioners, sponsors of a referendum petition which would place on the ballot a proposed local law amending New York City Charter, chapter 409, § 1100 et seq., to provide for the recall of elected officials and the election of their successors, seek to compel the Clerk of the City of New York to certify the initiative and petition so that the referendum may be placed on the ballot in the November 4, 1986 general election. The Clerk has objected to the petition on the grounds that it, inter alia, "contains illegal and ambiguous provisions and is not a permissible subject for referendum because recall procedures are not authorized by state law.” We need not, as did the Supreme Court, rule on the Clerk’s claim that a recall referendum is neither statutorily nor constitutionally authorized, however, since, in any event, we agree with that court’s conclusion that the instant recall referendum, by virtue of its blatant ambiguities and illegal provisions, is fatally flawed. In affirming on that limited basis we do so for the reasons stated in support of that conclusion by Justice Eugene R. Wolin in his decision of August 19, 1986.
Lead Opinion
Order and judgment (one paper), Supreme Court, New York County (Eugene R. Wolin, J.), entered August 20, 1986, dismissing the petition in this CPLR article 78 proceeding to annul a determination by respondent invalidating a petition filed pursuant to Municipal Home Rule Law § 37, unanimously affirmed, without costs or disbursements.