Retired NY Supreme Court Justice Replaced Amid Federal ‘Silver Scandal’ Probe
Retired Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Sherry Klein Heitler is being succeeded by Justice Peter H. Moulton as federal prosecutors continue their probe into whether her court gave “red-carpet treatment” to civil-asbestos related cases connected to former Assembly Sheldon Silver’s federal corruption case.
Asbestos lawsuits filed by plaintiffs’ firm Weitz & Luxenberg, at which Silver was “of counsel,” were fast-tracked to “courtrooms presided over by judges linked to Silver” and “received $5.3 million in what federal prosecutors say were kickbacks,” according the NY Post. NY Post writes that Heitler “revised a 20-year ruling that prohibited punitive damages in asbestos cases – allowing for bigger jury awards.”
Futhermore, Heitler was the chief administrative judge for the Civil Court and also led the New York City Asbestos Litigation section, or NYCAL; of the $313.5 million in mesothelioma verdicts awarded by NYCAL juries in the last four years, Weitz & Luxenberg cases received $273.5 million.
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