Judges lose court battle
No $$ double dips in NY
Double dipping has lost its appeal.
The state’s highest court last week ruled that judges can no longer collect both their salaries and their pensions.
The 5-0 decision by the Court of Appeals was a loss for three judges, including Brooklyn state Supreme Court Judge William Miller, who had waged a four-year fight to be allowed to double dip.
“New York’s public policy strongly disfavors the receipt of state pensions by persons also receiving state salaries,” the court’s ruling found.
The Post reported in September that 29 state Supreme Court and Appellate Division judges in New York were doing just that — raking in salaries along with their retirement money.
Among them was Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Betty Williams, who won re-election in November 2013 and eight weeks later put in for retirement.
Williams continued to sit on the bench, collecting both her salary of $193,000 and a hefty state pension of $135,902 a year.
Williams, 72, finally left the bench at the end of last year when she was denied recertification. Judges older than 70 must be certified as being medically and mentally fit in order to continue to sit and cannot serve past the age of 76.
The court system tried to end double dipping in 2013 when the six-member Administrative Board of the Courts, which sets policies and procedures, decided no judge certified for continued service could get a pension.
Miller and the other judges argued that the policy change was illegal and sued. They lost but later won on appeal. The case then went to the Court of Appeals.
“The phrase ‘double dipping’ makes it sound like you’re doing two wrong things, and you’re not doing anything wrong. You’re just working after retirement,” Westchester County Supreme Court Judge J. Emmett Murphy, one of the three plaintiffs, told The Post in September.
The Court of Appeals found that “former justices have no right to new employment via certification and, therefore, they have no right to receive the salary associated with that position and simultaneously draw a retirement allowance.”
Robert Spolzino, the lawyer for the three judges, did not return a request for comment. Lucian Chalfen, a court system spokesman, said the issue will be addressed by the court’s Administrative Board “in the near future.”