The New York Law Journal today reported that Judge Weinstein of the Eastern District, in a written decision to be published on Monday, emphatically denied a request by the City of New York to use race as a basis for setting damages.
James McMillan, a black man, was rendered a quadriplegic after the 2003 crash of the Staten Island Ferry that resulted in the death of 11 people and injured dozens more. Last month, the judge awarded McMillan damages of $18.3 million. The City had requested that the Court reduce his life expectancy for the purpose of calculating damages based on his race and criminal record, which Judge Weinstein said he would address in a written decision.
In rejecting the request, the judge indicated that it hearkened back to the type of racial classifications that were behind the infamous 1896 Supreme Court decision of Plessy v. Ferguson.
Relying upon studies, he went on to attribute the mortality gap between blacks and whites to the different socioeconomic factors affecting them and not immutable racial characteristics.
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