Lewis Family Farm, Inc. vs. APA
Case #498-07
 

Ass't. AG Loretta Simon, in open court, June 19th, 2008, states our civil action against the APA of June 26th, 2007, came 'on or about June 28th, 2007." Fact: our civil complaint against the APA was filed on June 26th, the day before the APA cease and desist order was issued on the 27th.

Jun 26, 2007    Lewis Family Farm's Index Number Application to Essex County Clerk

Jun 26, 2007      Lewis Family Farm's Request for Judicial Intervention

Jun 26, 2007      Lewis Family Farm's Summons & Complaint in a civil action against the APA seeking a declaration that the APA lacks jurisdiction over farm worker housing

APA’s action follows farm’s by one critical day:

June 27, 2007      APA Cease & Desist Order


LFFI Counsel labels APA $10,000 fine “Extortive”:

Jul 3, 2007     Memorandum of Law in Support of Lewis Family Farm's Motion for Temporary Restraining Order against the APA

Jul 3, 2007      Affidavit of Barbara Lewis in Support of Motion for Temporary Restraining Order against the APA

Jul 3, 2007      Affidavit of Mark McKenna in Support of Motion for Temporary Restraining Order against the APA

Jul 3, 2007      Affirmation of Attorney Joseph Brennan in Support of Motion for Temporary Restraining Order against the APA

Jul 3, 2007      Lewis Family Farm's Amended Complaint in the declaratory judgment action against the APA

Jul 8, 2008     Correspondence from Attorney Lamme and Assistant Attorney General Simon to Judge Meyer concerning the APA's request for a 24-day extension of the time in which it must answer the remainder of the Article 78 Petition

Jul 13, 2007     Order to Show Cause executed by Acting Supreme Court Justice Kevin K. Ryan directing the APA to appear on 8-8-07 and show cause why a temporary restraining order should not be entered restraining the APA from interfering with the Farm's construction of farm worker housing

Jul 19, 2007     Letter from Assistant Attorney General Loretta Simon to Justice Ryan complaining that the Order to Show Cause was improper

Jul 19, 2007     Letter from Assistant Attorney General Loretta Simon to Justice Ryan thanking the Court for clarifying that the Order to Show Cause was proper

Aug 1, 2007     APA's Notice of Motion to convert the Lewis Family Farm's declaratory judgment action into an Article 78 proceeding and dismiss the proceeding as premature and not ripe for judicial intervention

Aug 1, 2007     APA's Memorandum of Law in Support of its Motion to convert the Lewis Family Farm's declaratory judgment action into an Article 78 proceeding and dismiss the proceeding as premature and not ripe for judicial intervention

Aug 1, 2007     Affirmation of APA Attorney John Banta, dated July 23, 2007, in support of the APA's motion to dismiss the Lewis Family Farm's declaratory judgment action

Aug 1, 2007     Affirmation of APA Attorney Sarah Reynolds, dated July 20, 2007, in support of the APA's motion to dismiss the Lewis Family Farm's declaratory judgment action

Aug 1, 2007     Affidavit of APA staff member John Quinn, sworn to July 23, 2007, in support of the APA's motion to dismiss the Lewis Family Farm's declaratory judgment action

Aug 1, 2007     Affidavit of APA staff member Douglas Miller, sworn to July 20, 2007, in support of the APA's motion to dismiss the Lewis Family Farm's declaratory judgment action

Aug 1, 2007     Supplemental Affidavit of APA staff member Douglas Miller, sworn to July 31, 2007, in support of the APA's motion to dismiss the Lewis Family Farm's declaratory judgment action

Aug 6, 2007     Reply Affidavit of Klaas Martens in further support of the Lewis Family Farm's motion for a temporary restraining order against the APA

Aug 7, 2007     Reply Affidavit of Salim B. Lewis in further support of the Lewis Family Farm's motion for a temporary restraining order against the APA

Aug 7, 2007     Reply Affidavit of Barbara A. Lewis in further support of the Lewis Family Farm's motion for a temporary restraining order against the APA


Fact: Mid summer 2007, Harvard law graduate John S. Banta, Esq., general counsel of the Adirondack Park Agency, called Anita Deming, executive director, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Westport, NY, specifically to declare that Sandy Lewis would be excluded from the referenced meeting—to which Farm Bureau president John Lincoln and Fred Monroe, executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, were invited, in writing.  Mr. Monroe attended the meeting.  The pretext to Banta's message, as passed to the rejected by Deming was simple: it was not a public meeting.  Anthony "Tony" Leerkes, a Whallonsburg neighbor, attended with his brother, Bernard H. Leerkes Jr., president of the Essex Bureau, who was invited.  In a recent call, Anita Deming offered the following: a short while after his first, APA general counsel John S. Banta again called to address the intent of his earlier call, to indicate that the meeting was indeed open - but he said - effectively - that I was not to come, none-the-less.  We were in court on that day.  At about the time of the first, Anita Deming called to state the essence of Banta's message without attributing the call to Banta: we would be excluded from what she then firmly characterized as a meeting that was NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.  Note: Anita Deming did not relay Banta’s 2nd call or his identity until October 2008.  According to Deming, who has made efforts to comply with requests for information, Keith P. McKeever, APA public relations officer, rose at the (closed to the Lewises but) open meeting to represent, but without attribution, Town of Essex Supervisor Ronald E. Jackson’s calls to the APA, effectively to say the Lewis farm did not enjoy local support.  I learned of McKeever's statements at the time - and confirmed their essence in a call to McKeever shortly after.  McKeever was reluctant to confirm what he had said, but did so, and he refused to state that Jackson was not his source.  I then confirmed with Jackson that he had made a call to the APA to  express himself on us to McKeever.  McKeever confirmed that he had only spoken with one individual in Essex on his declared subject.  Supervisor Jackson's calls to Keith P. McKeever followed the farm's decision to ban him and Willsboro postman Danny Sweatt from the sugarbush, and to ban Jackson, his son and their friends from hunting, and to ban Jackson, Danny Sweatt and his friends from harvesting truckloads of hardwood at will from the farm's sugar bush.  Prior to the ban, Jackson, Sweatt and a few others published our support of their farm activity in the local Press Republican.  With our equipment and fuel provided to support wood cutting and transport, harvest of maple syrup, and unfettered access to the woods and fields for hunting, our farm was Jackson’s daily paradise, all seasons of the year.  [The foregoing about the meeting at the APA was confirmed in recent conversations with Anita Deming who also supplied the documentation posted here - more than once.]


Aug 8, 2008     APA’s Mark Sengenberger calls private informal meeting, with Ag & Markets and Farm Bureau. See signup sheet on page 4.

Decision and Order of Hon. Kevin K. Ryan

Aug 16, 2007     Decision and Order of Acting Supreme Court Justice Kevin K. Ryan converting the declaratory judgment action into an Article 78 proceeding and dismissing it as premature and not ripe for judicial intervention.  * This decision also improperly advises in dicta that the APA has jurisdiction over the construction of farm worker housing.

Aug 31, 2007     APA's Notice of Entry of Justice Ryan's Decision and Order

Sep 26, 2007     Lewis Family Farm's Notice of Appeal of Justice Ryan's Decision and Order


Motion practice re: Case #498-07 before Appellate Division Third Judicial Department

May 8, 2008     Notice of Motion in the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision

May 8, 2008     Affirmation of John Privitera in Support of Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision

May 8, 2008     Reply Affirmation of John Privitera in further support of Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision

May 15, 2008     Affirmation of Assistant Attorney General Simon in Opposition to the Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision, and in Support of a Conditional Order Dismissing the Appeal

May 15, 2008     APA’s Memorandum of Law in Opposition to the Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision, and in Support of a Conditional Order Dismissing the Appeal

May 16, 2008     Affidavit of John Privitera in Opposition to the APA’s Cross-motion for a Conditional Order Dismissing the Appeal


Decision and Order of the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department

May 29, 2008     Decision and Order of the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department extending the Lewis Family Farm’s time to perfect its appeal of Judge Ryan’s Decision


Jul 3, 2008     Notice of Motion in the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department and Affidavit of Jacob Lamme in Support of Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision

Jul 11, 2008     Affirmation of Assistant Attorney General Simon in Opposition to the Lewis Family Farm's Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision

Jul 14, 2008     Reply Affidavit of Attorney Lamme in Further Support of the Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision


Decision and Order of the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department

Jul 25, 2008     Decision and Order of the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department granting the Lewis Family Farm's Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision

Sept 3, 2008     Notice of Motion in the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department and Affidavit of Jacob Lamme in Support of Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision

"Love means never having to say you're sorry. "

A first: the Ass’t. AG Loretta Simon acknowledges the folly of her previous actions, without acknowledging the folly of her previous actions, saving us and the Appellate Division Third Judicial Department the obvious. For those who do not understand what’s going on here, part of the strategy of the AG and the APA is to crush. In close to 200 documents, they crush with the cost of defense. This is not about the law. They seek title impairment, jurisdictional mission creep and suffocation of the indigenous, pure and simple. Simon’s letter is an about face. Perhaps in recognition of the banality of the foregoing, she did not appeal what should have been superfluous. On every occasion thus far, government has appealed and lost. Perhaps the AG’s office is tired of losing. We kinda wonder what she’ll do with Judge Meyer’s decision, fingers crossed.  We hope she must buy the transcript of June 19th, not we.

Sept 12, 2008     APA's Letter Consenting to the Lewis Family Farm's Motion in the Appellate Division for an Extension of Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan's August 2007 Decision.

Sept 25, 2008     Decision and Order of the Appellate Division, Third Department granting the Lewis Family Farm’s Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision until November 24, 2008.


For a concise summary of the chronology of the cases, see text of motion, Case No. 504696, Appellate Division, Third Department.

Nov 3, 2008     Notice of Motion in the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department and Affidavit of Jacob Lamme in Support of Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision

Nov. 14, 2008     Affirmation of Loretta Simon on behalf of the APA in Response to LFF's Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision

Nov. 17, 2008     Reply Affidavit of Jacob Lamme in Support of Motion to Extend the Time to Perfect the Appeal of Judge Ryan’s August 2007 Decision


Hon. Richard B. Meyer’s Decision & Order:

Nov 19, 2008     Decision and Order of Essex County Supreme Court (J. Meyer) Annulling the APA's March 25, 2008 Determination and Dismissing the APA's Duplicative Enforcement Action Against the Lewis Family Farm


In which the Appellate Division Third Judicial Dept. speaks again: Loretta Simon fails again:

Dec 1, 2008    Appellate Division's Decision extending the Lewis Family Farm's time to appeal Judge Ryan's Decision until January 26, 2009

 
In which, on June 26th, 2007, Lewis Family Farm initiates civil action against APA, a day before APA issues Cease & Desist Order, June 27th, Acting Supreme Court Justice Judge Kevin K. Ryan, Clinton County, dismisses farm’s case as ‘not ripe for judicial intervention’ - follows with dicta, following which AG’s office institutes duplicative civil action to Article 78 proceeding - see #332-08 - to judge shop, vacate by erasure its jurisdictional intent, implicate farm owners individually - and a year later, Assistant AG Loretta Simon misrepresents in open court before Hon. Richard B. Meyer, stating, “on or about June 28th, 2007,” as the date of our complaint against her client, in her oral argument , June 19th 2008.
 

© 2008 Lewis Family Farm. All Photos © Barbara A Lewis, except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Photo ©2008 Barbara A Lewis

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