Politics on the Hudson

A new court battle has begun in a two-year dispute over legal fees for a law firm hired by the City Council.

The law firm Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Decker LLP of White Plains filed a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court on Feb. 5 asking the court to award it a $55,760.89 judgment for unpaid legal services it rendered to the City Council in 2008.

Last March Mount Vernon Comptroller Maureen Walker said she paid the firm’s remaining legal bills, which totaled $84,388 at the time. In June, however, Walker argued that the firm should return $39,000 of the money after a Westchester County judge ruled that the City Council didn’t properly hire the firm during the time it did some of its work.

Today Deputy Comptroller Thomas Rajala declined to comment on the law firm’s new claim for compensation, citing the pending litigation.

The Feb. 5 suit is the latest in a string of disputes over attorneys hired by the City Council and former Mayor Ernest Davis in 2007 and 2008.

The Davis appointee Ravi Batra sued the city in August for wrongful termination, but earlier that summer a county judge ruled in another case that Mayor Clinton Young’s dismissal of Batra was legal. Today Batra said his wrongful termination case is still pending and he expects court hearings within the next two weeks to determine whether his suit will be tried in Westchester or in New York City.