Opinion
August 23, 1989
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Levine, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.
At the hearing, at least three witnesses testified that although their names and addresses appear on the petition, the signatures were not theirs. Another witness testified that she never signed the petition for the appellant, and that the only paper she did sign was a large, white piece of paper which the appellant personally represented to her was a petition for Puerto Rican statehood. Several subscribing witnesses under the control of the appellant who were subpoenaed did not appear at the hearing. In addition, the appellant himself did not appear in court during the entire hearing, even though a process server testified that he had served him with a subpoena (see, Turner Press v. Gould, 76 A.D.2d 906; Scola v. Morgan, 66 A.D.2d 228; PJI 1:75).
Upon the record before us we find that there is sufficient evidence to support the determination that instances of fraud so permeate the designating petition as to render it invalid (see, Matter of Haskell v. Gargiulo, 51 N.Y.2d 747).
We have not considered the constitutional arguments raised by the appellant in reaching this conclusion (see, McKinney's Cons Laws of NY, Book 1, Statutes § 150; People v. Felix, 58 N.Y.2d 156). Kunzeman, J.P., Eiber, Spatt, Harwood and Balletta, JJ., concur.