Opinion
2012-02-7
In the Matter of Philip RAGUSA, etc., petitioner-respondent, v. Thomas V. OGNIBENE, et al., appellants, et l., respondents.
In a proceeding pursuant to Election Law § 16–102, inter alia, to invalidate a certificate of election filed with the Board of Elections in the City of New York electing the appellants as officers of the Republican Party County Committee for the County of Queens, State of New York, Thomas V. Ognibene, Janice E. Bar, and Bart J. Haggerty appeal, as limited by their brief, from so much of a final order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Flug, J.), entered October 31, 2011, as, in effect, granted the petition and, among other things, in effect, invalidated the subject certificate of election.
ORDERED that the final order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, without costs or disbursements.
The petitioner's unrefuted submissions demonstrate that he was elected Chairman of the Republican Party County Committee for the County of Queens, State of New York (hereinafter the QCRP), at its 2009 organizational meeting, and that the Chairman of the New York Republican State Committee subsequently recognized the petitioner as the Chairman of the QCRP. As such, pursuant to the then-governing bylaws of the QCRP, only the petitioner, as the outgoing QCRP Chairman, had the authority to call the 2011 organizational meeting of the QCRP, and Bart J. Haggerty, who called a purported 2011 organizational meeting of the QCRP, lacked authority to do so. Accordingly, the Supreme Court properly, in effect, granted the petition, inter alia, to invalidate the certificate of election of officers resulting from that unauthorized organizational meeting.
The appellants' remaining contentions are without merit.