A federal judge ruled that plaintiffs in a proposed class action lack standing to pursue their suit accusing the Port Authority for New York and New Jersey of not providing on-the-job training to minority contractors.
In granting a motion to dismiss, Eastern District Judge Margo Brodie said the plaintiffs failed to show a "concrete and particularized" injury from Port Authority's failure to provide on-the-job training or by the entity's efforts to adhere to quotas that are conditions of federal grants.
To argue for standing, the plaintiffs relied on a 1973 decision to certify a class in a suit filed on behalf of minorities who said they should be provided training to help them break into New York's construction industry, which was known at the time for racial discrimination.
James Kernan of Kernan Professional Group, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, attempted to consolidate the more than 40-year-old case, Percy v. Brennan, 73-cv-4279, with the suit against the Port Authority, which was filed in 2015.
In May, Southern District Judge Loretta Preska temporarily reanimated Percy which stalled after class certification was granted by ordering it back to the docket.
But in June, Southern District Judge P. Kevin Castel ruled that a transcript from a 1977 hearing on Percy, which a government attorney dug up from the National Archives, "makes plain" that the case was dismissed.
David Kromm, in-house counsel to the Port Authority, appeared in the case, Evans v. Port Authority, 15-cv-3942.