Crown Castle Secures Second Department Reversal

Skadden secured a victory on behalf of Crown Castle NG East before the New York Appellate Division, Second Department, obtaining reversal of a New York State Supreme Court decision dismissing Crown Castle’s petition and complaint in a hybrid CPLR Article 78 proceeding for lack of standing. In reversing the lower court decision, the appellate court found that, for purposes of its Article 78 petition, Crown established it had suffered an injury in fact within the zone of interests sought to be protected when the respondents — the city of Rye and its city council — (i) denied Crown’s proposal to install equipment under its contract and (ii) attempted to subject Crown to review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act notwithstanding a provision in the contract to the contrary. The Second Department also found that Crown had sufficiently rebutted the respondents’ showing that it lacked standing by demonstrating that it and the predecessor entity that was party to the contract were the same by virtue of a reverse merger transaction and name change.