Novack and Macey Leads Charge To Save Meigs Field
04-04-2003
Representing a group supporting Chicago's Meigs Field, Novack and Macey successfully won a temporary restraining order on April 4 prohibiting the City of Chicago from further demolishing the lakeside airport.
Cook County Judge William O. Maki issued the injunction after Friends of Meigs Field filed a lawsuit against the City and Mayor Daley. The order is set to stay in effect until further order of court.
Attorneys Stephen Novack and Karen Levine charge that the city violated state law by making alterations to an airport runway without getting approval from the Illinois Department of Transportation. "As a result, they've taken away a public use, and they've also acted without authority," Levine said. Following a closed-door meeting, the mayor dispatched bulldozers in the dark of night on March 30 to scrape X-shaped gouges in the runway.
Judge Maki ordered the city to preserve the taxiway, terminal building and other components that make up the downtown airstrip until he hears arguments on whether Mayor Daley acted legally.
Novack and Levine are partners at Novack and Macey, a law firm the Chicago Tribune called "a high-power litigation boutique" and the Sun Times described as “a small firm known for a bulldog manner in litigation.”
The plaintiffs include individual taxpayers, medical transport professionals, air traffic controllers and volunteers in the Young Eagles aviation education program for children.
In response to written interrogatories, Mayor Daley revealed that he consulted a closed circle of 13 advisors and attorneys before ordering the midnight destruction of the field. Friends of Meigs attorney Novack called the mayor's response disappointing, noting that "only a fraction of the documents requested" had been produced.
"He refused to answer many of the relevant questions, including any information concerning the reported disabling of the surveillance equipment that would have videotaped the midnight attack for all to see," Novack said.
Meigs field has been in operation for 55 years and handled about 30,000 flights each year. Mayor Daley has defended Meigs' closing as necessary to protect the public against possible terrorist attacks by small airplanes. Air traffic control employees work under contract by Midwest Air Traffic Control, headquartered in Kansas. However it is well known that the mayor has sought to convert Meigs into a nature park.
The suit, however, contends the closing itself threatens public safety by hampering air traffic, critical care for medical patients and disaster planning for bio-terrorist attacks. As an example of Meigs' safety role, the plaintiffs played an audiotape of radio transmissions in April between Meigs' tower controller and two aircraft that the pilots said averted a mid-air collision in the downtown area. The tower is to be closed with the airport.
In a similar suit, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago accusing the city of violating federal regulations by failing to give at least 30 days' notice before closing the airport's runway.
Founded in 1984, Novack and Macey is now one of Chicago’s best-known business litigation firms.
Cook County Judge William O. Maki issued the injunction after Friends of Meigs Field filed a lawsuit against the City and Mayor Daley. The order is set to stay in effect until further order of court.
Attorneys Stephen Novack and Karen Levine charge that the city violated state law by making alterations to an airport runway without getting approval from the Illinois Department of Transportation. "As a result, they've taken away a public use, and they've also acted without authority," Levine said. Following a closed-door meeting, the mayor dispatched bulldozers in the dark of night on March 30 to scrape X-shaped gouges in the runway.
Judge Maki ordered the city to preserve the taxiway, terminal building and other components that make up the downtown airstrip until he hears arguments on whether Mayor Daley acted legally.
Novack and Levine are partners at Novack and Macey, a law firm the Chicago Tribune called "a high-power litigation boutique" and the Sun Times described as “a small firm known for a bulldog manner in litigation.”
The plaintiffs include individual taxpayers, medical transport professionals, air traffic controllers and volunteers in the Young Eagles aviation education program for children.
In response to written interrogatories, Mayor Daley revealed that he consulted a closed circle of 13 advisors and attorneys before ordering the midnight destruction of the field. Friends of Meigs attorney Novack called the mayor's response disappointing, noting that "only a fraction of the documents requested" had been produced.
"He refused to answer many of the relevant questions, including any information concerning the reported disabling of the surveillance equipment that would have videotaped the midnight attack for all to see," Novack said.
Meigs field has been in operation for 55 years and handled about 30,000 flights each year. Mayor Daley has defended Meigs' closing as necessary to protect the public against possible terrorist attacks by small airplanes. Air traffic control employees work under contract by Midwest Air Traffic Control, headquartered in Kansas. However it is well known that the mayor has sought to convert Meigs into a nature park.
The suit, however, contends the closing itself threatens public safety by hampering air traffic, critical care for medical patients and disaster planning for bio-terrorist attacks. As an example of Meigs' safety role, the plaintiffs played an audiotape of radio transmissions in April between Meigs' tower controller and two aircraft that the pilots said averted a mid-air collision in the downtown area. The tower is to be closed with the airport.
In a similar suit, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago accusing the city of violating federal regulations by failing to give at least 30 days' notice before closing the airport's runway.
Founded in 1984, Novack and Macey is now one of Chicago’s best-known business litigation firms.