Genesee County has been granted a change of venue in a lawsuit filed by New York City in the Supreme Court of New York County.
In a decision filed Tuesday, “the Court finds that NYC has failed to establish any compelling circumstances as to warrant that venue remain in New York County” in violation of the applicable statutes that mandate the judicial proceeding or action against a county to be in the said county or in the “judicial district where the respondent made the determination complained of.”
Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the petition is dismissed as against some of the counties involved. However, a motion for a change of venue and to sever has been granted for other counties, including Genesee and County Manager Matt Landers.
"The ruling was on a change of venue, in which we were successful in moving the venue to Genesee County," Landers said Wednesday.
In early June, New York City filed a lawsuit against some 30 upstate municipalities, including Genesee County, seeking to invalidate their executive orders barring undocumented immigrants from entering their locales.
The lawsuit claimed that those emergency orders obstructed New York City’s efforts to relocate migrants in “a manner that is explicitly permitted by law and required by a statewide emergency.”
While this doesn’t dismiss the lawsuit, it will bring the proceedings closer to home.
