Finding that New York’s attorney general “does not have the authority” to bring major parts of a case against former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard A. Grasso in connection with Grasso’s $187.5 million pay package, an Appellate Division, 1st Department panel Tuesday dismissed four of the state agency’s six claims.
In a 3-2 decision written by Justice James M. McGuire, the panel said in People v. Grasso, 401620/04, that “in seeking to impose liability on Grasso without regard to either of the fault-based requirements of the legislative scheme, the complaint brings into sharp focus the fundamental problem with the Attorney General’s position: its inconsistency with the principle of separation of powers.”
