Five months after the Court of Appeals handed judges a partial victory in their more-than-decade-long battle for a pay raise, a group of judges sued the state last week, insisting they are entitled to $51 million set aside in last year’s budget for judicial compensation.

Filed in Nassau County Supreme Court, Pines v. State of New York, 13518-10 (See Complaint), claims that an appropriation in the 2009-10 state budget means that New York’s 1,300 judges are owed a retroactive pay hike.