August 31, 1999
Court Surprise: Giuliani Picked as Juror No.1
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By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
ix jurors were selected in State
Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday to hear an obscure $7 million
personal injury case called Johnson
vs. Riverton Associates. They included a registered nurse, a student, a
communications executive, a financial journalist and the Mayor of New
York City.
And over the next week or so,
barring a last-minute settlement,
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the tigerish former Federal prosecutor who has
been known to devour lawyers before
breakfast and maul judges and verdicts he does not like, will have a
chance to play the Common Man in
the jury box -- listening instead of
lecturing others on their civic duties,
and perhaps forgoing the political
pyrotechnics to walk the slender line
of objectivity in the jury room.
The Mayor -- the first ever picked
to serve on a jury -- was the latest in
a growing list of politicians and celebrities to be summoned for possible duty since the state approved
reforms in 1995 that abolished exemptions for lawyers, doctors and
others. Among those who have been
called, but not chosen, are Gov.
George E. Pataki, the state's Chief
Judge, Judith Kaye, and even Giuliani once previously.
Prominent people, particularly
highly persuasive politicians, are
usually not chosen because trial lawyers regard them as too influential in
the jury room. And no one seemed
more amazed than Giuliani
when the opposing lawyers picked
him as Juror No. 1 in the civil suit, in
which a Harlem man and his wife
are suing their landlord, claiming the
husband's genitals were scalded taking a shower.
"The Mayor has in fact been selected to serve as a juror on a very
personal, personal injury case," said
David Bookstaver, a spokesman for
the State Office of Court Administration. "To the best of my knowledge,
this is the first time a mayor of New
York has ever served as a juror."
"Was I surprised? Yeah, I was
surprised," His Honor said after an
extraordinary day in which he joined
the crowd of potential jurors at a
courthouse at 60 Centre Street, saw a
film about the jury system and answered lawyers' questions about his
qualifications and his ability to be
fair in rendering a verdict.
It was anybody's guess why the
lawyers for both sides agreed to seat Giuliani, rather that exclude him
for some specified cause or by using
one of several peremptory challenges that need not be explained.
"It is strange that both sides would
take him," former Mayor Edward I.
Koch said when asked about it.
"There is no doubt that, his personality being what it is, you'd fear
putting someone like him on. This is
no longer what six people think. It's
what Giuliani thinks. That's gonna be
a major problem. No reflection on
him. He's just doing his duty."
Sonya Hamlin, a jury and trial
consultant who has written books on
juries and communications, speculated that the competing lawyers, for
different reasons, saw advantages in
having Giuliani on the panel --
the tenant's lawyer believing Giuliani's desire to run for the Senate would prompt him to do the popular thing; the landlord's lawyer
counting on the Mayor who has denounced "nuisance" lawsuits
against the city to stand up for principle.
The Mayor, who received a jury
summons in 1996 and another a few
weeks ago but made no public announcement, arrived at the courthouse shortly after 9:15 A.M., accompanied by two aides and a security
detail of plainclothes police officers.
Clad in a light summer suit, he
strode up the steps anonymously.
He was soon recognized inside. After a modest hubbub, Giuliani
found himself assigned to a civil
court part, sitting in a jury box with a
score of other people being questioned by Brian Hurley, a lawyer for
Oliver and Larene Johnson, the
plaintiffs, and James C. Miller, representing Riverton Associates, the
defendants.
In the suit, Johnson contends
that he was scalded in a shower in his
apartment at 135th Street and Madison Avenue on Feb. 16, 1995, as a
result of a "defective, hazardous and
unsafe" hot water system and "negligence" by the landlord. Johnson seeks $6 million in damages, and
his wife $1 million for the loss of her
husband's services.
No reporters were present for the
voir dire, but people who were
present said the Mayor was asked
whether he was a landlord or a tenant. It was unclear what answer he
gave, but he might have noted that he
owns an apartment on the Upper
East Side and is a tenant at Gracie
Mansion.
