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Judge Allows John Lazar
To Keep Family Permits

In a setback for taxi drivers waiting to obtain their own medallions, Superior Court Judge Paul H. Alvarado has upheld a Taxi Commission decision allowing Luxor Cab President John Lazar to keep two taxicab permits formerly held by his deceased father and brother.
After John’s brother, Bill Lazar, Jr., died in 2000, John asked the commission to award him the medallions, claiming that his father had tried to place his name on the permits in 1978, but had not succeeded owing to mistakes made at the Police Commission.
The Taxi Commission voted to transfer the permits to Lazar in January 2002. After that decision was upheld by the Board of Appeals in October 2003, United Taxicab Workers and an individual permit applicant, Zareh Soghikian, appealed to Superior Court.
Under Proposition K of 1978, authored by then-Supervisor Quentin Kopp, taxicab permits are non-transferable. Lazar claimed that because the alleged mistakes took place before Prop K went into effect, the proposition did not apply.
UTW’s attorney, Robert Kane, argued in Superior Court that the evidence did not support Lazar’s claim of error, and that even if an error had occurred, the time to correct it was in 1978.
But Judge Alvarado was working under restrictive legal principles that give great deference to decisions of administrative bodies. Lazar’s lawyer, Philip Ward, contended that even if the judge believed the commission’s decision was wrong, he was required to find in Lazar’s favor as long as there was any credible evidence to support it.
On the legal issue of whether Proposition K barred Lazar’s claim, Kane argued that the only kind of mistake the Taxi Commission could correct was a clerical error in recording a Police Commission decision. The City Attorney, which advises and represents city commissions, agreed with UTW on this point. But the judge’s ruling implied that the commission could correct other types of mistakes, even 22 years after they had allegedly occurred.
UTW has made no decision about whether to appeal Judge Alvarado’s decision to the Court of Appeals. The deadline for filing an appeal is in early December.
Meanwhile, UTW is going forward with an appeal to Superior Court of another decision of the Taxi Commission involving eight permits formerly held by deceased Yellow Cab shareholder Georgette Welch. The commission transferred the permits to two of Welches’ children, six to Amy Welch and two to Philip Welch.