Premature. That is how a state Supreme Court judge described a lawsuit filed by Utica fire Chief Russell Brooks against the City of Utica when he ruled to dismiss it without prejudice.
Brooks filed his lawsuit against the city and Mayor Robert Palmieri. In it, Brooks claimed the city rejected an application for sick leave benefits connected with his chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a condition he said was contracted as a result of his response to ground zero for 9/11 recovery operations.
Judge Patrick MacRae, however, ruled the application in question — a Sept. 18 email from Brooks’ attorneys to the city’s legal counsel — was not actually a formal benefits application, but rather was a proposed compromise to settle a separate, but related matter.