Judge Won’t Force MTA to Issue
Withheld Medallions to Waiting List

A Superior Court judge has refused to order the MTA to issue to drivers on the waiting list medallions it has been holding in reserve for purposes of sale. The judge ruled against a group of cab drivers who are suing the agency and the city to stop medallion sales.

Judge Charlotte Walter Woolard’s decision came despite the fact that the medallions in question should have been re-issued before the sales program began. She said she was compelled to follow current law rather than the law in effect when the medallions were first withheld.

The MTA has failed to re-issue dozens of medallions after death or revocation should have made them available to drivers on the waiting list. Some of the medallions have been in the agency’s possession, while others are being operated by cab companies that are paying a lease fee of $1,900 a month to the agency..

As of mid-February, the MTA had sold 17 withheld medallions, but many more remained un-issued. It has committed to issuing a medallion to a driver on the list for each one it sells directly.

The judge’s ruling was confined to the question of whether the agency should have re-issued the withheld medallions to drivers on the list. The main claim in the lawsuit — that the medallion sales program is illegal — has yet to be decided.