Judges Rule Against Auctioning Off Areas of St. John’s Cemetery

St. John’s Cemetery, the final resting place of mayors and mobsters alike, has been slated for the auction block since 2004, when a state judge ordered the sale of parts of the cemetery to pay off the diocese’s debt.It now appears that the cemetery will not lose its main gate, its parking lots, or its administrative buildings just yet. A mid-level appellate court in Brooklyn decided that the lower court judge may have been wrong to rule that any land not containing graves or monuments could be sold off.In a unanimous decision, four judges ordered a hearing to determine which parts of the cemetery were necessary for its “survivability,” and ruled that all such areas were protected from being auctioned.Located in Queens, St. John’s Cemetery contains the grave of John Hylan, who served two terms as mayor beginning in 1918. Organized crime figures such as John Gotti and Charles “Lucky” Luciano are also buried there. The cemetery is run by the Diocese of Brooklyn, which also encompasses Queens.The fate of the cemetery has been in doubt for more than a decade, since a construction company, Durante Bros. Construction Corp., went to court seeking payment for a $523,000 bill.The bill dates back to 1993, when the firm installed concrete beams that provided cemetery monuments with a sturdier foundation, according to court documents. It also replaced the cemetery’s sandy and rocky soil with clean fill to make it easier to dig graves, according to the documents.In 2004, a judge in Queens, Peter O’Donoghue, directed the sheriff’s department to sell off parts of the cemetery to raise the money owed by the diocese.In its ruling yesterday, the appellate court decided that Judge O’Donoghue had erred in deciding that all land not containing graves could be sold to raise funds. Under the appellate court’s ruling, any land or buildings needed for “cemetery purposes” are also protected.The judges write that without such properties, “the cemetery cannot perform its important purpose. It will simply wither and die.”Anita Florio, Gabriel Krausman, Reinaldo Rivera, and Steven Fisher sat on the appellate panel that decided the case.Yesterday, representatives for both the construction firm and the Diocese of Brooklyn suggested that the appellate order was moot, following a settlement. A spokesman for the diocese, Frank DeRosa, said the settlement was reached about two months ago, but declined to provide any further details.

Judges Rule Against Auctioning Off Areas of St. John’s Cemetery

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