EVIDENCE OF ALLEGED FRAUD IN THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SIGNATURES WAS NOT SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT THE INVALIDATION OF THE DESIGNATING PETITION (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, reversing Supreme Court. determined respondent’s designating petition should not have been invalidated based on allegations of fraud in acknowledging signatures:
… [T]he court based its determination to invalidate the designating petition on the testimony of a single signatory, who stated that although respondent was the subscribing witness on the petition that she signed, her signature was actually witnessed by a younger man of a different race. While such evidence may warrant invalidation of a designating petition … , cross-examination of the signatory—during which she acknowledged signing four City Court petitions, including one for an individual whose description was similar to that of respondent—called her testimony on direct examination into question. …
… [W]e conclude that respondent’s apparent failure to administer to one signatory “an oath . . . calculated to awaken the conscience and impress the mind of the person taking it in accordance with his religious or ethical beliefs’ ” … did not, on its own, constitute evidence of fraud requiring invalidation of his designating petition … . Matter of Monto v Zeigler, 2020 NY Slip Op 02753, Fourth Dept 5-14-20