If You Can Build Atop Your Penthouse, Does That Give You Air Rights?

Aug. 18, 2014 — Bill Cosby famously asked, in a comedy routine, "Why is there air?" And investor James Brady — no relation to the recently decease gun-control advocate — has now spent at least seven years in court and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees asking his co-op, "Where are my air rights?" The answer, New York courts have responded time and again, is that he doesn't have them, even though the offering plan for the commercial co-op at 450 West 31st Street, where he owns a penthouse suite, gives him "the right to construct or extend structures upon the roof or above the same."

Justice Shirley Kornreich, reports the New York Law Journal, dismissed Brady's most recent actions as “a near-perfect example of frivolous conduct" and reaffirmed an earlier decision that the co-op own but the case remains fascinatingly complex and actually quite entertaining — and that's even before you get to Brady's website, BullyJudges.com, where he claims "corrupt" New York justices have behaved with “depraved indifference” and “deceptive behavior” So we're not actually sure if he's calling the judges bullies, or if "bully judges" is a suggestion....