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Having had the opportunity last week to observe, in State Supreme Court Justice Amy Fricano's courtroom, the epic battle of John Prozeralik's one-man struggle against an empire, I was once again reminded of another story from another time that seems very, very familiar.
In the biblical story of David and Goliath, David was the youngest, but the strongest, of the eight sons of Jesse. Together they lived a few miles from Jerusalem in the town of Bethlehem. In the vast open pastures, David cared for his father's sheep, staying with them day and night in the cold of winter, protecting the flock from the wild animals that were constantly stalking them. He often rescued young lambs and frail sheep from the jaws of hungry lions and thieving bears.
As the story goes, at night he sang to the flock and played his harp while he kept watch over them, wrapping himself in a warm blanket his mother had made from the sheep's thick gray wool, while he prayed to God to keep watch over them.
Some of David's brothers and friends were soldiers in the great army of King Saul, which was in a desperate battle with another army camped south of David's country, in a land of giants. One of the tallest and most feared of the giants was Goliath, who stood nine feet tall and had four brothers who were almost as tall and fierce as Goliath himself.
Goliath would regularly stalk to a nearby cliff and shout across the valley to the terrified army, "Choose a man from among you to come and fight me," but the soldiers were too afraid to take up his challenge. So the whole country lived in fear of the giants, afraid to live and prosper beyond the confines of their small homes, unable to raise their sheep or grow their crops to feed, clothe and shelter their families.
One day David went to King Saul and offered to go and fight the giant Goliath. The King at first refused his offer, saying that David was too young and untrained to fight such a powerful and skilled foe. But David insisted, telling the King that he was not afraid, that he had learned to fight the fiercest enemies from his experience in the fields while protecting the flocks from the wild animals. Finally, the King agreed to let David go if he agreed to wear the King's heaviest armor, but the armor was too heavy for David. Though he was strong, the armor was too big for him. Instead, David went to the valley armed only with his sling and his pouch. Confident that his God would protect him, he calmly picked up five smooth brook stones and placed them in his shepherd's pouch.
Seeing this, Goliath shouted, "Am I a dog that you would come against me with sticks?"
Whispering a quick prayer, David placed one of the stones in his sling and slung the stone directly into the forehead of Goliath. The giant went down face-first into the ground. David ran swiftly to his side, took out the giant's own sword, and cut off Goliath's head.
While it may be a bit of a stretch to compare Prozeralik to David, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority certainly conjured up images of the big, loud, boisterous, contentious giant, Goliath. Crowding their table with an army of attorneys from the region's largest, most powerful and prestigious law firms, they appeared confident in their position that little people have no right to interfere with the rights of giant organizations. Their lead attorney, Benjamin Zuffranieri Jr., complained that Prozeralik's case should be thrown out because he had "no standing to sue."
The NFTA claims the case is not subject to judicial review because it fails to state a cause of action. Their attorneys argued that the lawsuit is untimely, that the plaintiffs waited too long to sue and that Prozeralik is a "stranger," not entitled to be heard.
To that, the plaintiff's attorney, Richard Sullivan, who sat alone on the other side of the huge courtroom, responded, "outrageous." He said Prozeralik had been complaining for 30 years about the NFTA's failure to develop the airport. He said the NFTA's claim that the case should be thrown out because citizens do not have the right to sue was "ridiculous."
In addition to Buffalo's largest law firm, Hodgson Russ, the NFTA was also represented by its own General Counsel, David Gregory. The Spanish company, Cintra Concesiones de Infrastructuras de Transporte, was represented by high-powered Buffalo attorney Ed Blumberg of Phillips Lyttle.
Though no stones were thrown in Thursday's initial hearing, the stage was set for a major showdown on the issue of whether the citizens and businessmen of Niagara Falls were "intended beneficiaries" of the agreement between the City of Niagara Falls and the NFTA to develop the airport. The more subtle issue may be whether one man can take on a giant and win.