Baltimore – Maryland’s highest court handed down an interesting ruling today, saying a judge was wrong to hold a trial when the plaintiff couldn’t attend because of an Orthodox Jewish observance.
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Alexander H. Neustadter sued Holy Cross Hospital of Silver Spring after his father’s 2003 death. The case was set for trial in 2008. (The wheels of justice move slowly, you know.)
It turned out June 9 and 10 of that year, Monday and Tuesday, were the holiday of Shavuot. It commemorates the day God is said to have given the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
Orthodox Jews are not supposed to work on that day, treating it like the Sabbath. And because the attorney, had he appeared, would have been working on Neustadter’s behalf, he couldn’t go either.
Neustadter’s lawyer repeatedly filed motions to have the trial moved, and they were repeatedly denied.
Trial judges said the issue should have been brought up months earlier, when the date was put on the court calendar. But the appeals court said delaying a trial two days was “a reasonable accommodation.”
What a great country we live in. baruch hashem.
I had a bankruptcy judge in Brooklyn deny me to change a date because of Shevoth.
Judges believe that they have every power how to run their court room but i am glad that there is a ruling now that will for sure help other yidden with the same problem..