Court rules on Long Beach taxi medallions

The Nassau County Supreme Court has ruled that a batch of licenses formerly held by Long Beach Taxi owner John Marsala were not his property, the latest chapter in the feud between the city's two cab companies.

Marsala sued Long Beach in 2008 after city officials did not renew almost two dozen of his licenses -- or medallions -- he let lapse. He named Beech Street Taxi owner Thomas Cipolla in the suit because the city gave him seven of the 22 medallions. The rest have not been awarded.

Supreme Court Justice Thomas Phelan decided last week that because the licenses had expired, Marsala was not entitled to an appeal under the city's code of ordinances, and that "the city's denial of petitioner's renewal applications was not arbitrary or capricious." Because the licenses were inactive, Phelan said it was fair for the city to issue them to Cipolla.

Marsala's attorney, Michael Zapson, said Saturday that they plan to appeal the decision..

Cipolla is cautiously optimistic, but said he's lost business since Marsala stopped honoring a long-standing agreement, brokered by former City Manager Charles Theofan, that each company work separate sides of the Long Beach Long Island Rail Road station.

"Between both shifts, I'm probably losing a couple hundred dollars a day" since Long Beach Taxi started blocking his drivers on the west side of the station, Cipolla said. And because Marsala leases the east side -- the west side is public property -- Beech Street Taxi is excluded from working there.

Cipolla said three of his drivers have quit -- one now works for Marsala -- because they've made substantially less since Long Beach Taxi started serving the west side in February.

But Ricky Carls, who's driven for much larger Long Beach Taxi for 40 years, said the feud between the companies is the result of competition. "On any cab line anywhere you find friction amongst companies," Carls said. "It just happens with cabdrivers."

Beech Street Taxi driver Jerry Haas said he's losing $30 to $50 per shift and might have to look for more work elsewhere or face homelessness.

"My next course of action is to go to the city council and ask them to return things to the way they were," with companies on opposite sides of the station, Cipolla said.

And when all of the city's 50 taxi licenses expire at the end of the month, Cipolla hopes he can collect more of the medallions freed up by the court's decision. "We have won according to the Supreme Court," Cipolla said. "I really would like to feel like a winner right now, but it's difficult."