United States v. Local 359, United Seafood Workers, 705 F. Supp. 894 (S.D.N.Y. 1989): the Fulton Fish Market

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Thomas P. Griesa, decided 24 January 1989. The opinion “constitutes the court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law following the trial of the union defendants.” The action was commenced on 15 October 1987 under the civil provisions of RICO.

As the court describes the complaint, the third group of defendants was the “Genovese Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra” and 29 persons allegedly connected with it. The complaint alleged that the family had controlled the Fulton Fish Market and Local 359 since the 1930s. “On April 15, 1988 a default judgment was entered against the Genovese Organized Crime Family” and three defendants allegedly connected with it, barring them from dealings with Local 359 and from business in the Market. The same day the other 25 individual defendants entered a consent judgment, which barred Carmine Romano and Vincent Romano from the Market and provided for a court-appointed administrator of the Market.

After trial the court held that the Government had not proved that the family “currently controls, and in recent years has controlled, Local 359 and its principal officers,” and it dismissed the claims against the union and its two remaining officers. It added: “This is not to say that there is no evidence of the presence of organized crime, particularly Genovese family operatives, in the Fulton Fish Market,” and found that Vincent Romano “is undoubtedly associated with the Genovese family.”

The family is named here as the court’s caption and judgment name it. A default judgment is entered because a defendant did not answer; it is not a finding after trial. Nothing on this page is copied onto a family chart.