Isidor Wasservogel (December 25, 1875 – February 8, 1962) was a Jewish Hungarian-American lawyer and judge from New York.

Life

Wasservogel was born on December 25, 1875, in Budapest, the Kingdom of Hungary, the son of Max Wasservogel and Katherine Hoffman. Wasservogel immigrated to America in 1880. He attended the College of the City of New York, and graduated from the

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...

with an LL.B. in 1896. He began practicing law in New York City later that year. He specialized in real estate and commercial law. He was a member of the law firm Wasservogel & Medalie. From 1910 to 1916, Wasservogel served as assistant and acting New York County District Attorney. In this role, he obtained the first conviction based exclusively on finger print evidence in 1912. He was elected to the

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

in 1920. He was re-elected in 1934. While on the Supreme Court, Wasservogel investigated ambulance-chasing lawyers and accident claim agents. His inquiry lead to 74 members of the New York bar being disciplined and several recommendations to cut down on ambulance chasing, including lawyers not receiving more than a third of won personal injury damages and the court supervising the fees. Governor Dewey appointed him to the Appellate Division First Department in August 1945, but he retired from the Court at the end of the year as he hit the constitutional age limit. He spent the next three years working in his old law firm, Wasservogel & Sylvester. He then became an official referee for the Appellate Division until 1951 due to the statutory age limit. In 1952, he special referee for equity cases in the Supreme Court, which he did without compensation. Wasservogel was a Republican. He was a member of the

New York City Bar Association The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

, the

New York State Bar Association The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justice ...

, the New York County Lawyers' Association, the

Knights of Pythias The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on . The Knights of Pythias is the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an act of the United States Congress. It was founded ...

, and B'nai B'rith. In 1906, he married Dorothy Mass. They had no children. She died in 1950. Wasservogel died in Doctors Hospital on February 8, 1962.

References

External links

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The Political Graveyard
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wasservogel, Isidor 1875 births 1962 deaths People from Budapest Jews from Austria-Hungary American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent People from the Kingdom of Hungary Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States American Jews American lawyers City College of New York alumni New York Law School alumni 19th-century American lawyers 20th-century American lawyers New York Supreme Court Justices 20th-century American judges New York (state) Republicans New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department justices