Staten Island Borough President James Oddo was handed a legal victory Wednesday over a controversial street naming case. 

The Appellate Division, Second Department unanimously ruled again that the borough president is within his right to choose street names.

Oddo's pick of names for streets that were erected over the Mt. Manresa jesuit site two years ago stirred controversy.

The names for the condo streets translated to greed, trickery, and deception in another language. 

"This is not a victory lap," Oddo said. "The trees are no longer there. The beautiful buildings are no longer there. The bottom line is: the borough president gets to pick the names. "

Oddo said while people have latched on to the issue over the names, the real fight in court was over closing a loophole that blurred the distinction between private and public roads when it comes to large developments. 

Oddo issued the following statement:

“Earlier today I received the good news that the Appellate Division, Second Department, unanimously ruled in my favor in the Mount Builders, LLC v. James Oddo case. The Court agreed with our argument that the naming of the roads on the Mt. Manresa site was within my sole discretion, and that the lower court judge correctly ruled in my favor. I will not take a victory lap because doing so won’t bring back the trees so haphazardly destroyed by the developers, or return the site to its former glory. I wish we didn’t have to get to this point, and we would not have if the previous owners of the site had done what other responsible large land owners, like the Children’s Aid Society, did, which was work with local government to preserve their site for future generations of Staten Islanders.”  

“In the end, I understand that the street names at issue in this case – Avidita Place, Fourberie Lane, and Cupidity Drive – are not that important to Staten Islanders; instead the real importance is that they are officially made part of the city map. That’s why the true victory will come when our work results in a change in the GCL 36 process so that it works as intended. This, and only this, will protect residents and communities by ensuring agencies do the necessary analysis prior to development.”