Monahan v. NY City Dept. of Corrections
| Decision Date | 08 June 2000 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 98-9067,WHYTE-PHILLIPS and MARTINE,KEYES-ALSTO,JULIE |
| Citation | 214 F.3d 275,2000 WL 730286 |
| Parties | (2nd Cir. 2000) DANIEL MONAHAN, EVELYN S. RODRIGUEZ, CECILIA LORDE, LUIS ALMODOVAR, FRED SILVA, THOMAS BASIL, ROBERT NETELL, DANIEL FOYNES, HARVEY BALL, DANIEL APONTE, GARY NARDIELLO, VINCENT REBECCA, ORAL BECKFORD, ALICE BRESLOFF, IRWIN COHEN, JOSE CUEVAS, DENNIS DENIRO, INGRID GRIFFIN, DENNISSE ILARRAZA, THEODORE ISRAEL, SABRINAKNOWLES, TANYA MANN, MICHAEL MESSINA, JOHN MICKEL, NZINGHA MOSES, NOAH NORFLEET, JOSEPH PALERMO, GARFIELD PARKISON, HILDA REYES, KEVIN RILEY, RUBEN RODRIGUEZ, LUIS SANTIAGO, WENDY TYSON, LINDA VARBERO, WILLIE WALLACE, JOHNNY WATFORD, ANTHONY WHITE, DENISEWHYTE, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, CITY OF NEW YORK, MICHAEL JACOBSON, Acting Commissioner, City of New York Department of Correction, TERRANCE SKINNER, Deputy Warden and Commanding Officer of the Health Management Division of the City of New York Dept. of Correction, JOHNSTON, Supervisor Civilian (ID NO. 25835), PETER MAHON, former Deputy Warden and Commanding Officer of the Health Management Division of the City of New York Department of Correction, JAMES BIRD, Deputy Warden and Commanding Officer of the Health Management Division of the City of New York Department of Correction and CAROL L. BISHOP, Assistant Deputy Warden of the City of New York Department of Correction, Defendants-Appellees |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Fredric Ostrove, Carle Place, N.Y. (Leeds & Morelli, Esqs., Carle Place, New York), for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Susan Choi-Hausman, Office of the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, New York, N.Y. (Michael D. Hess, Corporation Counsel, Barry P. Schwartz, John Wirenius, Janice Birnbaum of Counsel), for Defendants-Appellees.
Before: LEVAL and SACK, Circuit Judges, and MORAN,* Senior District Judge.
Plaintiffs-appellants are current and former New York City correction officers and captains. They appeal from a judgment of the District Court for the Southern District of New York (Rakoff, J.) dismissing with prejudice their consolidated challenge to the sick leave policy of the New York City Department of Correction ("DOC"). Embodied in DOC Directive 2262, the policy permits an eligible officer continuous sick leave for up to one year provided the officer remains at home. Appellants claim the home confinement provision of Directive 2262 is facially violative of the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution and has been unconstitutionally applied to individual DOC employees.
The district court found that most of plaintiffs' constitutional claims were res judicata based on an earlier lawsuit by the president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association ("COBA"), the exclusive bargaining agent for New York City correction officers. The remaining counts were dismissed by the court pursuant to Rule 56 for a failure to aver admissible evidence in support of each claim. On appeal, the officers contend that the prerequisites for res judicata are not present here and, in any event, the district court abused its discretion when it allowed defendants to assert the defense "in the eleventh hour of litigation." Because we conclude that the former suit by COBA president Norman Seabrook barred the subsequent relitigation of plaintiffs' claims and that plaintiffs were not prejudiced by the late assertion of res judicata, we affirm.
New York City correction officers regularly confront dangerous and stressful working conditions. Many are injured in the line of duty. Because it is difficult to recruit and retain qualified individuals for these positions, COBA has successfully bargained and secured for its members a generous benefits package, including the "unlimited" sick leave policy at issue here. First implemented in 1987, DOC Directive 2262 generally permits a correction officer to report in sick for periods of up to one year provided he or she stays at home except for authorized medical departures. In 1988, the policy was amended to permit certain officers taking sick leave to be 24 hours out-of-residence so long as certain reporting requirements were fulfilled. Those officers ineligible for the full-day permit were granted a four hour "recreation" period (known as "rec" hours) to attend to their personal needs and were relieved of the obligation to log in and out when leaving home.
By 1993, DOC officials suspected that the liberalized sick leave policy was being widely abused. An audit found that much of the documentation submitted by officers for their authorized departures did not substantiate their participation in the reported activity. The audit team recommended that officers on sick leave be limited to their four "rec" hours for all personal activities and that additional hours out-of-residence not be granted. When Terrence Skinner became commanding officer of the Health Management Division ("HMD") in 1995, he implemented many of the auditors' recommendations, tightening up enforcement of Directive 2262 and limiting 24 hour out-of-residence privileges to officers injured in the line of duty. According to the DOC, the new enforcement mechanisms reduced daily sick rates by 35% and allowed the department to more evenly distribute the work load across the uniformed work force.
Correction officers subject to the revised policy were not so enthusiastic. On October 13, 1995, COBA President Norman Seabrook and two individual officers filed a civil action in the Eastern District of New York, challenging the constitutionality of Directive 2262's home confinement provisions. See Seabrook v. Jacobson, No. 95 Civ. 4194 (FB) (E.D.N.Y.) (the "Seabrook" action). The complaint, brought by Seabrook "in his capacity as President of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association," sought compensatory damages for plaintiffs, punitive damages, a declaratory judgment finding Directive 2262 facially unconstitutional, and equitable relief on behalf of "correction officers entitled to sick leave." On April 9, 1996, the Seabrook suit settled, resulting in a "Stipulation and Order of Settlement and Discontinuance" ("stipulation") approved by the district court. The complete text of the stipulation is as follows:
WHEREAS, plaintiffs, NORMAN SEABROOK, in his capacity as President of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, PATRICIA TAYLOR and BELINDA RUDDER, commenced this action alleging that Section VII of defendants' sick leave policy, Directive 2262, is unconstitutional on its face and as applied, and violated their constitutional rights and the rights of similarly situated sick employees in violation of 42 U.S.C. 1983, and;
WHEREAS, defendants assert that the Department of Correction sick leave policy is patently constitutional and justified by a variety of constitutionally sufficient state interests, and deny any and all liability arising out of plaintiffs' allegations; and
WHEREAS, the parties now desire to resolve the issues arising from this litigation without further proceedings;
IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED, by and between the undersigned as follows:
1. The above-referenced action is hereby dismissed, with prejudice, and without costs, expenses and fees;
2. Within five days of the Court's signing of this order, defendants agree to amend Section VII of Directive 2262, in the form as annexed hereto as Exhibit "A".
3. This Court retains jurisdiction over this action. If the Department of Correction intends to modify Section VII of Directive 2262, 30 days notice of any such change must be provided to the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association ("COBA"), and either party may move to reopen this matter. This paragraph's requirement of notice to COBA expires on January 1, 1998.
A fourth paragraph stipulating to the dismissal with prejudice of two related suits1 was crossed out before the parties signed the stipulation.
Pursuant to the parties' agreement, Directive 2262 was amended effective April 22, 1996, consistent with Exhibit A. The Directive now provides that unless officers are classified as "sick leave abusers" they will not be confined to their residence for the first eight days of leave. Beyond this initial grace period, the leave policy differentiates between officers injured in the line of duty and those who are "otherwise out on sick leave." Officers who report sick as the result of a verified line-of-duty injury and who have a definite return-to-duty date within two weeks of the date they visit an HMD physician are not confined to their residences. An officer injured in the line of duty without a definite return date is subject to home confinement, but may apply to HMD for additional time out-of-residence so long as the officer has a sick leave history of 8 days or less per year for 3 years, has not been classified as a "sick leave abuser," has a violation-free sick leave history, and can document an objective finding of injury or illness.2
Officers otherwise out on sick leave are required to remain in their residences at all times except for "time out-of-residence authorized by HMD." Officers may log out at any time for medical appointments, hospital visits or physical therapy ordered by a physician. All other personal business, however, including civic, educational and religious duties, must be conducted during an officer's daily four-hour block of "rec" time. This is often difficult given that officers must designate either the 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. block or the 1:00-5:00 p.m. block for a thirty day period; there is no evening option. HMD will only entertain individual requests for additional time out-of-residence "in the event of a dire emergency" and each such request is evaluated by the commanding officer of HMD or his designee on a case-by-case...
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