Somoza v. New York City Dept. of Educ.

• Citation: 538 F.3d 106
• Decision Date: 14 August 2008
• Docket Number: Docket No. 07-0778-cv.
• Parties: Alba SOMOZA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit)

538 F.3d 106

Alba SOMOZA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, Defendant-Appellant.

Docket No. 07-0778-cv.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: December 13, 2007.

Decided: August 14, 2008.

David J. Adams, (Kimberly M. Mack Rosenberg, Salam M. Katsch, on the brief), Kasowitz, Benson, Torres, & Friedman, LLP, New York, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Susan Paulson, Assistant Corporation Counsel, (Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, Francis F. Caputo, Janice L. Birnbaum, of Counsel), City of New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before: CALABRESI, CABRANES, and SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judges.

JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Alba Somoza is a multiply-handicapped twenty-three-year-old woman. From the time of her attendance in preschool until January 2008, she received special educational services from defendant New York City Department of Education ("DOE"), as required by the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act ("IDEA"), 20 U.S.C. §§ 1400-1482. After her statutory entitlement to a free appropriate public education ("FAPE") expired at the end of the 2004-2005 academic year,¹ plaintiff brought an administrative claim against the DOE, alleging the denial of a FAPE for her entire tenure in the public schools. As relief, plaintiff sought two years of compensatory education.² While her administrative claims were pending, plaintiff sought injunctive relief in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to prevent DOE from terminating the funding of her educational services. The District Court (Victor Marrero, Judge) entered a preliminary injunction requiring the DOE to fund plaintiff's services until the completion of the administrative appeals process. This civil appeal followed.

We heard oral argument on December 13, 2007 and entered an order on January 3, 2008, vacating the District Court's preliminary injunction and indicating that an opinion would follow to explain the Court's holding. We now write to clarify that, because plaintiff's claims are time-barred under both potentially applicable statutes of limitations, the District Court erred as a matter of law in granting the requested injunction.

BACKGROUND

The following section is based in substantial part on the recitation of facts from the District Court's February 21, 2007 Decision and Order. See Somoza v. New York City Dep't of Educ., 475 F.Supp.2d 373 (S.D.N.Y.2007).

Factual Background

Plaintiff received special educational services from the DOE from preschool until the January 2008, as required by the IDEA. In accordance with her Individualized Education Plan ("IEP"), plaintiff attended and graduated from high school in the New York City public schools. From 1991 through 1993, at the direction of the DOE, plaintiff was evaluated by a special education expert, Dr. Andrea Blau, who assisted in the monitoring of plaintiff's progress and made recommendations to the DOE regarding possible accommodations to address plaintiff's specific educational needs.

After her graduation from high school in June 2002, plaintiff began attending a program run by the DOE at Queens Occupational Training Center ("Queens"). Mary Somoza — plaintiff's mother and advocate, to whom plaintiff has delegated authority for educational decisions — became dissatisfied with the Queens program and lodged complaints with the DOE. In response, the DOE authorized Dr. Blau to evaluate plaintiff and to recommend and develop an appropriate educational program. The DOE and plaintiff developed a new IEP, and in November 2002 she was placed in an individualized, customized program developed and administered by Dr. Blau ("the Blau Program"). The DOE agreed to fund the Blau Program, without competitive bidding, at an annual cost of $400,000 for the remainder of the 2002-2003 academic year as well as the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 academic years. Plaintiff appeared to make significant improvement during her time in the Blau Program, and she and her mother reported their satisfaction with the Program. Dr. Blau noted these improvements and also concluded, in early 2003, that plaintiff had been denied a FAPE during her approximately thirteen years in the public schools.³

As of June 2005, the end of the school year in which she reached the age of twenty-one, plaintiff was no longer eligible for the DOE to fund her education. See 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(1)(A); N.Y. Educ. Law § 4402(5) (stating that the DOE is not required to fund such educational services for a person after the age of twenty-one or the receipt of a high school diploma). Plaintiff's mother contacted the DOE to request an additional year of funding of the Blau Program. Although plaintiff was no longer eligible for such funding under the terms of the governing statutes, the DOE agreed to fund the Blau program until June 2006 on the condition that plaintiff, through her mother, sign a proposed stipulation and release ("the Agreement"). Plaintiff's mother signed the Agreement, which included the following provision releasing the DOE from any liability for claims that plaintiff did not receive a free and public education under the IDEA:

Release

I Mary Somoza individually and on behalf of Alba Somoza in consideration of an extension of one school year of services as outlined above do hereby release and discharge the defendant New York City Board of Education, also known as the New York City Department of Education ... from any and all claims alleged, and all claims and/or rights of actions that were or could have been alleged against any of the released parties based on any act, omission, event or occurrence from the beginning of the world up to and including the date of the execution of this Release, including, without limitation, ... any claims that Alba Somoza did not receive and/or was not offered a free and appropriate public education, as well as all claims for costs, expenses and attorney's fees.

Under the terms of the Agreement, funding for the Blau Program was to expire on June 30, 2006. Before the expiration date, plaintiff's mother made another request to the DOE for an extension of the funding. The DOE denied that request in January 2006.

Procedural Background

In March 2006, plaintiff's mother filed an administrative action on plaintiff's behalf, contending that plaintiff had been denied a FAPE from preschool until she began the Blau Program and requesting that the DOE provide funding for the Blau Program for two additional years as compensatory education. The DOE responded by filing a motion to dismiss on the grounds that plaintiff, through her mother, had waived any such claims in the Agreement and that, in any event, her claims were untimely under the applicable statute of limitations. Before the impartial hearing officer ("IHO"), plaintiff's mother argued that the release contained in the Agreement was not enforceable because the Agreement had been signed under duress and because a waiver of FAPE claims is void as against public policy.⁴ Plaintiff's administrative claim was dismissed by the IHO who found that "[t]he DOE has complied in good faith and performed its part of the [A]greement and the [A]greement is clearly binding.... The parent has accepted the services of the [A]greement without protest." The IHO concluded that plaintiff's mother had executed a knowing and voluntary waiver of any right to additional educational services; granted the DOE's motion to dismiss; and denied plaintiff's request for relief.

Shortly thereafter, plaintiff filed the instant action in the District Court, seeking to enjoin the DOE from terminating its funding of the Blau Program. In July 2006, Judge Marrero granted plaintiff a temporary restraining order prohibiting the DOE from terminating funding of the Blau Program. See Somoza v. New York City Dep't of Educ., No. 06 Civ. 5025, 2006 WL 1981758 (S.D.N.Y. July 10, 2006). One month later, the parties appeared before Judge Richard J. Holwell for a hearing on plaintiff's request for a preliminary injunction while her administrative appeal was pending. Judge Holwell granted plaintiff the requested preliminary injunction.

Plaintiff also pursued an appeal of the decision of the IHO through the state administrative process, arguing that the release was not valid or enforceable. In August 2006, the State Review Officer ("SRO") affirmed the decision of the IHO, observing that

[The DOE's] obligations under the IDEA to [plaintiff] ceased at the end of the 2004-05 school year, which was the school year in which she turned 21.

[Plaintiff] has already received one school year of educational services after her eligibility under IDEA expired. The parties have worked cooperatively over the past four years and [the DOE] has funded an extensive program of services for [plaintiff]. I note that [according to plaintiff's] report that the consultant's program has been provided at a cost of approximately $400,000 per year.

The SRO concluded that plaintiff's claims that she was denied a FAPE were barred by the two-year statute of limitations of the IDEA and that plaintiff had not presented a valid basis for tolling the statute. According to the SRO, plaintiff's claims accrued no later than the end of the 2002-2003 academic year, when Dr. Blau expressed her opinion to plaintiff's mother that plaintiff had not received a FAPE during the relevant period. Because plaintiff had not filed a claim based on the alleged denials of a FAPE until March 2006, her claims were barred as untimely. The SRO did not reach the question of whether the release was otherwise enforceable.

After the SRO's decision was issued, Judge Marrero held a three-day bench trial on the merits of plaintiff's claims and on the affirmative defenses raised by the DOE — namely, that plaintiff's claims were time-barred and that, in any event, she had waived any IDEA claim in the Agreement. At the conclusion of the trial, the Court filed a Decision and Order ("...