Almonte v. City of Long Beach

• Decision Date: 14 February 2007
• Docket Number: Docket No. 06-2010-cv.
• Citation: 478 F.3d 100
• Parties: Maria ALMONTE, Mary Cammarato, Barbara Davis, and Peter Snow, Plaintiffs-Appellees, Richard Schuh and Gregory Scott, Plaintiffs, v. The CITY OF LONG BEACH, Mona Goodman, James P. Hennessy, Thomas Sofield, Jr., individually and as members of the Council of the City of Long Beach and Glen Spiritis, as Manager of the City of Long Beach, Defendants-Appellants, Denis G. Kelly and Leonard Remo, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

478 F.3d 100

Maria ALMONTE, Mary Cammarato, Barbara Davis, and Peter Snow, Plaintiffs-Appellees Richard Schuh and Gregory Scott, Plaintiffs, v. The CITY OF LONG BEACH, Mona Goodman, James P. Hennessy, Thomas Sofield, Jr., individually and as members of the Council of the City of Long Beach and Glen Spiritis, as Manager of the City of Long Beach, Defendants-Appellants Denis G. Kelly and Leonard Remo, Defendants.

Docket No. 06-2010-cv.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: January 18, 2007.

Decided: February 14, 2007.

Louis D. Stober, Jr., Law Offices of Louis D. Stober, Jr., LLC (Heather H.

Patton, on the brief), Garden City, NY, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

Ronald J. Rosenberg, Rosenberg Calica & Birney LLP (Edward M. Ross, John S. Ciulla, of counsel), Garden City, NY, for Defendants-Appellants.

Before LEVAL and STRAUB, Circuit Judges, and UNDERHILL, District Judge.^*

STRAUB, Circuit Judge:

This interlocutory appeal arises from a wrongful termination action brought by several former employees of the City of Long Beach ("City") against the City, the City Manager, and the Republican members of the City Council ("Council members"), both in their individual capacities and in their official capacities as Council members. Plaintiffs-appellees (hereinafter, "Plaintiffs") claim that the defendants-appellants (hereinafter, "Defendants") terminated their employment because of their affiliation with the Democratic Party and their exercise of free speech, in violation of their First Amendment rights, their due process rights, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiffs also assert that Defendants conspired to terminate them on the basis of their political affiliations and beliefs, and failed to prevent the terminations from occurring, in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1985 and 1986.¹

Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint on various grounds, including legislative and qualified immunity. On March 28, 2006, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Joanna Seybert, Judge) granted the motion in part and denied it in part. In particular, the District Court held that while the Council members were absolutely immune for voting for the budgetary resolutions that abolished Plaintiffs' positions, they were not so protected for meeting with non-legislators to discuss the terminations because those meetings were allegedly conducted in secret. The District Court also denied the Council members' motion to dismiss on qualified immunity grounds.

We hold that legislative immunity applies not only to the Council members' vote on the budgetary resolutions that terminated the budget lines for Plaintiffs' positions, but also to any discussions and agreements the Council members may have had regarding the new budget prior to the vote, regardless of whether those discussions and agreements took place in secret. Thus, to the extent that the §§ 1983, 1985, and 1986 claims against the Council members relate to the legislative termination of the budget lines for Plaintiffs' positions, the District Court's denial of legislative immunity is reversed.

While the grant of legislative immunity covers all aspects of the legislative process, it would not protect the Council members from a charge, if asserted here, that they administratively fired, or conspired to administratively fire, any Plaintiff prior to the date on which his or her position was effectively abolished pursuant to the legislative resolutions. We remand the case for the District Court to determine, based on the operative complaint or upon further amendment, whether any of the Plaintiffs have alleged or could allege such a claim. Finally, we dismiss for lack of interlocutory appellate jurisdiction the Council members' appeal of the denial of qualified immunity for the firing of Mary Cammarato based on the contention that she was a policymaker, as well as the City's appeal of the denial of its motion to dismiss.

BACKGROUND

A. Factual Allegations

As this case comes to us after the denial of a motion to dismiss, we must accept the facts as they are alleged in the complaint. See Hill v. City of New York, 45 F.3d 653, 657 (2d Cir.1995). According to the amended complaint, Plaintiffs were all longtime employees for the City until they were terminated in 2004. Maria Almonte was terminated from her position as Bus Dispatcher effective June 30, 2004. Mary Cammarato was suspended from her post as Tax Assessor on July 24, 2004, and then "ostensibly laid-off" the following day. Barbara Davis served as an Administrative Aide until her employment with the City was terminated on June 16, 2004. Peter Snow was terminated from his position as the Superintendent of Municipal Buildings effective July 2, 2004. At the time of their terminations, Plaintiffs were all active and well-known members of the Democratic Party, with close affiliations with longstanding leaders of the Long Beach Democratic Party. Cammarato and Snow were especially active in campaigning for Democratic candidates leading up to the 2003 elections.

Mona Goodman, James P. Hennessey, and Thomas Sofield, Jr. were elected to the City Council in 2003; they belonged to the Republican Party and, at the time of Plaintiffs' terminations, constituted the majority of the five-member City Council. Glen Spiritis, also a member of the Republican Party, was appointed as City Manager.

Sometime in 2004, Goodman, Hennessey, Sofield, and Spiritis participated in a series of private meetings at the home of Charles Theofan, the Corporation Counsel for the City. Also in attendance was James Moriarity, the Executive Leader of the Long Beach Republican Party. The two Democratic members of the City Council were not invited to the meetings, or notified of their purpose or occurrence. According to the amended complaint, one purpose of these secret, unofficial meetings was to discuss firing Plaintiffs on account of their political affiliations with the Democratic Party and their allegiance to the leaders of the Long Beach Democratic Party. Plaintiffs claim that during the course of those meetings, the participants reached a decision or agreement to fire them on that basis.

On May 25, 2004, the City Council convened, and passed by majority vote, Resolution No. 121/04, which adopted and confirmed the Budget and Personnel Schedule for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.² The new budget terminated the funding for the positions of Bus Dispatcher, Tax Assessor, and Administrative Aide, effective July 1, 2004. On August 3, 2004, the Council passed a supplemental budgetary resolution, Resolution No. 181/04, which amended the personnel roster to delete the position of Superintendent of Municipal Buildings, effective immediately.

B. The District Court's March 28, 2006 Decision

Defendants moved to dismiss the amended complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, raising a number of different arguments. Of relevance to this appeal, the Council members asserted that absolute legislative immunity barred all claims against them because their enactment of the budgetary resolutions, which de-funded Plaintiffs' positions, constituted legitimate legislative activity. In the alternative, the Council members argued that they were entitled to qualified immunity against Mary Cammarato's claims, because as the City Tax Assessor, she was a "policymaker" within the meaning of Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976). The City also invoked the "policymaker exception" in support of dismissal of Cammarato's municipal liability claims. In addition, the City contended that none of the Plaintiffs had adequately alleged a constitutional violation caused by a municipal policy, custom, or practice.

The District Court granted the Council members' motion in part and denied it in part. It held that legislative immunity insulated the Council members from liability for voting for and passing the budgetary resolutions. It found that legislative immunity did not extend, however, to the Council members' purported participation in secret meetings with non-legislators. Relying on Berlickij v. Town of Castleton, 248 F.Supp.2d 335, 343 (D.Vt.2003), the District Court reasoned that the secrecy of the meetings took them outside the sphere of legitimate legislative activity and, as a result, outside the protective scope of legislative immunity.

The District Court also denied the Council members' motion to dismiss Mary Cammarato's claims on qualified immunity grounds. While it noted that the argument sounded "plausible," the District Court concluded that further factual development was necessary before it could determine whether Cammarato was or was not a "policymaker" within the meaning of Elrod v. Burns. The District Court denied the City's motion to dismiss the §§ 1983, 1985, and 1986 claims asserted against it.

The Council members now seek interlocutory review of the District Court's denial of legislative and qualified immunity. The City requests that we exercise pendent jurisdiction over the District Court's denial of its motion to dismiss.

DISCUSSION

A. Interlocutory Appellate Jurisdiction

Generally, this Court has jurisdiction over appeals only from "final decisions of the district courts." 28 U.S.C. § 1291. The "denial of a motion to dismiss is ordinarily considered non-final, and therefore not immediately appealable." Hill, 45 F.3d at 659. Under the collateral doctrine, however, "[a]n order denying a motion to dismiss a complaint against a[n] . . . official when the dismissal motion is based on the official's assertion of absolute or qualified immunity" is immediately reviewable, "to the extent that the denial turns on issues of law." Id. at 659-60; see also Locurto v. Safir, 264 F.3d 154, 164 (2d Cir.2001) (holding that an interlocutory appeal is permitted from the denial of immunity at the motion to dismiss phase, even when it is without prejudice, because such a denial is "conclusive with regard to a...