Cifarelli v. Village of Babylon

• Decision Date: 16 August 1996
• Docket Number: D,No. 1394,1394
• Citation: 93 F.3d 47
• Parties: Ralph CIFARELLI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VILLAGE OF BABYLON; Donald E. Conroy; Diane Gilmore; Ralph Scardino; Kevin Muldowney; Ramon Accettella, all individually and as Members of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Babylon; Suffolk County, Suffolk County Dept. of Civil Service, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 95-9103.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 47

93 F.3d 47

Ralph CIFARELLI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VILLAGE OF BABYLON; Donald E. Conroy; Diane Gilmore Ralph Scardino; Kevin Muldowney; Ramon Accettella, all individually and as Members of the Board of Trustees of the Village of Babylon; Suffolk County, Suffolk County Dept. of Civil Service, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 1394, Docket 95-9103.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued May 9, 1996.

Decided Aug. 16, 1996.

Perry S. Reich, Schapiro & Reich, Lindenhurst, NY, for plaintiff-appellant.

Gerard J. Glass, Glass & Glass, Babylon, NY (Maureen A. Glass, on the brief), for defendants-appellees.

Before: CARDAMONE, ALTIMARI, and PARKER, Circuit Judges.

ALTIMARI, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff-appellant Ralph Cifarelli ("Cifarelli") appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Wexler, J.), (1) awarding him nominal damages and granting the remainder of defendants-appellees' motion for summary judgment on his due process and equal protection claims, and (2) denying his motion to amend the judgment. On appeal Cifarelli contends that the district court erred in granting summary judgment because genuine issues of material fact exist concerning the defendants' alleged good faith in eliminating his job. We find that the record supports the district court's conclusion that genuine issues of material fact do not exist, and accordingly affirm.

BACKGROUND

Cifarelli was employed by the Village of Babylon ("Village") in the full-time civil service position of Chief Building Inspector from March of 1989 until August 10, 1993, when the Village's Board of Trustees ("Board") unanimously resolved to eliminate the full-time position Cifarelli held. At the time he was terminated, Cifarelli's annual salary was $30,100. Concurrent with its elimination of the full-time position, the Board resolved to create a part-time, non-civil service position of building inspector, and to appoint Steven Fellman ("Fellman") to that position at an annual salary of $5,000. The Suffolk County Department of Civil Service ("DCS") approved the Board's resolutions. Cifarelli was informed of his termination several hours prior to the Board's vote. Ten days after his termination, Cifarelli commenced this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994).

Meanwhile, DCS notified the Village that it had mistakenly advised the Village that it need not offer Cifarelli the part-time position it was creating. Consequently, the Village retracted the offer made to Fellman, placed Cifarelli's name on a one-name preferred list for the part-time position, and in a letter to Cifarelli dated September 30, 1993, offered him the position. DCS, however, found the Village's initial letter inadequate, prompting the Village to send a supplemental letter to Cifarelli dated October 25, 1993, which informed him, among other things, that he had ten business days in which to respond to the Village's offer of employment. Because Cifarelli failed to respond to the offer within the ten-day period, the Village advised him in a letter dated November 9, 1993, that it considered him to have declined the part-time position.

Two days later Cifarelli's counsel sent a letter to the DCS objecting to the ten-day deadline as unduly harsh. In a letter to the Village dated November 16, 1993, Cifarelli then purported to accept the part-time position. The Village advised Cifarelli that it would defer to DCS regarding whether or not Cifarelli's acceptance could be deemed timely. Shortly thereafter, DCS notified Cifarelli that ten-days was a sufficient amount of time within which to accept the part-time position, and that his acceptance was untimely.

In his complaint, Cifarelli named as defendants the Village, the Board and its individual members, and DCS, which was subsequently dismissed as a defendant by stipulation of the parties. The complaint alleged that: (1) the defendants deprived Cifarelli of a property interest in a tenured position without notice of the cause for his termination or an opportunity to be heard, in violation of his due process rights under the United States and New York Constitutions, and (2) that such termination without notice and hearing was arbitrary, unreasonable, and capricious, in violation of his equal protection rights under the federal and state constitutions.

The defendants moved for summary judgment, claiming that Cifarelli did not have a constitutionally protected property interest in the full-time position, because that position was eliminated in accordance with New York Civil Service Law § 80 (McKinney 1983 & Supp.1996). Section 80 provides, in relevant part, that competitive, civil service positions may be abolished for reasons of "economy, consolidation, or abolition of functions." Moreover, the defendants contended that they legitimately gave the part-time position to Fellman, only after Cifarelli failed to timely respond to the offer extending him the new position. Finally, the defendants claimed that the individual Board members were protected by qualified immunity. In opposing the motion, Cifarelli asserted that the Board eliminated his position specifically to get rid of him, and that its rationale of economy and efficiency was pretextual. According to Cifarelli, the pretextual nature of the Board's rationale and the inadequacy of the ten-day acceptance period were questions of material fact to be decided by a jury.

The district court denied the defendants' motion in part, and granted it in part. Relying on our opinion in Dwyer v. Regan, 777 F.2d 825 (2d Cir.1985), modified, 793 F.2d 457 (2d Cir.1986), the court held that the defendants violated Cifarelli's procedural due process rights because they did not afford him adequate time to object to his termination and to request a pretermination hearing. See id., 777 F.2d at 833 (where state terminates single employee, due process requires pretermination hearing upon timely request of employee objecting to termination on grounds of pretext). Nonetheless, the district court held that Cifarelli was only entitled to nominal damages, because Cifarelli clearly would not have prevailed in a pretermination hearing. See id. at 834 ("If [defendant] can show that [plaintiff's] employment would have been terminated even after a proper pretermination hearing, [plaintiff] will nonetheless be entitled to recover nominal damages.") (citing Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 266-67, 98 S.Ct. 1042, 1053-54, 55 L.Ed.2d 252 (1978)).

The district court determined that Cifarelli would not have prevailed in a hearing because the defendants had demonstrated a good faith basis for eliminating his position, namely, for economic reasons, and Cifarelli could not demonstrate that the defendants' actions were motivated by bad faith. Consequently, the court held that Cifarelli had not met his burden of establishing a disputed issue of material fact sufficient to defeat summary judgment; except for allowing nominal damages, the district court granted the defendants' motion as to the due process claims. It further held that Cifarelli's loss of the part-time position did not violate his due process rights, because that position was properly offered to, and declined by, him. Finally, the district court held that there were no grounds in the record to support an equal protection claim under the federal or state constitutions.

After judgment was entered, Cifarelli moved pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(b) and 59(e) for an order amending the judgment. Cifarelli contended that the district court erred in relying on an affidavit from Donald E. Conroy ("Conroy"), the Village Mayor, which stated that the Village's decision to eliminate Cifarelli's position was motivated by economic considerations, because Cifarelli did not have an opportunity to address the contents of the Conroy affidavit in a sur-reply. The district court denied the motion, on the ground that Cifarelli's response papers to the defendants' motion made clear that he was fully aware of the defense's argument prior to receiving the reply.

Cifarelli then brought the present appeal.

Discussion

On appeal, Cifarelli claims that the district court erred in granting summary judgment, because it: (1) decided a contested issue of material fact; namely, whether the defendants eliminated his position in good faith, and (2) considered the contents of the Conroy affidavit in support of the defendants' motion.

We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Giano v. Senkowski, 54 F.3d 1050, 1052 (2d Cir.1995). Summary judgment is warranted "only if the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion, presents no genuine issue of material fact," Terminate Control Corp. v. Horowitz, 28 F.3d 1335, 1352 (2d Cir.1994) (internal quotations and citations omitted), and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The court must, however, resolve all ambiguities and draw all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. See Institute for Shipboard Educ. v. Cigna Worldwide Ins. Co., 22 F.3d 414, 418 (2d Cir.1994).

Once a movant has demonstrated that no material facts are in dispute, the non-movant must set forth specific facts indicating a genuine issue for trial exists in order to avoid the granting of summary judgment. See Western World Ins. Co. v. Stack Oil, Inc., 922 F.2d 118, 121 (2d Cir.1990). However, mere conclusory allegations, speculation or conjecture will not avail a party resisting summary judgment. Id. Finally, Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) and (e) provide that a non-moving party may not rest on the pleadings but must further set forth specific facts in the affidavits, depositions, answers to interrogatories, or admissions showing a genuine issue exists for trial. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324, 106 S.Ct....