Colon Rodriguez v. Lopez Bonilla

• Decision Date: 04 November 2004
• Docket Number: No. CIV. 02-1949(SEC).,CIV. 02-1949(SEC).
• Citation: 344 F.Supp.2d 333
• Parties: Hector E. COLON RODRIGUEZ, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Carlos D. LOPEZ BONILLA, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

Page 333

344 F.Supp.2d 333

Hector E. COLON RODRIGUEZ, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Carlos D. LOPEZ BONILLA, et al., Defendants.

No. CIV. 02-1949(SEC).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

November 4, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Francisco R. González-Colón, Hector A. Calle-Ortiz, Idalia M. Diaz-Pedrosa, San Juan, for Plaintiffs.

Johanna M. Emmanuelli-Huertas and Jorge Matienzo-Luciano, Ponce, Mariana Negron-Vargas, Commonwealth Dept. of Justice, Federal Litigation Division, San Juan, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

CASELLAS, District Judge.

Pending before the Court, among others, is Defendants' motion for summary judgment (Docket # 65). Plaintiffs have opposed Defendants' motion (Docket # 81). Defendants have replied (Docket # 87) and Plaintiffs, in turn, sur-replied (Docket # 108).¹ After carefully considering the parties' arguments, as well as the applicable law, we find that Defendants' motion must be GRANTED.

Factual Background²

In 1995, after a bidding process, Co-plaintiff Héctor Colón entered into a lease agreement with the Municipality of Rincón for the operation of an ecological theme gift shop. The contract was to be renewed, and was actually renewed, annually until October 1, 2000 when Co-plaintiff Colón entered into a five-year contract with the Municipality, represented by then Mayor Rubén Caro-Muñiz of the New Progressive Party (NPP) (Docket # 101 — Exh. # 17). On February 25, 2002, after some dispute with regards to compliance with the terms of the lease agreement, the new administration, under Co-defendant Héctor López-Bonilla of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), sent Co-plaintiff Colón a letter notifying him that it intended to rescind the contract within thirty (30) days (Docket # 101 — Exh. # 37). Then, on May 29, 2001, Co-plaintiff Colón placed a bid for the lease of the cafeteria at the lighthouse park. The auction was not adjudicated to any of the participating bidders. Plaintiffs did not appeal said decision. Plaintiffs then filed the instant complaint on June 19, 2002 (Docket # 1).

Standard of Review

Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(b) provides that: "A party against whom a claim ... is asserted ... may, at any time, move with or without supporting affidavits for a summary judgment in the party's favor as to all or any part [of the claims asserted against him/her]." The Court may grant the movant's motion for summary judgment when "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); See also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); NASCO, Inc. v. Pub. Storage, Inc., 29 F.3d 28 (1st Cir.1994). "The principal judicial inquiry required by Rule 56 is whether a genuine issue of material fact exists." 10B Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure: Civil 3d § 2725, p. 401.

In this regard, the First Circuit Court of Appeals has noted that for a dispute to be "genuine," there must be sufficient evidence to permit a reasonable trier of fact to resolve the issue in favor of the non-moving party. U.S. v. One Parcel of Real Prop., 960 F.2d 200, 204 (1st Cir.1992); see also Boston Athletic Assn. v. Sullivan, 867 F.2d 22, 24 (1st Cir.1989); Medina-Munoz v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, 896 F.2d 5, 8 (1st Cir.1990) ("[a] `genuine' issue is one that must be decided at trial because the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmovant, would permit a rational factfinder to resolve the issue in favor of either party.") (citations omitted).

By like token, "material" means that the fact is one that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law. Morris v. Gov't Dev. Bank of P.R., 27 F.3d 746, 748 (1st Cir.1994). "A fact is material if it tends to resolve any of the issues that have been properly raised by the parties." Wright, Miller & Kane, supra, § 2725 at p. 419. "Not every genuine factual conflict necessitates a trial. It is only when a disputed fact has the potential to change the outcome of the suit under the governing law if found favorably to the nonmovant that the materiality hurdle is cleared." Martinez v. Colon, 54 F.3d 980, 983-84 (1st Cir.1995).

In addition, when determining whether to grant summary judgment, the Court may not weigh the evidence. Casas Office Machs., Inc. v. Mita Copystar Am., Inc., 42 F.3d 668 (1st Cir.1994). Summary judgment "admits of no room for credibility determinations, no room for the measured weighing of conflicting evidence such as the trial process entails." Id. (citing Greensburg v. P.R. Mar. Shipping Auth., 835 F.2d 932, 936 (1st Cir.1987)). Accordingly, if the facts permit more than one reasonable inference, the court on summary judgment may not adopt the inference least favorable to the non-moving party. Casas Office Machs., 42 F.3d at 684.

While the moving party has the burden of initially establishing that there is "an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case," Maldonado-Denis v. Castillo-Rodriguez, 23 F.3d 576, 581 (1st Cir.1984); the nonmovant has a "corresponding obligation to offer the court more than steamy rhetoric and bare conclusions." Lawton v. State Mut. Life Assurance Co. of Am., 101 F.3d 218, 223 (1st Cir.1996). Furthermore, "the nonmovant must `produce specific facts, in suitable evidentiary form' sufficient to limn a trialworthy issue. ... Failure to do so allows the summary judgment engine to operate at full throttle." Id.; see also Kelly v. United States, 924 F.2d 355, 358 (1st Cir.1991) (warning that "the decision to sit idly by and allow the summary judgment proponent to configure the record is likely to prove fraught with consequence."); Medina-Munoz, 896 F.2d at 8, (quoting Mack v. Great Atl. & Pac. Tea Co., 871 F.2d 179, 181 (1st Cir.1989)) (holding that "[t]he evidence illustrating the factual controversy cannot be conjectural or problematic; it must have substance in the sense that it limns differing versions of the truth which a factfinder must resolve.")

Local Rule 56(b), moreover, requires the moving party to file annexed to the motion "a separate, short, and concise statement of material facts, set forth in numbered paragraphs, as to which the moving party contends there is no genuine issue of material fact to be tried." Unless the non-moving party controverts this statement, all the material facts set forth therein "shall be deemed to be admitted." Id.; Cosme-Rosado v. Serrano-Rodriguez, 360 F.3d 42 (1st Cir.2004). This is the so-called "anti-ferret rule." See, e.g., Orbi, S.A. v. Calvesbert & Brown, 20 F.Supp.2d 289, 291 (D.P.R.1998). While failure to comply with this rule does not automatically warrant the granting of summary judgment, "it launches the nonmovant's case down the road toward an early dismissal." Tavarez v. Champion Prods., Inc., 903 F.Supp. 268, 270 (D.P.R.1995).

Applicable Law and Analysis

Plaintiffs, Héctor E. Colón-Rodríguez, in his personal capacity and as President of Fundación Eco-Cultural, Inc. (hereinafter, "the Foundation"), The Eco-Lógic-Co., Inc. & TM ("Eco-Lógic"), and the Foundation, filed the instant civil action seeking compensatory and pecuniary damages, declaratory judgment, and injunctive relief against Defendants, Carlos D. López-Bonilla, in his personal capacity and in his official capacity as mayor of the Municipality of Rincón; Alexis Rosado, Director of the Department of Public Works of the Municipality of Rincón and member of the Municipality's Procurement Board; Zayda Rodríguez-Morales, in her personal capacity and as President of the Municipality's Procurement Board; and the Municipality of Rincón, for the alleged violations of Plaintiffs' civil rights (Docket # 1). Specifically, Plaintiffs alleged that Defendants violated their rights protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Plaintiffs also bring forth claims for violations of the Commonwealth's constitution and laws under our supplemental jurisdiction. The complaint alleges in its pertinent part that:

Plaintiff [Colón's] contract was terminated, as a persecution discriminating for his political believes [sic] as a member of the opposition party or identified with the past Administration or as a person identified with the past governmental administration and violating his First Amendment rights of free speech and association.

(Docket #1 — ¶ 40).

Plaintiff [Colón's] contract was terminated without due process, not even a predetermination hearing, not provided a meaningful informal hearing, not notified [of] his right to appeal the decision since he had a property right protected by a contractual agreement for an additional five years, state law, usage, custom, municipal regulations and practice. This is a violation of Plaintiff[']s 14th Amendment rights by an unlawful deprivation of his property, liberty, substantive and procedural due process and equal protection rights.

(Docket #1 — ¶ 41).

On the other hand, Defendants contend that: (1) the corporate Plaintiffs do not have a cause of action under § 1983 because their personal rights were not involved in the rescission of the contract; (2) Co-plaintiff Colón does not have a cause of action under the Due Process Clause because he was given all procedural guarantees afforded to him under Puerto Rico law; (3) the rescission of the contract was not based on political animus and that even assuming that political animus played a role in the decision to rescind the contract, there were numerous nondiscriminatory reasons for the rescission; and that (4) Co-defendants, officers of the Municipality, are covered by qualified immunity since their decision was taken following Puerto Rico's laws and regulations and was based on good cause (Docket # 65).

Section 1983

Section 1983 in itself does not confer substantive rights, but...