Cullen v. Margiotta

Decision Date02 February 1987
Docket NumberNos. 1468-1472,D,s. 1468-1472
Parties, RICO Bus.Disp.Guide 6544, 22 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 877 Lorraine C. CULLEN; John L. Jund; and Michael Landi, on behalf of each, and on behalf of all persons similarly situated; namely, those employees of the County of Nassau; the Towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay; and the Village of Hempstead, who have been subjected to solicitations for campaign contributions to the Republican Party in an inherently coercive manner or who have been subjected to scrutiny by officials of the Republican Party in an inherently coercive manner or who have been subjected to scrutiny by officials of the Republican Party in connection with their hiring, employment or promotion; and Civil Service Merit Council of Long Island, Plaintiffs-Appellants-Cross-Appellees, v. Joseph P. MARGIOTTA, Jr., et al., Defendants, The Nassau County Republican Committee; the Town of Hempstead Republican Committee; the County of Nassau; and the Town of Hempstead, Defendants- Appellees, The Nassau County Republican Committee; the Town of Hempstead Republican Committee; and the Town of Hempstead, Defendants-Appellees-Cross-Appellants. ockets 86-7066, 86-7068, 86-7070, 86-7076 and 86-7148.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Burt Neuborne, New York City, for Class plaintiffs-appellants-cross-appellees.

Julian Kaplan, Mineola, N.Y. (Allen J. Rothman, Jessel Rothman, Jessel Rothman, P.C., Mineola, N.Y., on the brief), for plaintiff-appellant-cross-appellee John L. Jund.

C. Evans Tilles, New York City, for plaintiff-appellant-cross-appellee Michael Landi.

Edward J. Hart, Uniondale, N.Y. (John E. Ryan, Rivkin, Radler, Dunne & Bayh, Uniondale, N.Y., on the brief), for defendants-appellees-cross-appellants Nassau County Republican Committee and Town of Hempstead Republican Committee.

James A. Pascarella, Garden City, N.Y. (Thomas A. Illmensee, Pascarella, Illmensee & Carra, Garden City, N.Y., Edward T. O'Brien, Co. Atty. of Nassau County, Mineola, N.Y., on the brief), for defendant-appellee County of Nassau.

Joseph Jaspan, Garden City, N.Y. (Ellen W. Maurer, Jaspan, Ginsberg, Ehrlich, Reich & Levin, Garden City, N.Y., on the brief), for defendant-appellee-cross-appellant Town of Hempstead.

Before MESKILL, KEARSE, and PIERCE, Circuit Judges.

KEARSE, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs-appellants-cross-appellees appeal from a December 27, 1985 judgment, as amended ("1985 Judgment"), entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(b) after a jury trial on liability issues before Jacob Mishler, Judge, dismissing certain parts of their complaint, brought principally under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982) and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. Secs. 1961-1968 (1982), charging defendants The Nassau County Republican Committee ("County Committee"), The Town of Hempstead Republican Committee ("Town Committee"), The County of Nassau ("County"), and The Town of Hempstead ("Town"), with having coercively exacted contributions to the defendant Committees from employees and prospective employees of the County and the Town. Plaintiffs having earlier stipulated to the dismissal of their complaint as to all defendants except those listed above and to the dismissal as to all defendants of certain other claims, the 1985 Judgment principally (1) dismissed all claims against the County for failure of proof at trial, (2) dismissed plaintiffs' RICO claims against the other three defendants for failure of proof at trial, and (3) summarily dismissed all claims of Landi as time-barred. Claims of the plaintiff class under Sec. 1983 against the Town, the Town Committee, and the County Committee remain pending in the district court.

On appeal, plaintiffs contend principally that the district court (1) fashioned procedures for the remedial phase of their surviving Sec. 1983 claims that imposed undue burdens of proof on the class members and failed to assure them anonymity in the presentation of their individual evidence, and (2) erred in (a) dismissing their RICO claims, (b) restricting the temporal scope of their claims on the ground that neither the pendency of earlier litigation nor duress by defendants tolled the applicable statute of limitations, (c) refusing to grant a new trial against the County, and (d) refusing to enter judgment in their favor notwithstanding the verdict ("n.o.v.") with respect to their claim of extortionate acts of a Town Commissioner from 1978 to 1984. The County Committee, the Town Committee, and the Town have cross-appealed, contending principally that (1) all of plaintiffs' For the reasons below, we conclude that we lack jurisdiction to entertain defendants' cross-appeals and plaintiffs' challenges to the interlocutory orders entered with respect to the remedial stage of the proceedings below. As to the issues properly before us, we conclude (1) that the dismissal of the complaint against the County should be affirmed with respect to the period covered by the trial but that the County was not entitled to dismissal of plaintiffs' claims in their entirety because the court erred in ruling that the applicable statutes of limitations had not been tolled; (2) that Landi's individual claims were, for various reasons, properly dismissed as against the Town and the Town Committee, but not as against the County or the County Committee; and (3) that the court erred in dismissing the RICO claims on the basis of the answers to special interrogatories posed to the jury. We thus vacate the judgment in part and remand to the district court for further proceedings with respect to the claims that were improperly dismissed.

claims are barred by res judicata, (2) plaintiffs' claims under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 should have been dismissed after trial for failure of proof, and (3) the action is not properly maintainable as a class action. The Town also attacks the court's interim award of attorney's fees to the plaintiff class.

I. BACKGROUND
A. The Nature of Plaintiffs' Claims

Plaintiffs Lorraine Cullen, John L. Jund, and Michael Landi were employed by the Town or the County prior to December 1976. Suing on behalf of all persons similarly situated, they claim that for some years prior to the filing of their federal complaint, the defendants had engaged in a scheme of demanding, in violation of plaintiffs' rights under federal law, that employees or prospective employees of the Town and the County contribute annually one percent of their salaries to the Nassau County Republican Party in order to obtain promotion or employment. Plaintiffs sought declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as refunds of the sums collected from class members pursuant to the alleged scheme since 1971.

Prior to commencing the present action, Cullen and Jund, purporting to sue on behalf of others "similarly situated," had brought suit challenging this alleged conduct in state court in 1974, naming as defendants, inter alios, Joseph M. Margiotta, individually and as County Leader of the Nassau County Republican Committee, Ralph G. Caso, individually and as County Executive of the County of Nassau, and the County of Nassau. Neither the Town nor the Town Committee was named as a defendant, either directly or indirectly. The state suit was dismissed on the grounds that the complaint did not set forth a cause of action under state law and that class action treatment was inappropriate under N.Y.Civ.Prac. Law ("CPLR") Sec. 1005 (repealed and replaced by CPLR Sec. 901 effective Sept. 1, 1975 (McKinney 1976)). Cullen v. Margiotta, 81 Misc.2d 809, 367 N.Y.S.2d 638 (Sup.Ct. Nassau Co. 1975) ("State Court Judgement"), aff'd mem., 59 A.D.2d 831, 399 N.Y.S.2d 160 (2d Dep't 1977).

On December 14, 1976, plaintiffs commenced the present action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, contending principally that defendants' alleged conduct violated their rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution. Their present complaint also alleged that this conduct constituted a "pattern of racketeering activity" within the meaning of RICO, 18 U.S.C. Secs. 1961(1) and (5). Plaintiffs sought, inter alia, single damages on their Sec. 1983 claims and, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1964(c), treble damages on their civil RICO claims.

B. Pertinent Pretrial Rulings

Defendants moved to dismiss the action on various grounds, including failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, res judicata or collateral estoppel on account of the State Court Judgment dismissing plaintiffs' earlier action, and the statute of limitations. In a series of orders issued over a span of more than eight The court held that plaintiffs' claims under both RICO and Sec. 1983 were governed by a three-year statute of limitations and that the running of the statute had not been tolled. Accordingly, it ruled that claims that accrued prior to December 14, 1973, were barred. Finding that Landi's individual claims had accrued prior to December 14, 1973, the court summarily dismissed those claims.

years, the district court dismissed so much of the complaint as sought relief directly under the Constitution and under state law, but ruled that the complaint stated claims under Sec. 1983 upon which relief could be granted and it found that these claims were not precluded by the State Court Judgment. It initially dismissed plaintiffs' RICO claims for failure to allege a sufficient connection between the challenged conduct and interstate commerce, but it later reinstated these claims.

The court ordered that the trial be bifurcated between liability and remedy issues. In light of the statute-of-limitations rulings, the liability trial was to focus on defendants' conduct beginning January 1, 1973.

Prior to commencement of the trial on liability, the district court ordered that a final judgment ("1979 Judgment") be entered pursuant to ...

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