EZ Pawn Corp. v. City of N.Y.

• Decision Date: 05 June 2019
• Docket Number: 16-CV-3852 (PKC) (SMG)
• Citation: 390 F.Supp.3d 403
• Parties: EZ PAWN CORP. and Aloam aka Onwuakor, Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF NEW YORK, New York City Police Department, and New York City Police Department Officer Jonathan Bulzomi, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

390 F.Supp.3d 403

EZ PAWN CORP. and Aloam aka Onwuakor, Plaintiffs,

v.CITY OF NEW YORK, New York City Police Department, and New York City Police Department Officer Jonathan Bulzomi, Defendants.

16-CV-3852 (PKC) (SMG)

United States District Court, E.D. New York.

Signed June 5, 2019

Paul J. Solda, Law Office Paul J. Solda, New York, NY, for Plaintiffs.

Yungbi Ann Jang, Diana M. Murray, The City of New York Law Department Office of Corporation Counsel, New York, NY, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

PAMELA K. CHEN, United States District Judge:

Plaintiffs EZ Pawn Corp. ("EZ Pawn") and Aloamaka Onwuakor (collective ly, "Plaintiffs") bring this action against Defendants New York City Police Department ("NYPD"), NYPD Officer Jonathan Bulzomi ("Defendant Bulzomi"), and the City of New York (collective ly, "Defendants"), advancing several claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and New York law. Defendants move for summary judgment on all of Plaintiffs' claims. For the following reasons, the Court grants in part and denies in part Defendants' motion for summary judgment.

BACKGROUND

I. State & Local Law Governing Pawnbrokers & Second-hand Dealers

In New York City, collateral loan brokers—more commonly referred to as pawnbrokers¹ —and second-hand dealers² operate under a statutory framework that includes provisions of the New York State General Business Law ("GBL"), the New York City Charter, the New York City Code, and the Rules and Regulations of the City of New York. See, e.g. , N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law ch. 10, art. 5 (regulating collateral loan brokers). Of relevance here, GBL § 43 requires pawnbrokers to keep a book with certain information about loans and collateral. See N.Y. Gen. Bus Law § 43. Meanwhile, GBL § 45 authorizes warrantless searches of certain records maintained by pawnbrokers and specifically provides that these records

shall at all reasonable times be open to the inspection of the attorney general, the state comptroller, the mayor or local licensing authority, all judges of the criminal courts, the superintendent of police, police inspectors, captains of police and police justices of such cities, or any or either of them, or of any person who shall be duly authorized in writing for that purpose by any or either of them, and who shall exhibit such written authority to such collateral loan broker. The mayor or the licensing authority of any local governing body, the state comptroller, the attorney general and any person duly authorized by them shall have the power to administer oaths and to examine under oath any such collateral loan broker or any officer, or agent, of such collateral loan broker and any other person having custody or control of such books and records. Such books and records shall be retained in the possession of the collateral loan broker, in good condition and in an orderly fashion for at least a period of six years.

N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 45. Additionally, New York City law empowers the NYPD Police Commissioner to conduct administrative searches³ of certain trades, including pawnbrokers and second-hand dealers:

The commissioner shall possess powers of general supervision and inspection over all licensed or unlicensed pawnbrokers, vendors, junkshop keepers, junk boatmen[ ], cartman, dealers in second-hand merchandise and auctioneers within the city; and in connection with the performance of any police duties he shall have power to examine such persons, their clerks and employees and their books, business premises, and any articles of merchandise in their possession. A refusal or neglect to comply in any respect with the provisions of this section on the part of any pawnbroker, vendor, junkshop keeper, junk boatman, cartman, dealer in second-hand merchandise or auctioneer, or any clerk or employee of any thereof shall be triable by a judge of the criminal court and punishable by not more than thirty days' imprisonment, or by a fine of not more than fifty dollars, or both.

N.Y. City Charter § 436.⁴ Moreover, § 20-277

of the New York City Code⁵ imposes reporting requirements on pawnbrokers:

The police commissioner, at such times as he or she may prescribe in a written notice served upon any pawnbroker by a member of the police department, may in addition to the electronic record required by subdivision [ (a) ] of this section⁶ require such pawnbroker to report to such commissioner, upon blank forms to be furnished by the police department, a description of all goods, articles or things, or any part thereof, pawned or pledged in the course of business of such pawnbroker during the days specified in such notice, stating the numbers of the pawn tickets issued therefor, the amounts loaned thereon, and such identifying marks as may be on the goods pawned. If such notice from the police commissioner so prescribes, such pawnbroker, until he or she is notified to discontinue so doing, shall keep and furnish on such forms, identifying information regarding any pledgors or persons redeeming any articles pledged or pawned, including name, address, phone number, date of birth, sex, and race or ethnicity.

N.Y. City Code § 20-277(3)(b). These records "shall be open to the inspection of any police officer, the commissioner or any departmental inspector, judge of the criminal court, or person duly authorized in writing for such purposes by the commissioner by any judge of the criminal court, who shall exhibit such written authority to the dealer." Id. § 20-273(2)(e).

Finally, a non-binding memorandum authored by George A. Grasso, Former Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters at the NYPD (the "Grasso Memo"), sets forth the following guidelines:

Although the Administrative Code and the Rules of the City of New York give this Department the authority to perform administrative searches of the books and records of pawnbrokers and second-hand dealers, such authority must not be used to circumvent the warrant requirements of the United States and New York State Constitutions. The New York State Court of Appeals reviewed the [c]onstitutional implications of administrative searches in the landmark decision People v. Keta ,⁷ [which] held that in order to survive a constitutional challenge, an administrative inspection program ... must be conducted pursuant to a comprehensive, systematic regulatory scheme. In addition, the type of business being inspected must [be] one that is closely regulated by the government, the government must have a substantial government interest in enforcing the administrative regulations, and, most importantly, any warrantless inspections must be necessary to further the objectives of the inspection program. The Keta court further stated that, administrative inspections should be designed to uncover administrative violations, not criminal activity....

Thus, in order to [e]nsure that administrative searches of pawnbroker and second-hand dealer businesses conducted by this Department survive constitutional challenge, Department guidelines must [e]nsure that such searches are necessary to further the objective of enforcing the rules and regulations pertaining to such businesses. Members of the service may inspect the books and records of pawnbroker and second-hand dealer businesses, request to see required licenses, [and] demand to examine and seize stolen property. Such inspections should be conducted on a regular basis as part of an ongoing program to enforce licensing and record[-]keeping requirements.... Inspections or searches, conducted for the purpose of finding evidence of criminal activity must be conducted pursuant to a search warrant or exception to the search warrant requirement, i.e. [,] consent or plain view. In addition, when an administrative search of a pawnbroker or second-hand dealer's book or records indicates the presence [of] criminal activity, the premises should be secured and a search warrant obtained.

(Grasso Memo, Dkt. 45-2, at ECF⁸ 230 (emphasis omitted); see also id. at ECF 233–34 (enumerating eleven guidelines for police officers assigned to inspect pawnbroker and second-hand dealer businesses).)

II. Facts⁹

A. NYPD's Use of LeadsOnline

From 2010 to 2013, the NYPD provided pawnbrokers and second-hand dealers with two options as to the manner in which they could record and maintain required transactional information: (1) record the required information in log books provided by the NYPD; or (2) report and maintain the information electronically on LeadsOnline, the web-based electronic data transfer service engaged by the NYPD to serve as the repository of electronic records. (Defendants' 56.1 Statement ("Defs.' 56.1"), Dkt. 44, ¶ 19; Defs.' Aff. & Decl., Dkt. 45-2, at ECF 245–46; Defs.' Aff. & Decl., Dkt. 45-3, at ECF 319.) As the NYPD's "Patrol Guide,"¹⁰ promulgated on August 1, 2013 explains:

All pawnbrokers and second-hand dealers are required to report on specified Department forms all articles pawned, purchased, or sold. Pawnbrokers and second-hand dealers participating in, and actively uploading transactions to, [LeadsOnline] are exempt from the requirement of manually filling out and preserving logs for inspection. By actively uploading their transactions on a daily basis, participating stores are allowing their records to be inspected via [LeadsOnline]. Stores are requested to upload the day's transactions by the close of business each day.

(Patrol Guide, Dkt. 45-2, at ECF 241.)¹¹ With the passage of Local Law 149 in 2013, use of LeadsOnline became required for pawnbrokers and second-hand dealers. (Cf. Defs.' Aff. & Decl., Dkt. 45-4, at ECF 351.) However, on October 10, 2014, the requirements established by Local Law 149 were temporarily suspended pending the outcome of litigation.¹² (Id. ) On June 15, 2017, after the litigation had terminated, enforcement of Local Law 149 resumed. (Id. at ECF 321.)

When a pawnbroker or second-hand dealer uses LeadsOnline, the NYPD is able to review the required records and check recent items electronically without visiting the stores, and is also...