Faltynowicz v. Battery Park City Auth. (In re World Trade Ctr. Lower Manhattan Disaster Site Litig.)
| Decision Date | 21 November 2017 |
| Citation | 67 N.Y.S.3d 547,30 N.Y.3d 377,89 N.E.3d 1227 |
| Parties | In the Matter of WORLD TRADE CENTER LOWER MANHATTAN DISASTER SITE LITIGATION. Stanislaw Faltynowicz et al., Appellants, and State of New York, Intervenor–Appellant, v. Battery Park City Authority et al., Respondents. Santiago Alvear, Appellant, and State of New York, Intervenor–Appellant, v. Battery Park City Authority, Respondent. Peter Curley et al., Appellants, and State of New York, Intervenor–Appellant, v. Battery Park City Authority, Respondent. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Gregory J. Cannata & Associates, LLP, New York City (Gregory J. Cannata of counsel), and Robert A. Grochow, P.C., for Stanislaw Faltynowicz and others, appellants.
Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, New York City (Andrew W. Amend, Barbara D. Underwood, Steven C. Wu and Eric Del Pozo of counsel), for intervenor-appellant.
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, New York City (Luke Nikas and Nathan A. Holcomb of counsel), and Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, New York City (Paul J. Napoli and Christopher R. LoPalo of counsel), for Santiago Alvear and others, appellants.
Daniel S. Connolly, New York City, and Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP, White Plains (John M. Flannery
and Eliza M. Scheibel of counsel), for respondents.
This matter comes to us from an order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit certifying the following questions pursuant to rule 500.27 of this Court (Rules of Ct. of Appeals [ 22 NYCRR] § 500.27 ):
We accepted the certified questions on February 9, 2017 (see 28 N.Y.3d 1159, 49 N.Y.S.3d 89, 71 N.E.3d 581 [2017] ).
Plaintiffs in the consolidated appeal before the Second Circuit are workers who participated in cleanup operations in New York City following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The defendant is Battery Park City Authority (BPCA). BPCA was established by the State Legislature as a public benefit corporation to redevelop blighted areas in lower Manhattan and to expand the supply of safe and sanitary housing for low-income families (see Public Authorities Law §§ 1971, 1973[1] ). Plaintiffs initially brought claims between 2006 and 2009 alleging that they developed a host of illnesses as a result of their exposure to harmful toxins at BPCA-owned properties in the course of their cleanup duties.1 However, in July 2009, the District Court dismissed plaintiffs' claims, together with hundreds of other similar claims against BPCA, on the grounds that the plaintiffs did not serve BPCA with timely notices of claim (see General Municipal Law § 50–e ; Public Authorities Law § 1984 ).
The legislature responded to these dismissals by enacting Jimmy Nolan's Law, which became effective September 16, 2009 (see L. 2009, ch. 440). The law amended the General Municipal Law to provide, in relevant part:
"Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, including ... section fifty-e of this article ... any cause of action against a public corporation for personal injuries suffered by a participant in World Trade Center rescue, recovery or cleanup operations as a result of such participation which is barred as of the effective date of this subdivision because the applicable period of limitation has expired is hereby revived, and a claim thereon may be filed and served and prosecuted provided such claim is filed and served within one year of the effective date of this subdivision" ( General Municipal Law § 50–i[4][a], as added by L. 2009, ch. 440, § 2).
The effect of the law was to revive the plaintiffs' time-barred causes of action for one year after its enactment.
Many of the 9/11 cleanup workers whose claims had previously been dismissed, including plaintiffs, served new notices of claim on BPCA within the one-year revival period prescribed by Jimmy Nolan's Law. BPCA moved for summary judgment on the grounds that Jimmy Nolan's Law was unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the State Constitution (see N.Y. Const., art. I, § 6 ). Upon due notice, the Attorney General intervened to defend the constitutionality of the law.
The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of BPCA and held that Jimmy Nolan's Law was unconstitutional as applied (see In re World Trade Ctr. Lower Manhattan Disaster Site Litig., 66 F.Supp.3d 466 [S.D.N.Y.2014] ). As a threshold matter, the court recognized our "traditional rule that ‘municipalities and other local governmental corporate entities and their officers lack capacity to mount constitutional challenges to acts of the State and State legislation’ " ( id. at 471, quoting City of New York v. State of New York, 86 N.Y.2d 286, 289, 631 N.Y.S.2d 553, 655 N.E.2d 649 [1995] ). Nevertheless, the court cited a line of cases stating that "a ‘particularized inquiry is necessary to determine whether—for the specific purpose at issue—the public benefit corporation should be treated like the State’ " (id., quoting Clark–Fitzpatrick, Inc. v. Long Is. R.R. Co., 70 N.Y.2d 382, 387, 521 N.Y.S.2d 653, 516 N.E.2d 190 [1987] ) and concluded that "BPCA is an entity independent of the State and has capacity to challenge the constitutionality of the Legislature's acts" ( id. at 473 ). On the merits, the court found the law unconstitutional on the grounds that it was not passed in response to "exceptional" circumstances or a "serious injustice" ( id. at 476, citing Gallewski v. Hentz & Co., 301 N.Y. 164, 93 N.E.2d 620 [1950] ).
Plaintiffs appealed to the Second Circuit. After discerning an "absence of authoritative guidance" on both the capacity issue and the proper standard of review in evaluating the constitutionality of claim-revival statutes ( 846 F.3d at 69 ), the Second Circuit certified the questions set out above.
The first question essentially asks us to decide whether our general rule—that state entities lack capacity to challenge the constitutionality of a state statute—is any less applicable to public benefit corporations than it is to other types of governmental entities, such as municipalities. We hold that it is not, and that no "particularized inquiry" is necessary to determine whether public benefit corporations should be treated like the State for purposes of capacity.
Capacity "concerns a litigant's power to appear and bring its grievance before the court" ( Community Bd. 7 of Borough of Manhattan v. Schaffer, 84 N.Y.2d 148, 155, 615 N.Y.S.2d 644, 639 N.E.2d 1 [1994] ). Entities created by legislative enactment, such as the BPCA, "have neither an inherent nor a common-law right to sue" ( id. at 155–156, 615 N.Y.S.2d 644, 639 N.E.2d 1 ). "Rather, their right to sue, if it exists at all, must be derived from the relevant enabling legislation or some other concrete statutory predicate" ( id. at 156, 615 N.Y.S.2d 644, 639 N.E.2d 1 ). Capacity should not be confused with standing, which relates to whether a party has suffered an "injury in fact" conferring a "concrete interest in prosecuting the action" ( Society of Plastics Indus. v. County of Suffolk, 77 N.Y.2d 761, 772–773, 570 N.Y.S.2d 778, 573 N.E.2d 1034 [1991] ), and which "go[es] to the jurisdiction of the court" ( City of New York, 86 N.Y.2d at 292, 631 N.Y.S.2d 553, 655 N.E.2d 649 ). Capacity, unlike standing, does not concern the injury a party suffered, but whether the legislature invested that party with authority to seek relief in court. As such, capacity is a question of legislative intent and substantive state law.
Generally, "municipalities and other local governmental corporate entities and their officers lack capacity to mount constitutional challenges to acts of the State and State legislation" ( id. at 289, 631 N.Y.S.2d 553, 655 N.E.2d 649 ). During the more than 80 years predating our City of New York decision, our courts characterized this prohibition somewhat inconsistently, referring to it, at various times (and sometimes simultaneously), as a lack of capacity (see County of Albany v. Hooker, 204 N.Y. 1, 97 N.E. 403 [1912] ), a lack of standing (see Village of Herkimer v. Axelrod, 58 N.Y.2d 1069, 462 N.Y.S.2d 633, 449 N.E.2d 413 [1983] ; Black Riv. Regulating Dist. v. Adirondack League Club, 307 N.Y. 475, 489, 121 N.E.2d 428 [1954] ; Matter of Town of Moreau v. County of Saratoga, 142 A.D.2d 864, 531 N.Y.S.2d 61 [3d Dept.1988] ; City of Buffalo v. State Bd. of Equalization & Assessment, 26 A.D.2d 213, 272 N.Y.S.2d 168 [3d Dept.1966] ) or a substantive determination that the state acts complained of were not unconstitutional at all (see Matter of County of Cayuga v. McHugh, 4 N.Y.2d 609, 616, 176 N.Y.S.2d 643, 152 N.E.2d 73 [1958] ; Black Riv., 307 N.Y. at 489–490, 121 N.E.2d 428 ; Matter of Bowen v. State Commn. of Correction, 104 A.D.2d 238, 484 N.Y.S.2d 210 [3d Dept.1984] ; City of Utica v. County of Oneida, 187 Misc. 960, 965–966, 65 N.Y.S.2d 467 ...
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