Joel A., Michael D. et al. v. Giuliani

• Decision Date: 14 July 1999
• Docket Number: Docket No. 99-7218
• Parties: (2nd Cir. 2000) JOEL A., MICHAEL D., ERIC R., DAVID S., MAXX R., AND RAY D., Intervenor-Plaintiffs-Appellants, MARISOL A., by her next friend, Rev. Dr. James Alexander Forbes, Jr., by her next friend Raymunda Cruz, LAWRENCE B., by his next friend, Dr. Vincent Bonagura, THOMAS C., by his next friend, Dr. Margaret T. McHugh, SHAUNA D., by her next friend, Nedda de Castro, OZZIE E., by his next friends, Jill Chaifetz and Kim Hawkins, DARREN F., DAVID F., by their next friends, Juan A. Figueroa, and Rev. Marvin J. Owens, BILL G., VICTORIA G., by their next friend, Sister Dolores Gartanutti, BRANDON H., by his next friend, Thomas H. Moloney, STEVEN I., by his next friend, Kevin Ryan, on their own behalf and behalf of all others similarly situated, WALTER S., RICHARD S., by their next friends, W.N. and N.N., grandparents, DANIELLE J., by her next friend, Angela Lloyd, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI, Mayor of the City of New York, MARVA LIVINGSTON HAMMONS, Administrator of the Human Resources Administration and Commissioner of the Dept. of Social Services of the City of New York, GEORGE E. PATAKI, Governor of the State of New York, JOHN JOHNSON, Commissioner of the New York Office of Children and Family fka Commissioner of the Dept. Social Services of the State of New York, NICHOLAS SCOPPETTA, in his official capacity as Commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children's Services, Defendants-Appellees. August Term 1998
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 132

218 F.3d 132 (2nd Cir. 2000)

JOEL A., MICHAEL D., ERIC R., DAVID S., MAXX R., AND RAY D., Intervenor-Plaintiffs-Appellants, MARISOL A., by her next friend, Rev. Dr. James Alexander Forbes, Jr., by her next friend Raymunda Cruz, LAWRENCE B., by his next friend, Dr. Vincent Bonagura, THOMAS C., by his next friend, Dr. Margaret T. McHugh, SHAUNA D., by her next friend, Nedda de Castro, OZZIE E., by his next friends, Jill Chaifetz and Kim Hawkins, DARREN F., DAVID F., by their next friends, Juan A. Figueroa, and Rev. Marvin J. Owens, BILL G., VICTORIA G., by their next friend, Sister Dolores Gartanutti, BRANDON H., by his next friend, Thomas H. Moloney, STEVEN I., by his next friend, Kevin Ryan, on their own behalf and behalf of all others similarly situated, WALTER S., RICHARD S., by their next friends, W.N. and N.N., grandparents, DANIELLE J., by her next friend, Angela Lloyd, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI, Mayor of the City of New York, MARVA LIVINGSTON HAMMONS, Administrator of the Human Resources Administration and Commissioner of the Dept. of Social Services of the City of New York, GEORGE E. PATAKI, Governor of the State of New York, JOHN JOHNSON, Commissioner of the New York Office of Children and Family fka Commissioner of the Dept. Social Services of the State of New York, NICHOLAS SCOPPETTA, in his official capacity as Commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children's Services, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 99-7218

August Term 1998

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Argued July 14, 1999

Decided: July 10, 2000

Appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Robert J. Ward, District Judge) approving class action settlement agreements between the Marisol plaintiffs and the City and State defendants.

Affirmed.

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] MARC FALCONE, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (Daniel J. Leffell, Mariann Meier Wang, Tobias B. Wolff, Victoria Cook, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and Douglas Lasdon, David Pumo, Urban Justice Center, on the brief), New York, New York, for Intervenor-Plaintiffs-Appellants.

GRACE GOODMAN, Assistant Corporation Counsel (Larry A. Sonnenshein, Gail Rubin, Michael D. Hess, Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, on the brief), New York, New York, for Municipal Defendants-Appellees.

WILLIAM BRISTOW, Assistant Attorney General (Preeta D. Bansal, Solicitor General, Judith T. Kramer, Assistant Attorney General, Michael S. Belohlavek, Assistant Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York, on the brief), New York, New York, for State Defendants-Appellees.

MARCIA ROBINSON LOWRY, Children's Rights, Inc. (Susan Lambiase, Shirim Nothenberg, Children's Rights, Inc., and Karen Freedman, Lawyers for Children, Thomas F. Curnin, Ira J. Dembrow, Cahill Gordon & Reindel, David M. Brodsky, Jess A. Velona, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, on the brief), New York, New York, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.

RICHARD J. DAVIS, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP (Harris J. Yale, Janet L. Goldberg, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, on the brief), New York, New York, for Amici Curiae The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, The National Center for Youth Law, Support Center for Child Advocates, Youth Law Center, Dean Bogart R. Leashore, Dean Thomas M. Meenaghan, Dean Ronald Feldman, Dean Mary Ann Quaranta, Dean Sheldon R. Gelman, Dean Roger A. Levin, and Dean Frances L. Brisbane in support of Appellees' Opposition to Intervenor's Appeal.

Before: WALKER, CABRANES, and SACK, Circuit Judges.

JOHN M. WALKER, JR., Circuit Judge:

Intervenor-Plaintiffs-Appellants Joel A., Michael D., Eric R., David S., Maxx R., and Ray D. (the "Joel A. objectors" or "the appellants") appeal from an order and judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Robert J. Ward, District Judge) that approved a class action settlement between the class action plaintiff children and officials of New York City and New York State. The plaintiff class, consisting of children either in the custody of the New York City Administration for Children's Services ("NYCACS" or "ACS") or at risk of neglect or abuse and whose status is or should be known to NYCACS (collectively, "the plaintiffs"), alleged that they were deprived of appropriate city and state services and sought to hold accountable New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the Administrator of the Human Resources Administration and Commissioner of the Department of Social Services, Marva Livingston Hammons, the NYCACS Commissioner, Nicholas Scoppetta, as well as George E. Pataki, Governor of New York, and Brian Wing, Acting Commissioner of the Department of Social Services of the State of New York (collectively, "the defendants"). The appellants, a class represented by Joel A., unsuccessfully objected to a settlement between the plaintiffs and defendants on the ground that it imposes overbroad restrictions on the class members' right of access to the courts for a specified period in exchange for illusory relief, and therefore that the district court abused its discretion in approving the settlement. Because we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion, we affirm the decision below.

BACKGROUND

The detailed allegations of the named plaintiffs, eleven children who claim they were deprived of the services of the New York City child welfare system to their extreme detriment, are fully set forth in the district court's opinion, Marisol A. ex rel. Forbes v. Giuliani, 929 F. Supp. 662, 669-72 (S.D.N.Y. 1996) ("Marisol I"), and it is unnecessary to describe them further here. It will suffice to say that in December 1995, the plaintiffs, acting through their adult next friends, sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the defendants claiming injuries caused by systemic failures of the City's child welfare system. The complaint charged that the defendants, in operating that system, had violated an array of federal and state laws, including the First, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. §§ 620-628, 670-679a, and the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5101-5106a, among others. See Marisol I, 929 F. Supp. at 672.

On June 18, 1996, the district court granted class certification under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(2) to a broad class of plaintiffs subject to the purview of the New York City Child Welfare Administration, currently known as ACS. The district court defined the class as "[a]ll children who are or will be in the custody of [ACS], and those children who, while not in the custody of ACS, are or will be at risk of neglect or abuse and whose status is known or should be known to ACS." Marisol I, 929 F. Supp. at 693. We affirmed the certification, but directed the district court to break the class into various subclasses, and to identify for each subclass (1) the discrete legal claims at issue, (2) the named plaintiffs aggrieved under each such discrete claim, and (3) the subclasses represented by each named plaintiff. Marisol A. ex rel. Forbes v. Giuliani, 126 F.3d 372, 379 (2d Cir. 1997) (per curiam) ("Marisol II").

On remand, the district court certified three subclasses: (1) children whom the defendants know or should know have been abused or neglected/maltreated by virtue of a report of abuse or neglect/maltreatment; (2) children in families in which there is an open indicated report of abuse or neglect; and (3) children in the custody of ACS. Marisol A. ex rel. Forbes v. Giuliani, No. 95 Civ. 10533 (RJW), 1998 WL 199927, at *5 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 23, 1998) ("Marisol III"). In May 1998, the district court granted intervention to three additional named plaintiffs and identified the subclasses they represented and the legal claims they asserted. Marisol A. ex rel. Forbes v. Giuliani, No. 95 Civ. 10533 (RJW), 1998 WL 265123, at *2-4 (S.D.N.Y. May 22, 1998) ("Marisol IV"). Although this process provided an opportunity for any objector to challenge the subclass designation, the Joel A. objectors, appellants here, did not challenge the adequacy of the class representatives nor appeal from the certification of the subclasses. There is no dispute that the Joel A. objectors are members of the third subclass of Marisol plaintiffs: children in the custody of ACS.

I. The Settlement Agreements

After more than two years of intensive discovery and on the eve of trial in July 1998, the parties informed the district court that they were engaged in settlement negotiations. The trial date was postponed and the parties conducted negotiations for over four months. On December 2, 1998, two settlement agreements signed by the appropriate parties were filed with the district court: the City Settlement Agreement and the State Settlement Agreement.

The City Settlement Agreement establishes an Advisory Panel of four experts in the child welfare field selected and approved by plaintiffs and the City defendants. The Advisory Panel is to study various areas of ACS' operations, including permanency, placement and evaluation, and monitoring of private agencies, with the full cooperation of ACS, which agrees to provide the Panel with full access to information, documents, and personnel. The Advisory Panel is required to report on each of the enumerated areas and to determine whether ACS is making good faith efforts toward reform in those areas; if the Panel finds a lack of good faith, plaintiffs can seek judicial relief, using the Panel's findings as prima facie evidence that ACS is not acting in good faith. Notably, the City Agreement also contains limitations on the filing of class action lawsuits through December 15, 2000, the date the Agreement expires.

The State Settlement Agreement establishes a regional office of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services ("OCFS...