Jones v. Deutsch

• Citation: 715 F. Supp. 1237
• Decision Date: 28 June 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88 Civ. 7738 (GLG).,88 Civ. 7738 (GLG).
• Parties: Yvonne JONES, Anita Jordan, April Jordan, Latoya Jordan, Anna Ramos, Lizette Ramos, Vanessa Ramos, Gabriel Ramos, Thomas Myers, Lisa Myers, Thomas Myers, Jr., Linda Myers, Shawn Myers, Stacey Franklin, Chanelle Franklin, Ronald Franklin, Janet Llanos, Eric Steven Llanos, Odell A. Jones, Melvin Dixon, Geri Bacon, Mary Williams, James Hodges, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Inc., White Plains/Greenburgh Branch, and National Coalition for the Homeless, Plaintiffs, v. Laurence DEUTSCH, Colin Edwin Kaufman, Steven Neil Goldrich, Michael James Tone, Coalition of United Peoples, Inc., and Anthony F. Veteran, as Supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

715 F. Supp. 1237

Yvonne JONES, Anita Jordan, April Jordan, Latoya Jordan, Anna Ramos, Lizette Ramos, Vanessa Ramos, Gabriel Ramos, Thomas Myers, Lisa Myers, Thomas Myers, Jr., Linda Myers, Shawn Myers, Stacey Franklin, Chanelle Franklin, Ronald Franklin, Janet Llanos, Eric Steven Llanos, Odell A. Jones, Melvin Dixon, Geri Bacon, Mary Williams, James Hodges, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Inc., White Plains/Greenburgh Branch, and National Coalition for the Homeless, Plaintiffs, v. Laurence DEUTSCH, Colin Edwin Kaufman, Steven Neil Goldrich, Michael James Tone, Coalition of United Peoples, Inc., and Anthony F. Veteran, as Supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh, Defendants.

No. 88 Civ. 7738 (GLG).

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

June 28, 1989.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, New York City (Jay L. Himes, Cameron on Clark, Melinda S. Levine and William N. Gerson, of counsel), for plaintiffs Anita Jordan, April Jordan, Latoya Jordan, Anna Ramos, Lizette Ramos, Vanessa Ramos, Gabriel Ramos, Thomas Myers, Lisa Myers, Thomas Myers, Jr., Linda Myers, Shawn Myers, Stacey Franklin, Chanelle Franklin, Ronald Franklin, Janet Llanos, Eric Steven Llanos, and Nat. Coalition for the Homeless, and Local Counsel for the remaining plaintiffs.

Grover G. Hankins, N.A.A.C.P., Inc., Baltimore, Md. (Robert M. Hayes and Virginia G. Shubert, Coalition for the Homeless, Julius L. Chambers, John Charles Boger, Sherrilyn Ifill and Andrew M. Cuomo, New York City, of counsel), for plaintiffs Yvonne Jones, Odell A. Jones, Melvin Dixon, Geri Bacon, Mary Williams, James Hodges, N.A.A.C.P., Inc., White Plains/Greenburgh Branch.

Lovett & Gould, White Plains, N.Y. (Jonathan Lovett, of counsel), for defendants Deutsch, Tone, Goldrich, and Coalition of United Peoples, Inc.

Quinn & Suhr, White Plains, N.Y. (Timothy C. Quinn, Jr., of counsel), for defendant Colin Edwin Kaufman.

OPINION

GOETTEL, District Judge:

In January of 1988, leaders from the Town of Greenburgh threw their support behind a county proposal to build emergency or "transitional" housing for the homeless on a 30-acre site in the town owned by the County of Westchester. The current design calls for the construction of six two-story buildings, each comprising some 18 units of housing, with a seventh building to be used for administrative support, day care, and skills training.

In response thereto, a number of residents owning property surrounding the proposed site formed the Coalition of United Peoples, Inc. ("COUP"), whose purpose, de facto or otherwise, is to prevent or substantially modify the housing project. As part of those efforts, COUP members sought to secede from the Town of Greenburgh by incorporating as a separate community to be denominated the Village of Mayfair Knollwood. Pursuant to the provisions of N.Y. Village Law §§ 2-200 to 2-258 (McKinney 1973 & Supp.1989), an incorporation petition was presented to Greenburgh Town Supervisor Anthony Veteran. Following a public hearing, Town Supervisor Veteran rejected the petition on various constitutional and statutory grounds outlined in a decision dated December 1, 1988 (the "December 1 Decision"). Among other things, Town Supervisor Veteran concluded that the proposed "boundaries, where ascertainable, were gerrymandered in a manner to exclude black persons from the proposed village" and that the petition also would "racially discriminate against homeless persons who are predominantly black." December 1 Decision ¶ 2, at 2 and ¶ 3, at 7. Two COUP members then appealed that decision to New York Supreme Court in an Article 78 proceeding,¹ which action subsequently was removed to this court by the respondents. Concluding that we would abstain from adjudicating the Article 78 proceeding under familiar doctrine finding its origins in Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed. 1424 (1943) and Railroad Comm'n of Texas v. Pullman, 312 U.S. 496, 61 S.Ct. 643, 85 L.Ed. 971 (1941), we remanded the matter, sua sponte, to State court. In re Greenberg, 710 F.Supp. 962, 972-976 (S.D. N.Y.1989). Town Supervisor Veteran appealed and is seeking a stay of the remanded Article 78 proceeding pending decision by the Second Circuit.

The Greenberg respondents argued to us, in essence, that if the statutory scheme regulating village incorporation is allowed to proceed in this case, it should be a Federal court that presides over that process due to the implication of various federal questions. We disagreed. The ratio decendi of our decision was that, in the absence of conflicting federal-state mandates imposed on State or municipal officials concerning the protection of equal rights, the comprehensive political/regulatory process created by New York to govern village incorporation should be allowed to work its will given the State's manifest and overriding interest in such matters. We emphasized, however, that should that process fail to serve the people in a colorblind fashion, the Federal courts would be there to ensure the vindication of federally protected rights. See Greenberg, 710 F.Supp. at 974-975 n. 11 (noting that "had the instant incorporation petition been approved under the Village Law, and the Deutsch plaintiffs plaintiffs in the instant action (assuming they had standing) then challenged that action in federal court on Fourteenth Amendment grounds, we have little doubt that we properly would have jurisdiction over the subject matter and that plaintiffs' choice of a federal forum would be respected"). Until that time, however, we continue to believe that Federal intervention in the incorporation process is both premature and imprudent and would undermine sound notions of comity and federalism.

Plaintiffs in this case (many of whom are respondents in the Article 78 proceeding) seek to go one step further by, in essence, preempting the village incorporation process altogether. Charging COUP with leadership of a conspiracy to violate civil rights, plaintiffs seek, inter alia, a permanent injunction restraining COUP from continuing with their heretofore unsuccessful incorporation efforts. Until the incorporation petition receives some form of State approval under the Village Law, however, the harms plaintiffs seek to prevent — alleged discriminatory violations of their voting and housing rights — cannot be realized.²

Moreover, to issue the injunction sought by plaintiffs, an evidentiary hearing to assess discriminatory intent/impact undoubtedly would be required. Given the present posture of this matter, we could very well be holding a lengthy and expensive evidentiary hearing on an incorporation petition that will never be put before the voters. Such a premature and potentially wasteful exercise of Federal judicial resources cannot be countenanced.

Understandably, lawyers, like anyone, would prefer to do battle on familiar turf — in their case, the courts. But this lawyerly penchant for prematurely bringing local political battles into Federal court cannot help but erode our legitimacy and authority in the eyes of the citizens and Constitution we serve if it is given effect. Simply put, we feel no differently now than when we issued our remand decision: the process established by the State to regulate village incorporation should and must be given a chance to work. Indeed, given the result thus far obtained — rejection of the petition, the principal result sought by this complaint —it is hard to fathom why plaintiffs harbor so little faith in the political process they seek to enjoin. Nonetheless, as we have made clear, the doors to Federal court will be wide open should the political process ultimately work an unconstitutionally discriminatory result. In re Greenberg, 710 F.Supp. at 974-975 n. 11.

Given these concerns, it should not be surprising that we believe this action to be both procedurally and substantively premature unless and until the State acts to give effect to COUP's efforts, and we dismiss the complaint as a result.

I. THE FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT

The original complaint in this action was filed prior to the December 1 Decision rejecting the incorporation petition. Following that action, plaintiffs were granted leave to file a first amended complaint ("FAC"), which is the subject of the instant motions. The pertinent facts underlying this action are detailed more completely in our remand decision, In re Greenberg, 710 F.Supp. at 964-966, familiarity with which is presumed.

The plaintiffs are comprised of two groups: (i) a number of black individuals who either live in Greenburgh and would be affected by approval of the allegedly gerrymandered incorporation petition or who live in Westchester County and would supposedly qualify for residence at the proposed housing project (the "individual plaintiffs"); and (ii) the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Inc., White Plains/Greenburgh Branch (the "NAACP") and the National Coalition for the Homeless (the "institutional plaintiffs"). The defendants are COUP and four of its leaders (the "COUP defendants") and Town Supervisor Veteran.

Based on COUP's allegedly discriminatory efforts to incorporate the Village of Mayfair Knollwood, FAC ¶ 1, at 1-2, four counts are presented in the complaint:

count I — the COUP defendants, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) ("section 1985(3)"), have conspired and are continuing to conspire to abridge the voting rights of certain of the individual plaintiffs by gerrymandering in a racially discriminatory fashion the proposed boundaries of the Village of Mayfair Knollwood;³

count II — the COUP defendants have conspired and are continuing to conspire in violation of section 1985(3) to violate the housing rights of those individual plaintiffs now homeless;⁴

count III — the COUP defendants have conspired and are continuing to conspire in violation of section 1985(3) to violate the emergency-shelter rights possessed by those individual plaint...