Joyner v. Cnty. of Cayuga
| Decision Date | 17 April 2020 |
| Docket Number | 5:20-CV-60 (MAD/TWD) |
| Parties | MICHAEL JOYNER, Plaintiff, v. COUNTY OF CAYUGA; CAYUGA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT; CITY OF AUBURN; SHAWN I. BUTLER, Chief of Auburn Police Department, as an Individual and in his official capacity; CAYUGA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE; JON E. BUDELMANN, as an Individual and in his capacity as District Attorney for Cayuga County; and ANTHONY SPINELLI, as an Individual and in his capacity as an Auburn City Police Officer, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York |
APPEARANCES:
OFFICE OF JARROD W. SMITH
11 South Main Street
P.O. Box 173
Jordan, New York 13080
Attorneys for Plaintiff
OFFICE OF JEFFREY R. PARRY
7030 East Genesee Street
Fayetteville, New York 13066
Attorneys for Plaintiff
OFFICE OF FRANK W. MILLER
JARROD W. SMITH, ESQ.
JEFFREY R. PARRY, ESQ.
FRANK W. MILLER, ESQ.
GIANCARLO FACCIPONTE, ESQ.
MEMORANDUM-DECISION AND ORDER
On or about February 18, 2020, Plaintiff filed a complaint against Defendants City of Auburn, Shawn L. Butler, County of Cayuga, Cayuga County District Attorney's Office, Jon E. Budelmann, and Anthony Spinelli, asserting eight claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988, and state law. See Dkt. No. 5. Specifically, Plaintiff's complaint alleges the following causes of action: (1) false arrest under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments; (2) malicious prosecution under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments; (3) negligent failure to train or supervise; (4) state law false arrest; (5) state law false imprisonment; (6) intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress under New York State law; (7) negligence; and (8) deliberate indifference to medical care under the Eighth Amendment. See Dkt. No. 5 at ¶¶ 40-114. Currently before the Court is Defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint in its entirety. See Dkt. No. 9.
According to the complaint, on August 10, 2018, Plaintiff was the passenger in a vehicle that was driven by 140 Wall Street, allegedly in violation of an order of protection for Linda Fitzsimmons and Lee Joyner, who both reside at that address. See Dkt. No. 5 at ¶¶ 24-25. Plaintiff resides at 145 Wall Street, several houses down from 140 Wall Street, on the opposite side of the street. See id. at ¶ 25. Plaintiff was not the driver of the vehicle and had no control over how the driver was delivering him to his home. See id.
On August 13, 2018, Plaintiff was arraigned on two felony complaints charging him with two counts of Criminal Contempt in the First Degree based on the alleged violation of the order of protection. See id. at ¶ 22. At the conclusion of his arraignment, Plaintiff was remanded to the Cayuga County Jail. See id. Plaintiff claims that "Defendant police officer lacked the requisite requirement of having probable cause to arrest the Plaintiff; and did falsely arrest and imprison thePlaintiff." Id. at ¶ 23.
On October 4, 2018, Defendant Jon E. Budelmann, in his capacity as Cayuga County District Attorney, presented Plaintiff's charges to a grand jury, which "No Billed" the case. See id. at ¶ 26. At this point, Plaintiff was released from custody. See id.
During the fifty-three days during which Plaintiff "was being illegally imprisoned," he slipped and fell at the Cayuga County Jail. See id. at ¶ 31. According to Plaintiff, on August 31, 2018, a water pipe burst at the Cayuga County Jail near Plaintiff's cell while he was already locked in for the night and sleeping. See id. at ¶ 32. Plaintiff was woken by a bursting water pipe that was turned off by a Cayuga County Correctional officer. See id. at ¶ 33. "The first burst of the water pipe [occurred] when the Cayuga County Correctional officer shut the water off" between "12:00 midnight and 2:00 a.m." Id. at ¶ 34. Id.
Unbeknownst to Plaintiff, water from the burst pipe went underneath his locked cell door "and flooded his room while he was in bed and asleep." Id. at ¶ 35. Id. at ¶ 36. Plaintiff claims that he slipped and fell, hitting his head and neck on his bunk, and his lower back on the floor, causing severe injuries. See id. at ¶ 37. At the time that Plaintiff had fallen and injured himself, a second water leak had occurred in the pod in which he was being held. See id. at ¶ 38. Plaintiff claims that, as a result of the fall, he suffered a herniated disc in his neck and a lower lumbar strain. See id. at ¶ 39. Plaintiff also claims that he suffers from numbing of his toes and finger tips. See id.
A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure tests the legal sufficiency of the party's claim for relief. See Patane v. Clark, 508 F.3d 106, 111-12 (2d Cir. 2007) (citation omitted). In considering the legal sufficiency, a court must accept as true all well-pleaded facts in the pleading and draw all reasonable inferences in the pleader's favor. See ATSI Commc'ns, Inc. v. Shaar Fund, Ltd., 493 F.3d 87, 98 (2d Cir. 2007) (citation omitted). This presumption of truth, however, does not extend to legal conclusions. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (citation omitted). Although a court's review of a motion to dismiss is generally limited to the facts presented in the pleading, the court may consider documents that are "integral" to that pleading, even if they are neither physically attached to, nor incorporated by reference into, the pleading. See Mangiafico v. Blumenthal, 471 F.3d 391, 398 (2d Cir. 2006) (quoting Chambers v. Time Warner, Inc., 282 F.3d 147, 152-53 (2d Cir. 2002)).
To survive a motion to dismiss, a party need only plead "a short and plain statement of the claim," see Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2), with sufficient factual "heft to 'sho[w] that the pleader is entitled to relief[,]'" Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 557 (2007) (quotation omitted). Under this standard, the pleading's "[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right of relief above the speculative level," see id. at 555 (citation omitted), and present claims that are "plausible on [their] face," id. at 570. "The plausibility standard is not akin to a 'probability requirement,' but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully." Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678 (citation omitted). "Where a complaint pleads facts that are 'merely consistent with' a defendant's liability, it 'stops short of the line between possibility andplausibility of "entitlement to relief."'" Id. (quoting [Twombly, 550 U.S.] at 557, 127 S. Ct. 1955). Ultimately, "when the allegations in a complaint, however true, could not raise a claim of entitlement to relief," Twombly, 550 U.S. at 558, or where a plaintiff has "not nudged [its] claims across the line from conceivable to plausible, the[ ] complaint must be dismissed[,]" id. at 570.
In their reply to the motion to dismiss, Defendants submitted several documents in further support of their motion. See Dkt. No. 16-1. These documents include (1) the August 10, 2018 criminal complaint charging Plaintiff with Criminal Contempt in the First Degree, (2) the order of protection that Plaintiff allegedly violated, (3) the affidavit of Linda Fitzsimmons that formed the basis for Defendant's underlying criminal charge, and (4) the incident narrative report of Defendant Spinelli dated August 15, 2018 relating to the criminal complaint filed against Plaintiff. See id. at 1-6.
In deciding a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, the court considers the complaint, materials incorporated into the complaint by reference, materials integral to the complaint, and facts that are capable of judicial notice. See DiFolco v. MSNBC Cable L.L.C., 622 F.3d 104, 111 (2d Cir. 2010).
In the present matter, the Court finds that these documents are not properly considered at the motion to dismiss stage. The Court acknowledges that there are cases in which courts have considered similar police records at the pleading stage. See Betts v. Shearman, No. 12-cv-3195, 2013 WL 311124, *3 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 24, 2013) (), aff'd on qualified immunity grounds, 751 F.3d 78 (2d Cir. 2014); cf. Obilo v. City Univ. of City of N.Y., No. 01-cv-5118, 2003 WL 1809471, *4 (E.D.N.Y. Apr. 7, 2003) (). The better view, however, adopted by a majority of courts in our Circuit, is that these kinds of police records are not "integral" to a false arrest complaint. See Bejaoui v. City of New York, No. 13-CV-5667, 2015 WL 1529633, *4-5 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 31, 2015) (); Alvarez v. Cty. of Orange, 95 F. Supp. 3d 385, 394-95 (S.D.N.Y. 2015) (collecting cases). A document is not "integral" simply because its contents are highly relevant to a plaintiff's allegations, but only when it is clear that the plaintiff relied on the document in preparing his complaint. See Global Network Commc'ns, Inc. v. City of New York, 458 F.3d 150, 156-57 (2d Cir. 2006); Chambers v. Time Warner, Inc., 282 F.3d 147, 153 (2d Cir. 2002). Most typically, "the incorporated...
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