Lanning v. City of Glens Falls

• Decision Date: 07 November 2018
• Docket Number: Docket No. 17-970-cv,August Term, 2017
• Citation: 908 F.3d 19
• Parties: David LANNING Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF GLENS FALLS, Glens Falls Police Department, Ryan Ashe, in His Official and Individual Capacities, County of Warren, Warren County Sheriff’s Department, Warren County District Attorney’s Office, Kevin Conine, Jr., in His Official and Individual Capacities, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

908 F.3d 19

David LANNING Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.CITY OF GLENS FALLS, Glens Falls Police Department, Ryan Ashe, in His Official and Individual Capacities, County of Warren, Warren County Sheriff’s Department, Warren County District Attorney’s Office, Kevin Conine, Jr., in His Official and Individual Capacities, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 17-970-cv

August Term, 2017

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: April 18, 2018

Decided: November 7, 2018

James Edward Gross, Albany, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

James A. Resila (William C. Firth, on the brief ), Carter, Conboy, Case, Blackmore, Maloney & Laird, P.C., Albany, NY, for Defendants-Appellees City of Glens Falls, Glens Falls Police Department, and Ryan Ashe.

Gregg T. Johnson, Lemire, Johnson & Higgins, LLC, Malta, NY for Defendants-Appellees County of Warren, Warren County Sheriff’s Department, Warren County District Attorney’s Office, and Kevin Conine, Jr.

Before: KEARSE, CABRANES, and LOHIER, Circuit Judges.

LOHIER, Circuit Judge:

This case requires us primarily to consider whether New York law can alter the standard that applies to the "favorable termination" element of a malicious prosecution claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In 2012 law enforcement officials in New York repeatedly arrested and charged David Lanning Jr. ("Lanning"), allegedly at the direction of Lanning’s estranged wife and the Glens Falls police officer with whom she was romantically involved. After the criminal charges against Lanning were dismissed, he filed a § 1983 suit against the City of Glens Falls, the Glens Falls Police Department, and Officer Ryan Ashe (collectively, the "City Defendants"), as well as the County of Warren, the Warren County Sheriff’s Department, the Warren County District Attorney’s Office, and Officer Kevin Conine, Jr. (collectively, the "County Defendants"), claiming malicious prosecution in violation of the Fourth Amendment and denial of the right to equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (D’Agostino, J. ) dismissed Lanning’s complaint on the pleadings.

Consistent with the traditional common law of torts, we hold that a plaintiff asserting a malicious prosecution claim under § 1983 must still show that the underlying criminal proceeding ended in a manner that affirmatively indicates his innocence. We AFFIRM because Lanning has not plausibly pleaded that the criminal proceedings against him were terminated in a manner that indicates he was innocent of the charges, and because he failed to state a claim under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

BACKGROUND

"Because this matter comes to us on appeal from a judgment on the pleadings, we rely on the complaint, the answer, any written documents attached to them, and any matter of which [we] can take judicial notice for the factual background of the case." Roberts v. Babkiewicz, 582 F.3d 418, 419 (2d Cir. 2009). We construe the factual allegations in the light most favorable to Lanning, the losing party. See Latner v. Mount Sinai Health Sys., Inc., 879 F.3d 52, 54 (2d Cir. 2018).

1. Factual Allegations

In 2012 Lanning and his estranged wife, Jamie Lanning, were in the middle of a bitter divorce and child custody dispute. In February 2012 Jamie Lanning began to date Ryan Ashe, a police officer with the Glens Falls Police Department.

Shortly after midnight on May 24, 2012, Ashe drove Jamie Lanning to the Warren County Sheriff’s Department Office, where she falsely reported to officer Conine, Ashe’s friend and former police partner, that Lanning had threatened to kill her. Jamie Lanning also reported that Lanning was subject to a pre-existing order of protection in her favor. After taking Jamie Lanning’s statement, Conine drove to Lanning’s home, arrested him, drove him to the Warren County jail, and detained him for about five hours. Later that morning, Lanning was arraigned in Queensbury Town Court on charges of criminal contempt in the first degree (for violating the order of protection) and aggravated harassment in the second degree. The complaint alleged that these charges resulted in a "no contact" order of protection against Lanning. After posting bail, Lanning was released pending a hearing on the charges.

On September 18, 2012, Lanning picked up his daughter at his mother-in-law’s house, in keeping with a custody agreement with Jamie Lanning. Ashe and Jamie Lanning arrived at the house in Ashe’s personal car and waited until Lanning drove his daughter to dinner. Ashe and Jamie Lanning then called the Glens Falls Police Department and falsely reported that Lanning had threatened them. When Lanning returned to the house with his daughter, a group of five Glens Falls police officers was waiting. The officers removed Lanning from his car and handcuffed him as Ashe and Jamie Lanning watched from Ashe’s car. That night, the Glens Falls City Court arraigned Lanning on charges of criminal contempt in the first degree. He was kept in the Warren County jail for three days.

These charges from the Glens Falls City Court were then merged with the earlier charges from the Queensbury Town Court (stemming from Lanning’s May 24, 2012 arrest) for prosecution in the County Court of Warren County. On September 21, 2012, the Warren County District Attorney’s Office secured an indictment charging Lanning with three counts of criminal contempt in the first degree and one count of aggravated harassment in the second degree. After the indictment, Jamie Lanning allegedly received "[a]nother full order of protection." App’x 20. In March 2013, on the motion of the Warren County District Attorney’s Office, the County Court reduced and transferred the charges back to the originating courts to be prosecuted separately as misdemeanors.

Lanning was then arraigned in Queensbury Town Court on one count of criminal contempt in the second degree and one count of aggravated harassment in the second degree related to the events of May 24, 2012. On May 7, 2014, during the course of a jury trial, the Queensbury Town Court dismissed the charges.¹

On April 9, 2013, Lanning had been separately arraigned in Glens Falls City Court on two counts of criminal contempt in the second degree related to the events of September 18, 2012. On November 7, 2014, the Glens Falls City Court dismissed these charges "in the interest of justice" pursuant to § 170.40 of the New York Criminal Procedure Law. The complaint alleged that the arrests of which Lanning complains led to his "being subject to numerous orders of protection." App’x 23.

On May 1, 2013, while the criminal charges were pending in Queensbury and Glens Falls, Ashe stopped Lanning’s car and gave him three traffic tickets—one for aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, one for changing lanes unsafely, and one for failing to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of a change in address. All three tickets were dismissed in June 2013.

2. Procedural History

In February 2016 Lanning sued the City and County Defendants under § 1983, asserting three claims for malicious prosecution in violation of the Fourth Amendment with respect to his two arrests and the traffic stop and one claim for denial of the right to equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The District Court granted the City and County Defendants’ motions for judgment on the pleadings. Lanning v. City of Glens Falls, No. 1:16-CV-00132, 2017 WL 922058, at *9 (N.D.N.Y. Mar. 8, 2017). As relevant to this appeal, the District Court dismissed all of Lanning’s claims against Ashe and Conine in their individual capacities.² With respect to the malicious prosecution claim based on the May 24, 2012 arrest, the District Court held that Lanning failed to rebut the presumption of probable cause established by the indictment and also failed to plead Ashe’s personal involvement in the prosecution. Id. at *3–6. The District Court also held that the criminal proceeding underlying Lanning’s malicious prosecution claim based on the September 18, 2012 arrest was not terminated in Lanning’s favor. Id. at *7. And with respect to the malicious prosecution claim based on Ashe’s May 1, 2013 traffic stop, the District Court determined that Lanning had not adequately alleged a Fourth Amendment "seizure." Id. The District Court next dismissed Lanning’s equal protection claim because he "failed to plausibly state that similarly situated persons were treated differently" by the City or County Defendants. Id. at *8. Having dismissed the underlying constitutional claims, the District Court also dismissed Lanning’s Monell claims against the municipal defendants. Id. at *9.

This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

Because the District Court dismissed Lanning’s complaint on the pleadings, our review is de novo. See Hayden v. Paterson, 594 F.3d 150, 160 (2d Cir. 2010).

1. Malicious Prosecution Claims ³

To prevail on his § 1983 claims for malicious prosecution, Lanning was required to show "a seizure or other perversion of proper legal procedures implicating [his] personal liberty and privacy interests under the Fourth Amendment." Washington v. County of Rockland, 373 F.3d 310, 316 (2d Cir. 2004) (quotation marks omitted). He also had to show that criminal proceedings were initiated or continued against him, with malice and without probable cause, and were terminated in his favor. See Mitchell v. City of New York, 841 F.3d 72, 79 (2d Cir. 2016) ; Swartz v. Insogna, 704 F.3d 105, 111–12 (2d Cir. 2013). We conclude that Lanning failed adequately to allege that his criminal proceedings were terminated in his favor under § 1983.⁴

In urging a contrary conclusion, Lanning points to the standard adopted by the New York Court of Appeals for the tort of malicious prosecution. Under that standard, he argues, the favorable termination element is satisfied so long as "the final termination of the criminal proceeding is not inconsistent...