Leather v. Eyck
| Decision Date | 11 June 1999 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 98-7275 |
| Parties | , John LEATHER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael Ten EYCK, Individually, Thomas Lindert, Individually, Carmine Restivo, Jr., Individually, Daniel Stevens, Individually, Robert Thoubboron, Individually, and The County of Putnam, New York, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Charles L. Brieant, Judge ), dismissing, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim alleging selective prosecution. Vacated and remanded.
CRAIG T. DICKINSON, Lovett & Gould, White Plains, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
ANTHONY J. SERVINO, Servino & Seymour, White Plains, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before: CALABRESI and STRAUB, Circuit Judges, and TSOUCALAS, Judge. *
Plaintiff John Leather appeals from an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Brieant, J.), dismissing his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim that he was subjected to selective prosecution by the defendants in retaliation for the exercise of his right to free speech guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. 1 The district court granted defendants' motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). In order to affirm that court's order, we must find that plaintiff "fail[s] to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). We conclude instead that the plaintiff should be permitted to pursue his § 1983 suit.
Leather's § 1983 claim is based on a course of events that occurred in Putnam County, New York. At that time, Leather was the duly appointed fire coordinator for the County, and the individual defendants were all members of the County Sheriff's Department. 2 In his complaint, Leather alleged that in 1992 and 1993 a fierce debate was taking place in the County over whether the Emergency "911" communications center ("E-911") would be controlled by civilians or by the County Sheriff's Office. Leather maintains that he was a vocal public advocate on behalf of vesting control of the E-911 services in civilian hands, which, he argued, would lead to better emergency services in the community. In contrast, the members of the Sheriff's Office were actively trying to gain control of the E-911 communications center. 3
Leather contends that, in retaliation for his public statements, the Sheriff's Office both threatened him (and others who made similar statements) and targeted him for prosecution. Specifically, Leather alleges that on the evening of December 2, 1994, three members of the Sheriff's Department kept him under surveillance while he dined at a local restaurant with his wife and consumed one or more alcoholic beverages. Shortly after he and his wife left the restaurant, Leather was stopped on the road by two of the officers (Ten Eyck and Lindert) and arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated. Thereafter, he was successfully prosecuted on a lesser charge of driving while impaired (because his blood alcohol level, which tested at .09 percent, was insufficient to support a per se finding of driving while intoxicated). He was assessed a $300 fine as well as a $25 surcharge, and his driver's license was suspended for 90 days. Leather did not appeal this conviction, rendered in the Justice Court for the Town of Southeast.
Instead, Leather proceeded to file this § 1983 suit. The defendants, after submitting an answer to the complaint, moved to dismiss the complaint under Federal Rule of Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. 4 The district court granted defendants' motion and dismissed Leather's selective prosecution claim, reasoning that the claim's success "would 'necessarily imply' the invalidity of [his criminal] conviction" in contravention of the Supreme Court's holding in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 487, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994). Leather v. Ten Eyck, No. 97 Civ 6735 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 2, 1998). The district court also noted in passing that although the defendants conceded that no evidence of selective prosecution was presented by Leather in his state criminal trial, Leather's trial attorney did, in his closing argument, among other things, mention that "[t]here[ was] something phoney going on."
Leather appeals, contending that the district court's dismissal was improper because Heck v. Humphrey does not bar his § 1983 suit. The defendants in turn argue both that Heck and principles of preclusion (res judicata and collateral estoppel) bar Leather's suit. We vacate and remand.
We review the dismissal of a complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) de novo. See Leeds v. Meltz, 85 F.3d 51, 53 (2d Cir.1996). And our review must accept the material allegations in the plaintiff's complaint as true. See id. "[U]nless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief," dismissal is inappropriate. Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). "This rule applies with particular force where the plaintiff alleges civil rights violations." Chance v. Armstrong, 143 F.3d 698, 701 (2d Cir.1998); see also Hernandez v. Coughlin, 18 F.3d 133, 136 (2d Cir.1994). 5
In Heck, a prisoner filed a § 1983 suit seeking money damages for various alleged improprieties on the part of the state police and county prosecutor responsible for his arrest and prosecution. He did not, however, seek release from prison confinement. See Heck, 512 U.S. at 479. The Court held that although there is no exhaustion requirement in § 1983 actions, see Patsy v. Board of Regents, 457 U.S. 496, 516, 102 S.Ct. 2557, 73 L.Ed.2d 172 (1982), nevertheless, a damages claim akin to Heck's could not lie, because the success of the § 1983 claim would necessarily imply that the plaintiff's prior conviction was invalid, see Heck, 512 U.S. at 486-87. The Court held that, to proceed with a § 1983 suit, the "plaintiff must prove that the conviction or sentence has been reversed on direct appeal ... or called into question by a federal court's issuance of a writ of habeas corpus." Id.; see also Edwards v. Balisok, 520 U.S. 641, 648, 117 S.Ct. 1584, 137 L.Ed.2d 906 (1997).
Following Heck, however, the question remained open whether a plaintiff, convicted of a criminal offense, could proceed with a § 1983 claim where no remedy of habeas corpus existed. The court below read the rationale of Heck to preclude such a suit and hence dismissed Leather's § 1983 claim. Since the district court's decision, however, that question has been answered in this Circuit. In Jenkins v. Haubert, No. 98-2408, --- F.3d ----, 1999 WL 331871 (2d Cir. May 26, 1999), this Court held that "Heck and Edwards do not bar a § 1983 claim challenging the conditions of a prisoner's confinement where the prisoner is unable to challenge the conditions through a petition for federal habeas corpus." Id. at *----.
Although Leather's action does not challenge conditions of confinement, Jenkins implies the inapplicability of Heck for Leather. Because Leather is not and never was in the custody of the State, he, like Jenkins, has no remedy in habeas corpus. Having escaped the jaws of Heck, Leather should therefore be permitted to pursue his § 1983 claim in the district court unless principles of res judicata or collateral estoppel preclude his suit.
The defendants argue that Leather's claims are barred both by res judicata (claim preclusion) and collateral estoppel (issue preclusion). "Under the doctrine of claim preclusion, [a] final judgment on the merits of an action precludes the parties or their privies from relitigating issues that were or could have been raised in that action." Rivet v. Regions Bank of Louisiana, 522 U.S. 470, 118 S.Ct. 921, 925, 139 L.Ed.2d 912 (1998) (internal quotation marks omitted; alteration in original); see also Blonder-Tongue Labs., Inc. v. University of Ill. Found., 402 U.S. 313, 350, 91 S.Ct. 1434, 28 L.Ed.2d 788 (1971); Restatement (Second) of Judgments §§ 17-19 (1982). Instead, "[c]ollateral estoppel ... means simply that when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit." Schiro v. Farley, 510 U.S. 222, 232, 114 S.Ct. 783, 127 L.Ed.2d 47 (1994) (internal quotation marks omitted). Under Rule 8(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, both are affirmative defenses that must be pleaded by the defendant.
In a federal § 1983 suit, the same preclusive effect is given to a previous state court proceeding as would be given to that proceeding in the courts of the State in which the judgment was rendered. See 28 U.S.C § 1738 (1994); Migra v. Warren City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., 465 U.S. 75, 82-83, 104 S.Ct. 892, 79 L.Ed.2d 56 (1984); Kremer v. Chemical Constr. Corp., 456 U.S. 461, 476, 102 S.Ct. 1883, 72 L.Ed.2d 262 (1982); Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980). Because we conclude that courts in the State of New York would not bar Leather's suit on either res judicata or collateral estoppel grounds, we hold that Leather should be allowed to proceed with his § 1983 claim.
The defendants argue first that res judicata prohibits Leather's federal suit. Because Leather could have sought coram nobis relief for his alleged injuries in the New York State courts, the defendants say, Leather should be barred from bringing this suit. This, however, misconstrues the doctrine of claim preclusion and is instead essentially an argument in favor of reading an exhaustion requirement into § 1983--a position that, as we have already noted, the Supreme Court has expressly rejected. See Patsy, 457 U.S. at 503.
Nor does res...
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