Leon v. Sanchez-Bermudez

• Decision Date: 31 July 2004
• Docket Number: Civil No. 01-1281(DRD).
• Citation: 332 F.Supp.2d 407
• Parties: Zuleima LEON et al., Plaintiffs, v. Angel M. SANCHEZ-BERMUDEZ et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

332 F.Supp.2d 407

Zuleima LEON et al., Plaintiffs, v. Angel M. SANCHEZ-BERMUDEZ et al., Defendants.

Civil No. 01-1281(DRD).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

July 31, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Francisco R. Gonzalez-Colon, F.R. Gonzalez Law Office, San Juan, PR, for Plaintiffs.

Johanna M. Emmanuelli-Huertas, Pedro Ortiz Alvarez Law Offices, Ponce, PR, Jose A. Santiago-Rivera, Pinto-Lugo, Oliveras & Ortiz, PSC, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.

OPINION & ORDER

DOMINGUEZ, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, Zuleima León, Iván R. Cruz-Serrano¹ and Zuleide Cotto-León filed a complaint against the Municipality of Santa Isabel, Mayor Angel Sánchez-Bermúdez, Graciela Torres-Vázquez, and Zenaida Santiago. Plaintiffs sustained that their First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when Defendants cancelled León's Section 8 Federal Housing Subsidy dwelling rights.

Pending before the Court is Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket No. 44) sustaining that plaintiffs failed to establish a prima facie First Amendment claim, that plaintiffs' due process claim is barred by res judicata and that plaintiffs failed to proffer the required evidence as to their Section 1985 conspiracy claim. Defendants further affirmed that Mayor Angel M Sánchez-Bermúdez had no personal involvement in order to warrant a relief against him in his personal capacity. Further, as to co-defendants Graciela Torres-Vázquez and Zenaida Santiago, defendants sustained that they are protected by the qualified immunity doctrine. The Court referred the matter to Magistrate Judge Aida M. Delgado-Colon (Docket No. 59). Magistrate Delgado-Colon issued a Report and Recommendation (Docket No. 60) recommending that Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment be granted in its entirety and that the case be dismissed.

Plaintiffs timely filed an opposition via their Motion Opposing to the Magistrate's Report and Recommendation (Docket No. 61). Plaintiffs objected to the Magistrate's Report and Recommendation alleging that it "is totally unsounded (sic) to the real and truthful facts of this case". (Docket No. 61 p. 2) Further, plaintiffs objected to the Magistrate's conclusion of a failure to establish a prima facie discrimination claim, and that they were unable to demonstrate Mayor Angel Sánchez-Bermúdez's personal involvement in the cancellation of plaintiff León's Section 8 subsidy. Finally, plaintiffs objected to Magistrate's conclusion that co-defendants Graciela Torres-Vázquez, and Zenaida Santiago are protected by the qualified immunity doctrine. Defendants duly replied to plaintiffs' objections. (Docket No. 62).

After conducting a de novo review of the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation by examining the parties' pleadings, depositions, documents, admissions on file, together with the affidavits, the Court is not persuaded by plaintiffs' arguments and, for the reasons stated below, the Court accepts and adopts the Magistrate's recommendation. Accordingly, Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment is granted.

I.

The District Court may refer dispositive motions to a United States Magistrate Judge for a Report and Recommendation. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B) (1993); Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(b); Rule 72(a), Local Rules, District of Puerto Rico. See Mathews v. Weber, 423 U.S. 261, 96 S.Ct. 549, 46 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976). An adversely affected party may contest the Magistrate's report and recommendation by filing objections within ten (10) days after being served a copy thereof. See Local Rule 72(d); Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(b). Moreover, 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1) (1993), in pertinent part, provides that:

Within ten days of being served with a copy, any party may serve and file written objections to such proposed findings and recommendations as provided by rules of court. A judge of the court shall make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made. A judge of the court may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or recommendations made by the magistrate.

The "written objections shall specifically identify the portions of the proposed findings, recommendations or report to which objection is made and the legal basis for such objections." Local Rule 72(d). Provided that plaintiffs, have objected the Magistrate's determination, the Court shall make a de novo determination of the Magistrate's Report and Recommendation.

II. Summary Judgment Standard

Summary judgment is a procedural device designed to screen out cases that present no trial worthy issues. See McCarthy v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 56 F.3d 313, 314-15 (1st Cir.,1995). Plumley v. Southern Container Inc., 303 F.3d 364, 368-69 (1st Cir., 2002). The role of summary judgment is to look behind the facade of the pleadings and assay the parties' proof in order to determine whether a trial is required. McIntosh v. Antonino, 71 F.3d 29, 33 (1st Cir., 1995).

In conventional summary judgment practice, the moving party has the initial responsibility of suggesting the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Quintero de Quintero v. Aponte-Roque, 974 F.2d 226, 227-28 (1st Cir.,1992). The moving party bears the two-fold burden of showing that there is "no genuine issue as to any material facts," and that he is "entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Vega-Rodriguez v. Puerto Rico Tel. Co., 110 F.3d 174, 178 (1st Cir.1997). That requires supporting the motion, by affidavits, admissions, or other materials of evidentiary quality, as to issues on which the movant bears the burden of proof. McIntosh v. Antonino, 71 F.3d at 33. A fact is "material" if it potentially could affect the suit's outcome. Cortes-Irizarry v. Corporacion Insular, 111 F.3d 184, 187 (1st Cir.1997). An issue concerning such a fact is "genuine" if a reasonable fact finder examining the evidence and drawing all reasonable inferences helpful to the party resisting summary judgment, could resolve the dispute in that party's favor. Id. Summary judgment is appropriate only if the "pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c).

Once the movant has fulfilled this obligation, the burden shifts to the summary judgment target to demonstrate that a trial worthy issue exists. Suarez v. Pueblo Int'l, Inc., 229 F.3d 49, 53 (1st Cir.2000). The non-movant cannot rest upon mere allegations or denial of the pleadings. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e). Indeed, the non-movant must affirmatively show that "sufficient evidence supporting the claimed factual dispute [exists] to require a jury or judge to resolve the parties' differing versions of truth at trial." First Nat. Bank of Ariz. v. Cities Service Co., 391 U.S. 253, 288-89, 88 S.Ct. 1575, 20 L.Ed.2d 569 (1968).

Fed.R.Civ.P. 56 does not ask which party's evidence is more plentiful, or better credentialed, or stronger weighted, because at the summary judgment stage, the Court may not weigh the evidence. Cortes-Irizarry v. Corporacion Insular, 111 F.3d at 187; see also Casas Office Machines, Inc. v. Mita Copystar America, Inc., 42 F.3d 668 (1st Cir.1994). Summary judgment "admits no room for credibility determinations, no room for the measured weighing of conflicting evidence such as the trial process entails." Id. (citing Greenburg v. Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Authority, 835 F.2d 932, 936 (1st Cir.1987)). Further, unsettled issues of motive and intent as to the conduct of any party — as may arise in actions under §§ 1983 and 1985 — will normally preclude the Court from granting summary judgment. Mulero-Rodriguez v. Ponte, Inc., 98 F.3d 670, 677 (1st Cir.1996) However, "even in cases where elusive concepts such as motive or intent are at issue, summary judgment may be appropriate if the nonmoving party rests merely upon conclusory allegations, improbable inferences [or] unsupported speculation." Ayala-Gerena v. Bristol Myers-Squibb Co., 95 F.3d 86, 95 (1st Cir.1996).

After reviewing defendants' motion for summary judgment and plaintiffs' opposition, pleadings, depositions, documents and admissions in file, the Court finds the following factual scenario.

III. Uncontested Facts

1. On May 1, 2000, plaintiff Zuleima León, hereinafter León, entered into a Section 8 rental subsidy contract with the Municipal Housing Authority, hereinafter MHA. Besides León, the other household member included in the contract was Zuleide Cotto-León, León's disabled and minor daughter. León entered into a rental contract with Felix Bulgado for an existing home in the Municipality of Santa Isabel. On said occasion, León certified that she was duly informed that commercial, illicit or profitable use of the unit could result in the cancellation of the Section 8 contract.

2. In 2000, León was engaged to Iván R. Cruz-Serrano², hereinafter Cruz-Serrano who was the President for the New Progressive Party (N.P.P.)Youth Organization of Santa Isabel. During the political campaign of the general elections of 2000, Cruz-Serrano participated in the systematic exclusion, from the electoral lists, of many members of the Santa Isabel governing Popular Democratic Party (PDP).³

3. Cruz-Serrano was nicknamed "el paparazzi" by PDP followers. After Cruz-Serrano lost his first electoral challenge, PDP activists discussed the loss during a radio program. Nowhere in the radio program's transcript is León's name mentioned.

4. Cruz-Serrano admitted that León is not a political activist and is not affiliated to any political party. She is, therefore, not a N.P.P. known member.

5. Angel M. Sánchez-Bermúdez, hereinafter Sánchez-Bermúdez, is the Mayor of Santa Isabel.

6. Mayor Sánchez-Bermúdez was present during the above mentioned radio program where Cruz-Serrano's loss of an electoral challenge was discussed.

7. Victor...