Miller v. Rutgers

• Decision Date: 16 October 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 84-4580.
• Citation: 619 F. Supp. 1386
• Parties: Twyman MILLER, Plaintiff, v. RUTGERS, the State University of New Jersey, Patrolman Maria Santana and Patrolman Stanley Kosinski, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

619 F. Supp. 1386

Twyman MILLER, Plaintiff, v. RUTGERS, the State University of New Jersey, Patrolman Maria Santana and Patrolman Stanley Kosinski, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 84-4580.

United States District Court, D. New Jersey.

October 16, 1985.

Francine A. Gargano, North Plainfield, N.J., for plaintiff.

Cummins, Dunn & Pashman by Edward G. Sponzilli, Hackensack, N.J., for defendants.

OPINION

DEBEVOISE, District Judge.

Introduction

This action is brought by plaintiff Twyman Miller against Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and two Rutgers police officers, Maria Santana and Stanley Kosinski. Plaintiff asserts claims against defendants under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985(2) and (3) and 1988, and pursuant to the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. This action arises out of an encounter between plaintiff and the defendant police officers on the Rutgers campus in which plaintiff alleges that the officers used excessive force in effecting his arrest. Defendants have now moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that the suit is barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Alternatively, defendants move for summary judgment dismissing plaintiff's complaint on the ground that it lacks specificity, or for partial summary judgment dismissing plaintiff's claims under the First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments, and under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985(2) and (3). Defendants have also moved for leave to amend their answer to assert an additional affirmative defense. Plaintiff has cross-moved to amend his complaint to assert equal protection claims against the University.

Statement of Facts

This is a motion for summary judgment brought by defendants, and the facts will therefore be presented in a light most favorable to plaintiff, the nonmoving party. However, since the facts out of which this action arises are not critical to the instant motion, it is not necessary to give a detailed rendering of the event precipitating the lawsuit.

On November 5, 1983 the Rutgers police were called by a student in a University dormitory at Livingston College in Piscataway and informed that an unidentified person was unconscious or asleep in the hallway. The two defendant police officers responded to the call. They found plaintiff unconscious in the hall and, according to plaintiff, began to kick him to awaken him. When he regained consciousness, plaintiff was in a groggy and incoherent state due to his prior ingestion of a large quantity of alcohol. He attempted to leave the presence of the police officers, who stopped and questioned him. The officers maintain that they tried to escort plaintiff from the building, and that plaintiff refused to go and instead began to struggle with, and to assault the officers. According to the officers, they were required to defend themselves and to subdue plaintiff. Plaintiff, however, appears to contend that the police beat him for no apparent reason, causing him to sustain personal and permanent injuries.

Plaintiff was, at some point, placed under arrest for assault and resisting arrest. He was apparently taken to two different police departments and eventually to the county jail. He alleges that he was not offered medical attention, and that his bail was so excessive that he had to remain in jail for two weeks.

Plaintiff filed criminal charges of aggravated assault against the two police officers. These charges were no-billed by the Middlesex County Grand Jury. The same Grand Jury indicted plaintiff on charges of assaulting the police officers, resisting arrest, being a disorderly person and obstructing the police. Plaintiff was acquitted of all charges by a jury after a trial in the Superior Court of New Jersey on June 26, 27 and 28, 1984.

In January 1984 plaintiff served a notice of claim on Rutgers and the defendant officers in accordance with the New Jersey Torts Claims Act. The defendants' response to these notices is not clear from the record. On November 7, 1984 plaintiff commenced this action. Plaintiff alleges that the police officers used excessive, illegal and unjustified force causing him to sustain severe temporary and permanent injuries (Count I). The officers are alleged to be agents of Rutgers, and Rutgers is claimed to be liable for their acts (Count II). Plaintiff further charges that Rutgers is liable for plaintiff's injuries because it was negligent in training, supervising and disciplining its police officers (Count III). Plaintiff claims that the acts of the defendants deprived him of his civil rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985(2) and (3) and 1988, and deprived him of his rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution (Count IV). In addition, plaintiff charges defendants with assault and battery (Count V) and false arrest (Count VI) under state law. Plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

Defendants have now moved for summary judgment dismissing plaintiff's complaint on the ground that plaintiff's claims are barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Defendants alternatively move for summary judgment dismissing the complaint for failure to be sufficiently specific, or for partial summary judgment on plaintiff's claims asserted under the First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments and under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985(2) and (3) on the ground that those claims fail to state a cause of action. Defendants also move for leave to amend their answer to assert the affirmative defense of Eleventh Amendment immunity. Plaintiff has cross-moved for leave to amend his complaint to assert a claim that Rutgers has not provided equal protection of the law.

Discussion

Defendants have moved for summary judgment on the ground that Rutgers University is an instrumentality or alter ego of the State of New Jersey and that it and the individual police officers are therefore immune from a suit for monetary damages pursuant to the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The Eleventh Amendment provides:

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

Pursuant to this Amendment, "an unconsenting State is immune from suits brought in federal courts by her own citizens as well as by citizens of another state." Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, ___, 104 S.Ct. 900, 908, 79 L.Ed.2d 67, 78 (1984) quoting Employees v. Missouri Public Health and Welfare Department, 411 U.S. 279, 93 S.Ct. 1614, 36 L.Ed.2d 251 (1973). The sole exception recognized by the Supreme Court to this jurisdictional bar involves "suits ... brought only against state officials" in which the constitutionality of the officials' action is challenged. Pennhurst, supra, 465 U.S. at ___, 104 S.Ct. at 908, 79 L.Ed.2d at 79, See Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). However, the Supreme Court has also held that the enactment of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983 was not intended to overcome a state's Eleventh Amendment immunity from suit. Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). Rutgers claims that it is an instrumentality of the State of New Jersey, and is thus subject to immunity from plaintiff's § 1983 claims as well as his other constitutional and state law claims.

It appears that there are no reported decisions by the federal courts in New Jersey which have considered whether Rutgers is immune from a civil rights action by virtue of the Eleventh Amendment. The factors for determining whether a state entity is considered the alter ego of a state and thus entitled to immunity were set forth by the Third Circuit in Urbano v. Board of Managers of New Jersey State Prison, 415 F.2d 247 (3d Cir.1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 948, 90 S.Ct. 967, 25 L.Ed.2d 129 (1970):

"Local law and decisions defining the status and nature of the agency involved in its relation to the sovereign are factors to be considered, but only one of a number that are of significance.

Among the other factors, no one of which is conclusive, perhaps the most important is whether, in the event plaintiff prevails, the payment of the judgment will have to be made out of the state treasury; significant here also is whether the agency has the funds or the power to satisfy the judgment. Other relevant factors are whether the agency is performing a governmental or proprietary function; whether it has been separately incorporated; the degree of autonomy over its operations; whether it has the power to sue and be sued and to enter into contracts; whether its property is immune from state taxation, and whether the sovereign has immunized itself from responsibility for the agency's operations."

Id. at 250-251, quoting Krisel v. Duran, 258 F.Supp. 845, 849 (S.D.N.Y.1966), aff'd, 386 F.2d 179 (2d Cir.1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 1042, 88 S.Ct. 1635, 20 L.Ed.2d 303 (1968). See also Blake v. Kline, 612 F.2d 718 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 921, 100 S.Ct. 3011, 65 L.Ed.2d 1112 (1979) (applying Urbano factors).

Applying the Urbano factors to Rutgers, I find that the University is an instrumentality of the state. Both the statute under which Rutgers is incorporated and case law expressly so state. N.J.S.A. 18A:65-2; Rutgers, The State University v. Piluso, 113 N.J.Super. 65, 272 A.2d 573 (Law Div.1971), aff'd, 60 N.J. 142, 286 A.2d 697 (1972); Trustees of Rutgers College v. Richman, 41 N.J.Super. 259, 296, 125 A.2d 10 (Ch.Div.1956).

As to the most important factor, the source of funds for any judgment, Rutgers has submitted the affidavit of Charles Coyle, Rutgers' Assistant Vice-President for Budget and Resource Studies, in support of its contention that a judgment would be paid, at least in part, from state appropriations. The affidavit describes the...