Murawski v. Pataki

• Citation: 514 F.Supp.2d 577
• Decision Date: 26 September 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06 Civ. 12965(RJH).,06 Civ. 12965(RJH).
• Parties: William E. MURAWSKI, Plaintiff, v. George PATAKI, individually and as Governor of the State of New York, et al., Defendants.
• Court: United States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. United States District Courts. 2nd Circuit. Southern District of New York

514 F.Supp.2d 577

William E. MURAWSKI, Plaintiff, v. George PATAKI, individually and as Governor of the State of New York, et al., Defendants.

No. 06 Civ. 12965(RJH).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

September 26, 2007.

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William E. Murawski, New York, NY, pro se.

Patricia Lynn Murray, NYS Board of Elections, Albany, NY, Michael A. Cheah, IAC/Interactivecorp, William Alfred Escobar, Joel Graber, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of New York, New York, NY, Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP, New York, NY, for Defendants.

Ronald Gunzburger, Law Office of Ronald M. Gunzburger, Fort Lauderdale, FL, pro se.

Chlarens Orsland, Assistant Corporation Counsel, Office of the Corporation Counsel of New York City, for the City Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

RICHARD J. HOLWELL, District Judge.

Pro se plaintiff William E. Murawski commenced this action on November 6, 2006 against the New York State Board of Elections ("State BOE") and the New York City Board of .,Elections ("City BOE") seeking to enjoin the general election held on November 7, 2006 because the State BOE refused to place his name on the ballot as a gubernatorial candidate. Plaintiff admitted that he had failed to gather the requisite number of signatures to be placed on the ballot, but he claimed that legal precedent mandated that his name be placed on the ballot anyway. In an order dated November 6, 2006, this Court denied plaintiff's request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

On November 21, 2006, plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint (hereinafter "Complaint") seeking a declaration that the New York State Election Law is largely unconstitutional. The Complaint lists as defendants: the New York State Board of Elections, former governor George Pataki, and former attorney general Eliot Spitzer (now Governor of New York) (collectively, the "State defendants"); the New York City Board of Elections, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (collectively, the "City defendants"); and Ronald Gunzburger, IAC/Interactive Corp., and Yahoo!, Inc. (collectively the "Private defendants"). Defendants moved separately to dismiss the Complaint; defendant Gunzburger also moved for sanctions against plaintiff. For the reasons set forth below, the State BOE's motion to dismiss [13] is granted in part and denied in part.¹ The motions to dismiss by the City defendants and the Private defendants [8, 12, 16, 21, and 22] are granted in their entirety. Defendant Gunzburger's motion for sanctions [15] is denied.

BACKGROUND

The facts, as alleged, in plaintiff's Complaint, are as foIlows Plaintiff is a frequent political candidate. New York election law provides for the nomination of candidates of independent parties by petition. In 2006, plaintiff filed a timely petition for an opportunity to ballot for the office of Governor on behalf of the Voice of the People Party. (Compl. ¶ 40.) New York Election Law sets forth the number of signatures a petitioner must obtain in order to be nominated as an independent candidate — 15,000 for a state-wide election such as the election for governor. See N.Y. Elec. Law § 6-142(1) (McKinney 2006). Plaintiff admitted on the cover sheet of his petition that he had not collected the requisite number of signatures, but he added a statement alleging that a legal precedent set during the Republican presidential primary in 2000 nevertheless mandated his placement on the ballot. (Compl. ¶¶ 43-45; State Defs.' Mot. Ex. A (Cover Sheet of Petition).) On September 7, 2006, plaintiff received a formal notice of determination from the State BOE rejecting his petition because he had failed to satisfy the signature requirement. (Compl. ¶ 49; Pl.'s Ex. 42.) Because plaintiff did not consider this an official notice of the State BOE's decision,² he contacted the Board and asked whether there would be a hearing on his petition. (Compl. ¶ 46-49.) When he was informed that there would be no hearing, he requested a response from counsel for the State BOE. (Id.) He was never contacted by counsel, and he filed this lawsuit one day prior to the general election to enjoin the election and have his name placed on the ballot.

Plaintiff also alleges in his Complaint that the Private defendants undermined his "Master Election Plan" to be elected governor. (Id. ¶ 53.) He asserts that defendant Ronald Gunzburger declined to list plaintiff on his website, http://Politics1. com, and also that Gunzburger defamed plaintiff by placing plaintiff's name in a list directly below a member of the Communist Party (id. ¶¶ 8, 54-55); that Ask.com, a search engine owned by IAC Search & Media, Inc.,³ erroneously showed plaintiff to be associated with the Communist Party (as a result of the alleged statement on http://Politics1.com) (id. ¶ 55); and that defendant Yahoo!, Inc. refused to permit him to post e-mail messages to various Yahoo! Groups, thus denying him access to "millions" of voters (id. ¶ 56).

Finally, plaintiff alleges that in six prior elections between 1997 and 2003 for city and national office, he was improperly kept off the ballot or, in the one instance he was placed on the ballot, lost the election due to "political sabotage." (Compl. ¶ 15(a)(f)).

DISCUSSION

I. Legal Standards

When considering a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), the Court "must accept as true the factual allegations in the complaint, and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff." Bolt Elec., Inc. v. City of New York, 53 F.3d 465, 469 (2d Cir.1995) (citations omitted). Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. Rule 8(a), the complaint must include "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed.R.Civ.P 8(a)(2); see also Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957) (complaint must "give the defendant fair notice of what the ... claim is and the grounds upon which it rests."). The complaint "does not need detailed factual allegations," yet it "requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formalistic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do." Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twambly, ___ U.S.___, ___ - ___, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1964-65, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). Rather, the "[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level." Id. at 1965; see also Iqbal v. Hasty, 490 F.3d 143, 157-58 (2d Cir.2007) (plaintiff must "amplify a claim with some factual allegations in those contexts where such amplification is needed to render the claim plausible.").

Moreover, because plaintiff is proceeding pro se, the Court must liberally construe his pleadings, and must "interpret them `to raise the strongest arguments that they suggest.'" See McPherson v. Coombe, 174 F.3d 276, 280 (2d Cir.1999) (quoting Burgos v. Hopkins, 14 F.3d 787, 790 (2d Cir.1994)). "The policy of liberally construing pro se submissions is driven by the understanding that `[i]mplicit in the right to self-representation is an obligation on the part of the court to make reasonable allowances to protect pro se litigants from inadvertent forfeiture of important rights because of their lack of legal training." Abbas v. Dixon, 480 F.3d 636, 639 (2d Cir.2007) (quoting Traguth v. Zuck, 710 F.2d 90, 95 (2d Cir.1983)).

II. Analysis

A. Pre-2006 Claims Against the State BOE and the City Defendants⁴

Before analyzing plaintiff's claims arising out of the 2006 election, the Court notes that plaintiff also challenges the results in six other elections between 1997 and 2003. However, the applicable statute of limitations for § 1983 claims in New York is three years, which begins to run from the moment plaintiff is aware of the injury on which the claim is based. Jaghory v. N.Y. State Dep't of Educ., 131 F.3d 326, 331-32 (2d Cir.1997); Singleton v. City of New York, 632 F.2d 185, 191 (2d Cir.1980). Thus, any claims related to elections in 2003 or earlier are outside the statute of limitations period, and the Court will not address them.

B. The 2006 Election'

With respect to the 2006 election, plaintiff claims that the State BOE determination keeping him off the November 2006 ballot violated his due process rights because the Board ignored legal precedent requiring it to place him on the ballot. Plaintiff also claims that the Board improperly denied him a hearing prior to its adverse determination. In addition, plaintiff alleges that the New York State's electoral process imposes a greater burden on independent candidates, thereby violating plaintiffs First Amendment right of expression and association and his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection.

1. Due Process

Before analyzing plaintiff's due process claim, the Court notes that "federal court is generally not the appropriate place to deal with the minutia of state election disputes." Bert v. N.Y. City Bd. of Elections, No. 06 Civ. 4789(CPS), 2006 WL 2583741, at *3, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEIS 63836 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 7, 2006). "Principles of federalism limit the power of federal courts to intervene in state elections. ... Only in extraordinary circumstances will a challenge to a state ... election rise to the level of a constitutional deprivation." Shannon v. Jacobowitz, 394 F.3d 90, 94 (2d Cir.2005) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). "[T]he due process clause `offers no guarantee against errors in the administration of an election,' at least where state law provides a fair and adequate method for correcting such errors." Gold v. Feinberg, 101 F.3d 796, 800 (2d Cir.1996) (quoting Powell v. Power, 436 F.2d 84 (2d Cir.1970)) (finding that New York Election Law § 16-102 provides a fair and adequate remedy for correcting irregularities in a state primary).

As previously noted, plaintiff concedes that his 2006 petition did not contain the minimum number of signatures required by New York State election law. He...