Owens v. Treder, 664

• Decision Date: 20 April 1989
• Docket Number: D,No. 664,664
• Citation: 873 F.2d 604
• Parties: Curtis H. OWENS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Dewitt TREDER, et ano., Commissioner of Suffolk County Police Department, Patrick Henry, Esquire, Individually and as District Attorney of Suffolk County, New York, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 88-7864.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 604

873 F.2d 604

Curtis H. OWENS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Dewitt TREDER, et ano., Commissioner of Suffolk County Police Department, Patrick Henry, Esquire Individually and as District Attorney of Suffolk County, New York Defendants-Appellees.

No. 664, Docket 88-7864.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued Jan. 18, 1989.

Decided April 20, 1989.

Eric Berry, New York City, for plaintiff-appellant.

Paul L. Dashefsky, Smithtown, N.Y., for defendants-appellees.

Before OAKES, Chief Judge, FEINBERG and PRATT, Circuit Judges.

GEORGE C. PRATT, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Curtis Owens appeals a summary judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Thomas C. Platt, Chief Judge, dismissing this 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 action in which Owens alleged that racially motivated police brutality had coerced his confession to a murder and robbery. The district court held that the appellate division's affirmance of Owens's conviction in the prior state criminal proceedings collaterally estopped Owens from relitigating in this federal civil rights action the issue of whether Owens had been beaten by the police. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse and remand.

I. BACKGROUND

In January 1984 defendants Richard Jensen, Michael Ryan, James McReady, Gary Leonard, John Miller, and Stephen Cleary, who were detectives on the Suffolk County Police Department's Homicide Squad, participated in the arrest and interrogation of Owens on charges arising from a November 1983 robbery and murder. During the interrogation, Owens confessed to participation in the robbery and was then indicted on charges of robbery and murder in the second degree.

Later denying any connection with the crimes, Owens moved before trial to suppress his signed confession; he asserted that the confession was false and had been coerced by beatings inflicted by the detectives. At the pretrial suppression hearing, Owens testified that he had been interrogated from 5:30 p.m. on January 11, 1984, until approximately 3:00 a.m. on January 12, 1984; that the detectives had denied his requests to call an attorney; and that the defendants had coerced his confession by slapping him in the face and kicking him. Both Owens's girl friend and his fellow inmate testified that on the day after his arrest, Owens's jaw was bruised and he was limping or hopping.

In opposition the prosecution adduced evidence that Owens had not complained of injuries on the day after his arrest; that a strip search had revealed no signs of injury; that neither interviewing detective sergeant Richard Jensen nor detective Stephen Cleary personally struck Owens or observed others do so; and that Owens had not been denied an opportunity to call an attorney. At the conclusion of the suppression hearing, Suffolk County Court Judge Harry E. Seidell denied Owens's motion to suppress, stating that "there was not one scintilla of evidence that Curtis was abused, beaten, or any coercion used against him by Police authorities."

At trial, Owens renewed his assertion that his confession had been coerced by beatings, and he presented testimony equivalent to that which he had presented at the suppression hearing. However, the prosecution's case was not founded solely upon Owens's confession; its case also included (1) the testimony of a victim of the robbery who had identified Owens in a lineup; (2) the testimony of both of Owens's alleged accomplices in the robbery; (3) the testimony of a paid informant who said she had overheard Owens discuss his involvement in the robbery and shooting; and (4) the testimony of a witness who claimed that Owens had escaped from the scene of the crime by driving away in the witness's car. By general verdict, the jury convicted Owens of first degree robbery and second degree murder.

Owens appealed the judgment of conviction to the Appellate Division, Second Department, again arguing, inter alia, that the trial court had erred in denying the motion to suppress his confession because it had been coerced through the physical abuse by the interviewing detectives. When it affirmed, the appellate division made no specific finding with regard to Owens's claim that his confession had been coerced; instead it characterized the argument as one of Owens's "remaining contentions" that was "without merit." People v. Owens, 131 A.D.2d 602, 516 N.Y.S.2d 611, 611-12 (2d Dep't 1987). The New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal. People v. Owens, 70 N.Y.2d 876, 523 N.Y.S.2d 503, 518 N.E.2d 14 (1987).

Even before the appellate division's decision, Owens had initiated this civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, seeking damages for the beatings that he claimed had coerced his confession. Defendants moved for summary judgment on collateral estoppel grounds, arguing that, in the state court criminal action, Owens had already litigated and lost on the issue of whether police beatings had coerced his confession.

Owens acknowledged that the issue of police coercion had been litigated in the state court, but argued that collateral estoppel could not apply because there had been no final, conclusive determination of the issue either in the pretrial suppression ruling, in the jury's general verdict, or in the appellate affirmance. Although it noted that Owens's arguments against granting preclusive effect to the denial of the suppression motion and to the jury's verdict "might carry some weight", the district judge did not rest his determination on those trial level events; rather he held that collateral estoppel flowed from the affirmance by the appellate division. He therefore granted summary judgment, and this appeal followed.

II. ISSUES ON APPEAL

Owens argues on appeal, as he did below, that he is not precluded from relitigating in this Sec. 1983 action his claim that beatings by police officers coerced his confession, because none of the state-court rulings disposed of his claim. Specifically, he contends that (1) the suppression ruling was not a final determination, but instead a preliminary evidentiary ruling which, under New York law, could have been, and indeed actually was, presented to the jury; (2) the jury's general verdict did not necessarily decide whether he had been beaten, because the jury could have convicted on the substantial other evidence in the case; and (3) a determination of whether the beatings coerced his confession was not necessary to the appellate division's affirmance.

Defendants, on the other hand, contend that the denial of Owens's motion to suppress and the subsequent appellate division affirmance of Owens's conviction, viewed either separately or combined, bar Owens's attempt to relitigate the issue of police brutality.

III. DISCUSSION

Principles of collateral estoppel may bar relitigation in a subsequent civil rights action in federal court of an issue that was determined in a state court criminal proceeding. Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 103-05, 101 S.Ct. 411, 419-21, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980). The federal court must, however, apply the collateral estoppel rules of the state which rendered the judgment. Marrese v. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 470 U.S. 373, 379-81, 105 S.Ct. 1327, 1331-32, 84 L.Ed.2d 274 (1985); Migra v. Warren City School District Board of Education, 465 U.S. 75, 81, 104 S.Ct. 892, 896, 79 L.Ed.2d 56 (1984) (state-court judgment must be given "same preclusive effect as would be given that judgment under the law of the State in which the judgment was rendered").

In New York a party is barred from relitigating an issue if the following requirements are met: (1) the issue as to which preclusion is sought is identical to the issue decided in the prior proceeding; (2) the issue was necessarily decided in the prior proceeding; and (3) the litigant now opposing preclusion had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue in the prior proceeding. Capital Telephone Co. v. Pattersonville Telephone Co., 56 N.Y.2d 11, 17, 451 N.Y.S.2d 11, 13, 436 N.E.2d 461, 463 (1982); Schwartz v. Public Administrator of County of Bronx, 24 N.Y.2d 65, 71, 298 N.Y.S.2d 955, 960, 246 N.E.2d 725, 729 (1969).

The parties do not dispute, and we agree, that the issue of whether Owens was beaten by police is identical, and that Owens had a full and fair opportunity to litigate that issue both at the trial level and in arguing his appeal to the appellate division. The only remaining requirement, then, is whether the issue was necessarily decided in the prior state proceedings. On this disputed requirement New York law provides that in order for collateral estoppel to apply, the issue sought to be precluded must have been essential to the judgment and necessarily determined in the first action. Ryan v. New York Telephone Co., 62 N.Y.2d 494, 500-01, 478 N.Y.S.2d 823, 826, 467 N.E.2d 487, 490 (1984); O'Connor v. G & R Packing Co., 53 N.Y.2d 278, 280-81, 440 N.Y.S.2d 920, 920-21, 423 N.E.2d 397, 398-99 (1981); Hinchey v. Sellers, 7 N.Y.2d 287, 293, 197 N.Y.S.2d 129, 133, 165 N.E.2d 156, 158 (1959). See also generally 5 J. Weinstein, H. Korn & A. Miller, New York Civil Practice (1987) p 5011.28 at 50-177 to 50-178; p 5011.29 at 50-183 to 50-184 (facts found in first litigation must have been essential to the judgment to be accorded preclusive effect). The Restatement (Second) of Judgments also requires that to have preclusive effect an issue of law or fact must be essential to the judgment:

When an issue of fact or law is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, and the determination is essential to the judgment, the determination is conclusive in a subsequent action between the parties, whether on the same or a different claim.

Restatement (Second) of Judgments Sec. 27 (1980) (emphasis added).

Because we conclude that this requirement was not satisfied by any of the prior state proceedings--the trial court's ruling on the motion to suppress, the jury's general verdict,...