Society for Good Will to Retarded Children v. Cuomo

• Decision Date: 27 January 1987
• Docket Number: No. 78-CV-1847 (JBW).,78-CV-1847 (JBW).
• Citation: 652 F. Supp. 515
• Parties: SOCIETY FOR GOOD WILL TO RETARDED CHILDREN, et al. Plaintiffs, v. Mario M. CUOMO, as Governor of the State of New York, et al. Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

652 F. Supp. 515

SOCIETY FOR GOOD WILL TO RETARDED CHILDREN, et al. Plaintiffs, v. Mario M. CUOMO, as Governor of the State of New York, et al. Defendants.

No. 78-CV-1847 (JBW).

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

January 27, 1987.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Scheinberg, Schneps, DePetris & DePetris, Riverhead, N.Y. by Michael S. Lottman, Murray B. Schneps, for plaintiffs.

Robert Abrams, Atty. Gen. of N.Y., New York City by Caren Brutten, for defendants.

Alan M. Adler, Albany, N.Y., for the Office of Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities.

MEMORANDUM and ORDER

WEINSTEIN, Chief Judge.

I. HISTORY OF PROCEEDINGS

A class action was commenced in 1978 by the Society for Good Will to Retarded Children, Inc., the parents' organization at Suffolk Developmental Center (the Center), and by thirteen mentally retarded individuals on behalf of themselves and more than 1,500 other persons then in residence at, or on the rolls of, the Center. Plaintiffs sought, on various federal constitutional and state and federal statutory grounds, (1) the improvement of conditions at the Center, (2) the expansion of community resources and support services in Nassau and Suffolk counties for the mentally retarded and for their families and (3) transfer of most of the clients at the Center to small community residences.

Defendants, sued in their official capacity, are the Governor of the State of New York and the personnel of the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Jurisdiction is not disputed. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343.

The Center is a state-run residential institution for the mentally retarded on 465 acres in Melville, Long Island, New York. The history of the Center and its problems are fully described in published opinions. See, e.g., Society for Good Will to Retarded Children, Inc. v. Cuomo, 572 F.Supp. 1298, 572 F.Supp. 1300 (E.D.N.Y.1983), vacated and remanded, 737 F.2d 1239 (2d Cir.1984). While the census at the Center has been reduced by a variety of means, including setting up small community residences, it remains one of the largest in the nation.

In February of 1983 the Court, after an extensive trial and repeated visits to the institution, issued an interim memorandum finding that conditions and treatment at the Center failed to meet the minimum standards required by the Constitution and statutes. As modified that plan was embodied in this court's decree of August 3, 1983. Society for Good Will to Retarded Children v. Cuomo, 572 F.Supp. 1300 (E.D.N.Y.1983), vacated and remanded, 737 F.2d. 1239 (2d Cir.1984).

While the case was on appeal, the Supreme Court sharply curtailed the power of federal courts to require changes in state institutions based upon the enforcement of state law. See Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 104 S.Ct. 900, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984); Society for Good Will to Retarded Children v. Cuomo, 737 F.2d at 1252. Accordingly, the Court of Appeals remanded the case for further consideration and, more particularly, for findings on the particular federal — not state — statutes and constitutional violations present. See Society for Good Will to Retarded Children v. Cuomo, 737 F.2d 1239 (2d Cir.1984).

Such findings proved unnecessary since after remand the state voluntarily agreed to enforce the plan already approved by the court. The case was therefore dismissed as moot. The court noted, however, that "if the defendants substantially depart from the implementation of the plan and conditions at the facility violate federal law, this Court will reinstate the case since the issues remanded by the Circuit would no longer be moot." Society for Good Will to Retarded Children v. Cuomo, 103 F.R.D. 168, 169 (E.D.N.Y.1984). Annual reports by the institution to the court were required.

In 1985, the court revisited the institution. Being satisfied of reasonable and largely successful efforts to carry out the plan, the court terminated the obligation for further reports.

Plaintiffs now move to reinstate the case. They allege continuing serious violations of federal constitutional and statutory rights. More particularly, they point to an order of the New York Department of Social Services imposing sanctions on the institution for what plaintiffs characterize as "extensive and continuing violations of the Federal requirements for participation in the Medicaid program as an intermediate case facility for the mentally retarded...." See 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396, 1396d(c), 1396d(d), 42 C.F.R. §§ 442.400 et seq. Plaintiffs also move for the appointment of a master to oversee implementation of the plan.

Upon argument of the motions the court orally expressed the view that the motions should be denied. It was the court's then view that the decision in Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 104 S.Ct. 900, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984), required that it either bifurcate the case to exclude all state issues, or that it abstain from exercising jurisdiction over the federal claims in order that a single action on both state and federal claims might be brought in state court. Since complex issues of fact underly both the state and federal issues, bifurcating the case would, the court then believed, result in wasteful duplication of scarce federal and state judicial resources and unnecessarily burden the administrators of the Center with the defense of possible multiple lawsuits, thereby draining their time and energies away from the urgent task of implementing the plan. Moreover, bifurcation might unduly delay effective relief, as the case would have to wind its way consecutively through two court systems, with the distinct possibility of reversals, remands and bouncing back and forth between two sets of courts and a variety of administrative agencies — both state and federal.

Further reflection suggests that while abstention has substantial benefits in meeting the dilemmas posed by Pennhurst, the dangers of this approach may be too great. The most important of these dangers is posed by the closing — even temporarily — of federal courthouses to those in state institutions who claim a violation of both federal and state rights; state courts are now the only forum in which all claims — state and federal — can be tried in one proceeding. If federal courts have any overriding reason for being, it is as a source of protection to any person who believes there is a serious violation of his or her federal constitutional rights — particularly by government officials. The institutionalized mentally disabled are especially prone to abuse unless they can turn to the federal courts for protection. See, e.g., Bowen v. City of New York, ___ U.S. ___, 106 S.Ct. 2022, 90 L.Ed.2d 462 (1986); City of Cleburne, Texas v. Cleburne Living Center, 473 U.S. 432, 105 S.Ct. 3249, 87 L.Ed.2d 313 (1985).

It is doubtful whether the New York State courts, overburdened as they are, can operate with sufficient speed and efficiency to protect the federal rights of these plaintiffs and simultaneously protect their state rights. The choice by plaintiffs of the federal court — even though the state court could in one suit enforce both state and federal rights — suggests that they believe that the federal courts provide them with some advantages over the state courts. Finally, in this case, the long relationship of this court to the litigation and to the institution provides some hope for a reduction of the fact and law finding burdens of this new phase of the litigation.

To understand the difficult jurisdictional choices posed by a litigation of this kind, it is necessary to briefly review the pre- and post-Pennhurst situation. It is to this history that we now turn.

II. PENDENT JURISDICTION AND ABSTENTION DOCTRINES Effect and Background of Pennhurst

In Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 104 S.Ct. 900, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984), the Court held that the Eleventh Amendment was a bar to federal courts hearing claims against state officials based upon state law. "A federal suit against state officials on the basis of state law contravenes the Eleventh Amendment when — as here — the relief sought and ordered has an impact directly on the State itself." Pennhurst, 465 U.S. at 117, 104 S.Ct. at 917. Accepting federal funds to run the institution does not constitute a waiver of this constitutional bar. Atascadero v. Scanlon, 473 U.S. 234, 105 S.Ct. 3142, 3149-50, 87 L.Ed.2d 171 (1985).

Pendent Jurisdiction

When this case was tried in 1983 it was appropriate, based upon the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction, for this court to hear both state and federal claims. Since the state and federal claims were intertwined and based upon the same factual issues, taking jurisdiction was appropriate. A federal court has the power to exercise jurisdiction over state claims when they are close enough to a substantial federal question claim that the court "would ordinarily be expected to try them all in one judicial proceeding." United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 725, 86 S.Ct. 1130, 1138, 16 L.Ed.2d 218 (1966).

The doctrine of pendent jurisdiction flows from Osborn v. Bank of United States, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 738, 6 L.Ed. 204 (1824). Relying on Article III of the Constitution, the Court there held that federal courts have authority to determine all questions of fact or law which arise in a suit, even those that go beyond the particular issue which gave rise to federal jurisdiction. See also Greene v. Louisville & Interurban Railroad Co., 244 U.S. 499, 508, 37 S.Ct. 673, 677, 61 L.Ed. 1280 (1917) (federal court exercising federal question jurisdiction may decide state law questions regardless of its determination of the federal question). Essentially this line of cases is based upon the need for judicial efficiency and the avoidance of multiple litigation.

Exercise of pendent jurisdiction is, however, restricted by the Eleventh Amendment, which prohibits suits...