Spencer v. Casavilla

• Decision Date: 14 May 1990
• Docket Number: No. 1012,D,1012
• Citation: 903 F.2d 171
• Parties: Mrs. Ernestine SPENCER, individually as the mother of Samuel Benjamin Spencer, III, deceased, and as Administratrix of the estate of Samuel Benjamin Spencer, III, Mr. Samuel B. Spencer, Jr., father of Samuel Benjamin Spencer, III, deceased, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Frank CASAVILLA, Frank D'Antonio, Cosmo Muriale, Douglas Mackey, John Does, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 89-7836.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 171

903 F.2d 171

Mrs. Ernestine SPENCER, individually as the mother of Samuel Benjamin Spencer, III, deceased, and as Administratrix of the estate of Samuel Benjamin Spencer, III, Mr. Samuel B Spencer, Jr., father of Samuel Benjamin Spencer, III deceased, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Frank CASAVILLA, Frank D'Antonio, Cosmo Muriale, Douglas Mackey, John Does, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 1012, Docket 89-7836.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued March 12, 1990.

Decided May 14, 1990.

Cornelia T.L. Pillard, New York City (Julius LeVonne Chambers, Charles Stephen Ralston, James I. Meyerson, New York City, on the brief), for plaintiffs-appellants.

Before KEARSE, CARDAMONE, and MAHONEY, Circuit Judges.

KEARSE, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs Ernestine Spencer and Samuel B. Spencer, Jr., appeal from a final judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Charles S. Haight, Jr., Judge, dismissing their complaint, brought under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981, 1985(3), and 1986 (1982), and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, to recover for a racially motivated assault on their son, Samuel B. Spencer, III ("Spencer"), that resulted in his death. The district court summarily dismissed the complaint on the ground that the alleged conduct did not give rise to any viable federal claim. Because we conclude that the complaint sufficiently alleged a violation of the constitutional right to travel, we vacate the judgment and remand for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

The complaint alleged the following. In May 1986, Spencer was a 20-year-old Black American who resided with his parents in Yonkers, Westchester County, New York. On May 28, 1986, he was visiting his sister, who lived in the Coney Island area of Kings County, New York. In the early morning hours of May 28, on the public streets in Coney Island, Spencer was attacked by defendants Frank Casavilla, Frank D'Antonio, Cosmo Muriale, and Douglas Mackey, local residents who are White. Spencer was savagely punched and kicked, beaten with a baseball bat, and repeatedly stabbed with a knife. He was taken to Coney Island Hospital, where, at 4:40 a.m. on May 28, he died.

The complaint alleged that defendants were hostile toward Spencer because he was Black and that they attacked him, without provocation or justification, because of his race. Alleging that defendants individually and in concert had deprived Spencer of rights otherwise guaranteed to him by, inter alia, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981 and 1985, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and state law, plaintiffs sought compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of Spencer for his pain and suffering, and on behalf of themselves for the loss of their son.

The four named defendants were prosecuted in state court on criminal charges in connection with Spencer's death, and the present case was placed on the suspense calendar during those proceedings. The prosecution resulted in convictions of all four defendants. Mackey pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter in the first degree and cooperated with the prosecution. Casavilla pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to a prison term of 15 years to life. Muriale pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years' imprisonment. D'Antonio was convicted, after a jury trial, of third-degree assault and was sentenced to one year's imprisonment.

Following the convictions, the present action was removed from the suspense calendar. Noting that the defendants were then imprisoned or indigent and were unrepresented by counsel, the district court sua sponte raised the question of whether the complaint adequately pleaded any federal claim. After inviting and receiving a memorandum from plaintiffs on the question of federal jurisdiction, the court dismissed the complaint.

In an opinion reported at 717 F.Supp. 1057 (S.D.N.Y. 1989), the court ruled that the complaint did not state a viable claim under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981 because it did not allege any interference with Spencer's right to make or enforce contracts and did not allege that defendants either were, or had acted in concert with, state actors. The court ruled that the complaint did not state a viable claim under 42 U.S.C.

                Sec. 1985(3) because, though it alleged a violation of Spencer's state-law right to be free from assault, it "contain[ed] no allegations implicating a federally created or protected right."    717 F.Supp. at 1061
                

Concluding that "the alleged conduct of these private persons, however heinous, does not give rise to viable federal claims," id. at 1062, the court concluded that the complaint must be dismissed either for want of federal subject-matter jurisdiction or for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. Judgment was entered accordingly, and this appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

On appeal, plaintiffs contend that the district court should have found federal jurisdiction under both Sec. 1981 and Sec. 1985(3). They contend that just as private actors may be liable under the clause of Sec. 1981 that prohibits racial discrimination in the making of contracts, see Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 2369-72, 105 Ed.2d 132 (1989), private actors may similarly be liable under the clause of Sec. 1981 that prohibits discriminatory deprivation of "the full and equal benefit" of the laws. Plaintiffs also contend that they adequately stated a claim under Sec. 1985(3) for deprivation of Spencer's right to travel and his right to be free of the badges and incidents of slavery.

For the reasons below, we conclude that the complaint adequately asserted a claim under Sec. 1985(3) for deprivation of Spencer's right to travel, and that the judgment must be vacated and the matter remanded for further proceedings. In light of this conclusion, we prefer to await further proceedings before considering the rulings that the complaint did not state a claim under Sec. 1985(3) with respect to the Thirteenth Amendment theory or under Sec. 1981.

A. Federal Jurisdiction

First, we disagree with the district court's suggestion that the complaint could be dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Little is needed for a plaintiff to assert a claim sufficient to give the federal court jurisdiction. Where the complaint "is so drawn as to seek recovery directly under the Constitution or laws of the United States," Bell v. Hood, 327 U.S. 678, 681, 66 S.Ct. 773, 775, 90 L.Ed. 939 (1946), the district court must entertain the suit unless the federal claim "clearly appears to be immaterial and made solely for the purpose of obtaining jurisdiction or where such a claim is wholly insubstantial and frivolous," id. at 682-83, 66 S.Ct. at 776.

The court should not dismiss a complaint asserting a nonfrivolous claim under federal law for lack of jurisdiction even if the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted:

Jurisdiction ... is not defeated ... by the possibility that the averments might fail to state a cause of action on which petitioners could actually recover. For it is well settled that the failure to state a proper cause of action calls for a judgment on the merits and not for a dismissal for want of jurisdiction. Whether the complaint states a cause of action on which relief could be granted is a question of law and just as issues of fact it must be decided after and not before the court has assumed jurisdiction over the controversy. If the court does later exercise its jurisdiction to determine that the allegations in the complaint do not state a ground for relief, then dismissal of the case would be on the merits, not for want of jurisdiction.

Id. at 682, 66 S.Ct. at 776. Thus, even if the court believes that it would dismiss the complaint in response to a motion under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), that is not reason to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. See, e.g., Schwartz v. Gordon, 761 F.2d 864, 867 n. 4 (2d Cir.1985) (dismissal because of inapplicability of federal statute to the facts alleged is more aptly termed one for failure to state a claim than one for lack of jurisdiction if question presented was nonfrivolous).

In the present case, the complaint plainly seeks recovery under the federal Constitution and laws and asserts claims

that are neither immaterial nor frivolous. The court should not have dismissed for lack of federal jurisdiction.

B. The Scope of Sec. 1985(3)

Nor do we believe the court was on sound ground in concluding that the complaint failed to state a federal claim on which relief may be granted. We conclude that the complaint, read with the requisite liberality, adequately states a claim under Sec. 1985(3) for infringement of the constitutional right to travel.

Section 1985(3) provides, in pertinent part, as follows:

If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire ... for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws ... [and] do, or cause to be done, any act in furtherance of the object of such conspiracy, whereby another is injured in his person or property, or deprived of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, the party so injured or deprived may have an action for the recovery of damages occasioned by such injury or deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators.

42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985(3). Because this section provides no substantive rights itself but merely "provides a remedy for violation of the rights it designates," Great American Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Novotny, 442 U.S. 366, 372, 99 S.Ct. 2345, 2349, 60 L.Ed.2d 957 (1979), in order to state a claim under Sec. 1985(3) a complaint must allege, inter alia, that the defendants who allegedly conspired sought, with discriminatory intent, to...