Taffet v. Inc. Vill. of Ocean Beach
| Decision Date | 04 May 2020 |
| Docket Number | Index 609185/2017 |
| Citation | 2020 NY Slip Op 34722 (U) |
| Parties | JORDAN TAFFET, Plaintiff, v. INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF OCEAN BEACH, TRUSTEES OF THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF OCEAN BEACH, POLICE OFFICER GEORGE HESSE, HON. WILLIAM DOUGLAS WEXLER, ESQ., ROBERT T. FUCHS, ESQ., KENNETH GRAY, ESQ., JOANNEIGH ADRION, COUNTY OF SUFFOLK NY DISTRICT ATTORNEY, and COUNTY OF SUFFOLK, NY, Defendants. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court |
SUFFOLK COUNTY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
DEVITT, SPELLMAN & BARRETT, LLP
Attorneys for Village Defendants
RIVKIN RADLER LLP
Attorneys for Defendant Kenneth A. Gray, Esq.
SHORT FORM ORDER
Hon. Sanford Neil Berland, A.J.S.C.
Upon the reading and filing of the following papers in this matter: (1) Notice of Motion (#001), by defendants County of Suffolk NY District Attorney, William Reynolds, and County of Suffolk, dated June 5, 2017, and supporting papers; (2) Affidavit In Opposition by plaintiff, dated June 27, 2017, and supporting papers; (3) Notice of Motion (#002) by defendant Kenneth Gray, Esq., dated July 10, 2017, and supporting papers; (4) Affidavit In Opposition by plaintiff, dated August 17, 2017, and supporting papers; (5) Affirmation In Opposition by defendant Kenneth Gray, dated August 22, 2017, and supporting papers; (6) Notice of Motion (#003) by plaintiff dated July 19, 2017, and supporting papers; (7) Affirmation In Opposition by defendants Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Trustees of the Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Police Officer George Hesse, Hon.William Douglas Wexler, Esq., Robert T. Fuchs, Esq., and Joanneigh Adrion, dated August 8. 2017, and supporting papers; (8) Affidavit In Opposition by plaintiff, dated August 16, 2017; (9) Notice of Motion (#004) by defendants Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Trustees of the Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Police Officer George Hesse, Hon. William Douglas Wexler, Esq., Robert T. Fuchs, Esq., and Joanneigh Adrion, dated April 4, 2018 and supporting papers; (10) Affidavit !n Opposition by plaintiff, dated July 24, 2018 and supporting papers; (11) Reply Affirmation by defendants Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Trustees of the Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Police Officer George Hesse, Hon. William Douglas Wexler, Esq., Robert T. Fuchs, Esq., and Joanneigh Adrion, dated August 15, 2018 and supporting papers; (12) Notice of Motion (#005) by plaintiff, dated December 19, 2018 and supporting papers; and (13) Affirmation In Opposition by defendants Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Trustees of the Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Police Officer George Hesse, Hon. William Douglas Wexler, Esq., Robert T. Fuchs, Esq., and Joanneigh Adrion, dated December 28, 2018; it is
ORDERED that the motions sequenced #001, #002, #003, #004, and #005 are consolidated for the purposes of this determination; and it is further
ORDERED that the motion (seq. #001) by defendants County of Suffolk NY District Attorney, County of Suffolk, and William Reynolds, Esq. to dismiss the complaint against them pursuant to CPLR 3211 is granted; and it is further
ORDERED that the motion (seq. #002) by defendant Kenneth Gray, Esq., to dismiss the complaint against him pursuant to CPLR 3211 is granted; and it is further
ORDERED that the motion (seq.#002) by defendant Kenneth Gray, Esq. for an order imposing sanctions against plaintiff pursuant to 22 NYCRR § 130.1, et seq. is denied; and it is further ORDERED that the motion (seq.#003) by plaintiff for a protective order is denied; and it is further
ORDERED that the motion (seq. #004) by defendants Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Trustees of the Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Police Officer George Hesse, Hon. William Douglas Wexler, Esq., Robert T. Fuchs, Esq., and Joanneigh Adrion for summary judgment pursuant to CPLR 3212 is granted; and it is further ORDERED that the motion (seq.#005) by plaintiff for poor person relief pursuant to CPLR1101 is denied.
This action arises out of a series of prosecutions of plaintiff for alleged violations of a number of provisions of the Code of the Village of Ocean Beach and of the New York State Penal Law related to his management of rental properties in the Village of Ocean Beach. Plaintiff contends that these prosecutions were the result of what amounted to a conspiracy by the defendants to harass and damage him in order to put him out of business. Plaintiff commenced this action by filing a Summons and Verified Complaint on May 15, 2017. Defendants Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Trustees of the Incorporated Village of Ocean Beach, Police Officer George Hesse, Hon. William Douglas Wexler, Esq., Robert T. Fuchs, Esq., and Joanneigh Adrion (collectively, the Village defendants) answered the complaint on June 27, 2017. Defendants County of Suffolk NY District Attorney, the County of Suffolk and William Reynolds[1] (collectively, the County defendants) have moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (seq. #001) for failure to state a cause of action and as time barred and for plaintiffs failure to serve a notice of claim as required by the General Municipal Law and, as to William Reynolds, on the additional ground that he is immune from civil liability. Defendant Kenneth Gray, Esq. has separately moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (seq.#002) for failure to state a cause of action and for the imposition of sanctions against the plaintiff. The Village defendants have moved for summary judgment in their favor, dismissing the complaint, on a variety grounds, pursuant to CPLR 3212 (seq.#004). Plaintiff has moved, pro se, for a protective order pursuant to CPLR 3103, directing that his deposition be held at a location other than the office of counsel for the Village defendants (seq.#003) and for permission to proceed as a poor person pursuant to CPLR 1101 (seq.#005).
Background:
The complaint seeks to allege twenty causes of action. Plaintiff who is proceeding pro se, alleges essentially as follows: Plaintiff managed rental houses in the Village of Ocean Beach. In 2007 and 2010. the Village enacted new statutes revising the rental permit process to require that the name, address and telephone number of all tenants who would be occupying each dwelling be provided and that applications be amended with each change in tenant. Failure to comply with these new requirements would result in fines and/or jail. Plaintiff contends that these new statutes were designed to discourage rentals to groups of unrelated tenants. Plaintiffs business expanded with the institution of these new rules. Plaintiff alleges that defendant Hesse, the Chief of the Village of Ocean Beach Police Department, asked plaintiff to stop renting to groups and to rent instead to families. When plaintiff refused to do so, indicating that there was more money to be made under his current business model, Hesse threatened to write tickets imposing fines in order to take the profit out of plaintiff s business. On June 21, July 3 and July 5, 2013, six summonses were issued to plaintiff for violations that plaintiff claims the issuing officer knew plaintiff had not committed.[2] On August 3, 2013, plaintiff was arraigned on the tickets by defendant Hon. William Douglas Wexler, Esq., the Village Justice, and pled not guilty. Plaintiff alleges that the Village prosecutor handling plaintiffs case, defendant Robert T. Fuchs, Esq., ignored the facts and the law presented and argued by plaintiffs attorney and threatened to prolong plaintiffs case with repeated and unnecessary adjournments. At a court appearance on October 29, 2013, plaintiff alleges that defendants Fuchs and Justice Wexler refused to take the steps necessary to dismiss the tickets and threatened to continue to harass plaintiff. Plaintiff requested the minutes of this proceeding and filed a complaint against Fuchs and Justice Wexler with Appellate Term, which ordered that the minutes for the October 29, 2013 proceeding be released to the plaintiff. In July 2014, Justice Wexler filed an affidavit in the Appellate Term indicating that the Village Court's laptop had "crashed" and that the minutes from the October 29, 2013 proceeding had been destroyed. On May 29, 2014, Justice Wexler allegedly conducted what plaintiff has characterized as a "secret and undocumented arraignment" at which plaintiff was arraigned in absentia on six misdemeanor charges and twenty-three new tickets charging plaintiff with non-criminal violations of the Village of Ocean Beach code. The new tickets were signed by Hesse. Fuchs again appeared the Village prosecutor at this proceeding. Plaintiff was not present, but his attorney, Arnold Wolsky did appear. Mr. Wolsky indicated that he was not authorized to represent the plaintiff in connection with any criminal charges. In light of plaintiffs failure to appear, Justice Wexler issued a bench warrant, which he signed on May 31, 2014. When plaintiff sought the minutes from this proceeding, Justice Wexler advised that the court inadvertently had failed to record it. On June 7, 2014, plaintiff was arrested pursuant to the bench warrant issued by Justice Wexler and brought to the local police precinct. Hesse arrived at the precinct later that day and informed plaintiff that Justice Wexler had ordered that plaintiff be brought before him on the warrant, and plaintiff was released and directed to appear before Justice Wexler on June 14, 2014. Plaintiff appeared in court on the designated date, at which time Justice Wexler made a record...
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