Toczek v. Alvord
Decision Date | 06 January 2021 |
Docket Number | 19-4003 |
Parties | Aleksandra Toczek, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Bethany J. Alvord, Judge, Alexandra D. DiPentima, Chief Judge, Douglas S. Lavine, Judge, Robert J. Devlin, Judge, Christine E. Keller, Judge, Eliot D. Prescott, Judge, Nina F. Elgo, Judge, William H. Bright, Jr., Judge, Ingrid L. Moll, Judge, Robert L. Genuario, Judge, Defendants-Appellees. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
SUMMARY ORDER
RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT'S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION "SUMMARY ORDER"). A PARTY CITING TO A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.
At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 6th day of January, two thousand and twenty-one.
Aleksandra Toczek, pro se, Weston, CT.
FOR DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES:
Alayna M. Stone, Assistant Attorney General (Clare Kindall, Solicitor General, on the brief), for William Tong, Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, Hartford, CT.
Appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Meyer, J.).
UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the order of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Appellant Aleksandra Toczek, proceeding pro se, appeals the district court's order denying her motion for a preliminary injunction. Toczek names as defendants one judge from the Connecticut Superior Court and nine judges of the Connecticut Appellate Court. She alleges, among other things, that the judges violated her procedural due process rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 during foreclosure proceedings in Connecticut state courts that occurred after the Connecticut Superior Court had entered a judgment of strict foreclosure with respect to a property Toczek owned. More specifically, she challenges an order issued by the Superior Court judge, affirmed by the appellate court, which terminated all future "appellate stays" in regard to her foreclosure proceedings. She asserts that those courts were without authority to terminate stays that automatically halt foreclosure proceedings when an appeal is filed. See Conn. Practice Book § 61-11(a) ().1 Toczek further contends that the Superior Court order and the accompanying appellate affirmance denied her the right to due process in that she was unable to seek redress of that violation because the ruling was not appealable to the Connecticut Supreme Court or the Supreme Court of the United States.
In the federal district court, Toczek filed a motion for a preliminary injunction requesting that the district court (1) reinstate her appellate stays, (2) enjoin the Connecticut Superior Court from terminating future appellate stays, and (3) enjoin the appellate court from upholding such terminations during the course of her foreclosure action. The district court denied the motion, holding, inter alia, that "federal district judges do not have general authority to review the actions of state court judges, especially the discretionary actions of state court judges whether to grant a motion to stay." App'x at 7 ( ). We assume the parties' familiarity with the underlying facts, the procedural history of the case, and the issues on appeal.
Defendants-Appellees argue, among other things, that the district court's order should be affirmed based on the Younger abstention doctrine. We agree.2 "We review de novo theessentially legal determination of whether the requirements for abstention have been met." Disability Rts. N.Y. v. New York, 916 F.3d 129, 133 (2d Cir. 2019) (quotation marks omitted). The Younger abstention doctrine—initially set out in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971)—provides that "federal courts should generally refrain from enjoining or otherwise interfering in ongoing state proceedings." Spargo v. N.Y. State Comm'n on Judicial Conduct, 351 F.3d 65, 74 (2d Cir. 2003). Application of this doctrine, however, is limited; such abstention is applicable in only three circumstances: (1) state criminal prosecutions; (2) civil enforcement proceedings; and (3) civil proceedings that implicate a state's interest in enforcing the orders and judgments of its courts. Sprint Commc'ns, Inc. v. Jacobs, 571 U.S. 69, 72-73 (2013); Schorr v. DoPico, 686 F. App'x 34, 36 (2d Cir. 2017) (summary order) (Sprint clarified the three "exceptional circumstances" in which courts should abstain under Younger (quotation marks omitted)) .3
This case falls within the third category. Toczek's federal lawsuit implicates the Connecticut Superior Court's right to terminate automatic stays in her foreclosure proceedings, Conn. Practice Book § 61-11(d), and the Connecticut Appellate Court's right to review such a ruling, id. § 66-6. The court decisions that form the basis of her claim occurred years after aConnecticut state court entered a judgment of strict foreclosure. Toczek asked the district court, and now asks this Court, to vacate these related state court rulings and mandate that the Connecticut state courts refrain from issuing any other similar orders regarding the automatic stays. However, these orders relating to Toczek's foreclosure are "uniquely in furtherance of the state courts' ability to perform their judicial functions" and "implicate a state's interest in enforcing the orders and judgments of its courts." Sprint, 571 U.S. at 72-73 (quotation marks omitted). Therefore, abstention is required. See id.; see also Pennzoil Co. v. Texaco, Inc., 481 U.S. 1, 14 (1987) ( ); Kaufman v. Kaye, 466 F.3d 83, 87 (2d Cir. 2006) ( ); Falco, 805 F.3d at 427-28 ( ); El Bey v. Bellis, No. 19cv336, 2019 WL 2502929, at *4 (D. Conn. June 17, 2019) (collecting cases), appeal dismissed sub nom. Fabiola Is Ra El Bey v. Bellis, No. 19-2131, 2020 WL 3989534 (2d Cir. Apr. 10, 2020) ) .
Toczek argues that she "cannot present her federal contention to the state Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court as a final judgment" and that, therefore, "the state procedures are inadequate" and abstention should not apply. Toczek Reply Br. at 6. However, she offers no reason why she could not have presented her due process arguments to the Connecticut Superior and Appellate Courts. See Conn. Practice Book § 66-6 (); see also El Bey, 2019 WL 2502929, at *5 . Indeed, Toczek did in fact assert due process arguments to the Connecticut Appellate Court. Suppl. App'x at 76 ( ).
We have held that "abstention is appropriate where the plaintiff has an 'opportunity to raise and have timely decided by a competent state tribunal' the constitutional claims at issue in the federal suit." Spargo, 351 F.3d at 77 (quoting Middlesex Cnty. Ethics Comm. v. Garden State Bar Ass'n, 457 U.S. 423, 437 (1982)); see also Juidice v. Vail, 430 U.S. 327, 337 (1977) ( ). Contrary to Toczek's contention, opportunity for review in the state courts was afforded to her despite the unavailability of immediate review by the Connecticut Supreme Court of the non-final order in connection with a discretionary denial of a motion to stay. See, e.g., Falco, 805 F.3d at 428(affirming dismissal under Younger abstention in connection with order regarding payment of attorneys' fees in child custody case for which interlocutory appeal was unavailable); McKnight v. Middleton, 699 F. Supp. 2d...
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