Traggis v. St. Barbara's Greek Orthodox Church

• Decision Date: 30 June 1988
• Docket Number: No. 984,D,984
• Citation: 851 F.2d 584
• Parties: Demetrius P. TRAGGIS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ST. BARBARA'S GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH et al., Defendants-Appellees. ocket 87-9056.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 584

851 F.2d 584

Demetrius P. TRAGGIS et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ST. BARBARA'S GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 984, Docket 87-9056.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued March 21, 1988.

Decided June 30, 1988.

Gary A. Mastronardi, Bridgeport, Conn., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Hugh F. Keefe, New Haven, Conn. (Michael J. McClary, Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante, P.C., New Haven, Conn., of counsel), for all defendants-appellees except Ebenezer Chapel, Inc. and Reverend Walter J. Oliver.

Barbara L. Cox, New Haven, Conn. (Dennis N. Garvey, P.C., New Haven, Conn., of counsel), for defendants-appellees Ebenezer Chapel, Inc. and Reverend Walter J. Oliver.

Before FEINBERG, Chief Judge, and CARDAMONE and PIERCE, Circuit Judges.

PIERCE, Circuit Judge:

The question presented in this appeal from a judgment entered in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, Robert C. Zampano, Judge, is whether the federal civil rights conspiracy statute, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985, provides a remedy for injuries resulting from an alleged private conspiracy to deprive persons of the equal protection of the public accommodations provision of the Connecticut Human Rights and Opportunities Act, Conn.Gen.Stat. Sec. 46a-64.

I

St. Barbara's Greek Orthodox Church ("St. Barbara's") is an ecclesiastical corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Connecticut. For many years, St. Barbara's church building was located on church-owned property, at 56 Dwight Street, in New Haven, Connecticut. St. Barbara's is affiliated with the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas and is within the authority and control of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America. In accordance with the Special Regulations and Uniform Parish Regulations of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, St. Barbara's is governed by a "Parish Council," which acts as the administrative body of the Parish, and by the "Parish Assembly," which is defined as "the general meeting of the members of the Parish."

In 1969 St. Barbara's Parish Assembly voted to form a search committee to investigate a new location for the church. The committee subsequently recommended, and the Parish Assembly approved, the purchase of land and buildings in Orange, Connecticut. Parish regulations, however, required the approval of two-thirds of the Parish Assembly before the Parish Council could agree to sell the property at 56 Dwight Street and begin construction of a new church in Orange. For several years the Parish Council was unable to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority. Finally, on July 10, 1985, the Parish Assembly authorized the Council to offer the Dwight Street property for sale and to complete construction of the new church, which would be financed by the proceeds of the sale. A group of parishioners, who had been disqualified from voting at the July 10 meeting, challenged the legality of the vote, but a state court ruled in favor of the Parish Council on November 15, 1985.

According to appellants, at some point following the July 10 meeting, St. Barbara's Parish Council began to negotiate the sale of the Dwight Street property with Ebenezer Chapel, Inc. ("Ebenezer"), an ecclesiastical corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Connecticut. In November, 1985, the Parish Council and Ebenezer executed a final purchase and sale agreement, and on December 11, 1985, St. Barbara's conveyed the property to Ebenezer. Appellants claim that this transaction was not disclosed to any member of the Parish Assembly at any time prior to closing. The deed of conveyance to Ebenezer includes the following restrictive covenant:

1. Restriction that the premises not be conveyed, rented to or leased by any individual, party, organization or entity that is a member of, or affiliated with, the Greek Orthodox faith, said restriction to run with the land for ten (10) years from the date hereof.

Shortly after the sale of the Dwight Street property was made public, a faction of St. Barbara's parishioners decided to disassociate itself from St. Barbara's and to become affiliated with a separate sect of the Greek Orthodox faith not under the control of the Greek Orthodox Church or the Archdiocese. On September 4, 1986, this group, the appellants herein, filed an action in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut against St. Barbara's; its pastor, Father William S. Kehayes; its officers, directors, and members of the Parish Council; Archbishop Iacovos, the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas; Bishop Athenagoras, whose diocese includes St. Barbara's Parish; and Ebenezer and its pastor, the Reverend Walter J. Oliver. The complaint alleged, inter alia, that appellees conspired to deprive appellants of their rights under the first and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, in violation of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985(3) (1982). In response, appellees filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), which Judge Zampano subsequently converted into a motion for summary judgment.

By supplemental memorandum in opposition to appellees' motion, appellants abandoned their claims under the first and fourteenth amendments and proposed to file an amended complaint alleging that: (1) appellees, with the exception of Archbishop Iacovos and Bishop Athenagoras, had conspired in violation of 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985(3) to deprive appellants "of the equal protection and equal privileges and immunities of the laws of the state of Connecticut," specifically, the public accommodations provision of the Connecticut Human Rights and Opportunities Act (the "Connecticut Act"), Conn.Gen.Stat. Sec. 46a-64; and (2) appellees Iacovos, Athenagoras, and Kehayes "having full knowledge of the foregoing wrongs ... and being able to prevent or aid in preventing the commission of the same, have neglected to do so, in violation of 42 U.S.C. Section 1986." Appellants claimed, among other things, that appellees prevented appellants from lawfully purchasing the Dwight Street property "for no other reason except that [appellants] were members of the Greek Orthodox faith."

On November 24, 1987, Judge Zampano entered an order granting appellees' motion for summary judgment. As a preliminary matter, Judge Zampano noted that the parties had not addressed "whether this action involves ecclesiastical questions which should not be answered by a civil court." Nevertheless, despite serious misgivings as to "whether the plenary review requested by the parties" was appropriate in light of Jones v. Wolf, 443 U.S. 595, 99 S.Ct. 3020, 61 L.Ed.2d 775 (1979), the district court proceeded to consider the merits of appellants' claim. Relying on dictum in Great Am. Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. Novotny, 442 U.S. 366, 99 S.Ct. 2345, 60 L.Ed.2d 957 (1979), the court held that appellants' proposed amended complaint failed to state a cause of action, because 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985(3) provides a remedy only for the deprivation of substantive rights created and guaranteed by federal law. Thus, the court ruled that appellants had no right to recover under Sec. 1985(3) for their claim that appellees had conspired to deprive them of the equal protection of Connecticut law. In the alternative, Judge Zampano held that St. Barbara's Church had not violated the Connecticut Act, because the church does not qualify as a "public accommodation" under Conn.Gen.Stat. Sec. 46a-63. The court entered a judgment in favor of appellees, and this appeal followed. We affirm.

II

To state a cause of action under Sec. 1985(3), a plaintiff must allege (1) a conspiracy (2) for the purpose of depriving a person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or the equal privileges and immunities under the laws; (3) an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy; and (4) an injury to the plaintiff's person or property, or a deprivation of a right or privilege of a citizen of the United States. Griffin v. Breckenridge, 403 U.S. 88, 102-03, 91 S.Ct. 1790, 1798, 29 L.Ed.2d 338 (1970). The statute itself provides no substantive rights; instead, it "provides a remedy for violation of the rights it designates." Novotny, 442 U.S. at 372, 99 S.Ct. at 2349. Determining which rights the statute "designates," however, is not always a simple matter. Section 1985(3) clearly provides a remedy for conspiracies to deprive persons of their rights under the United States Constitution. See, e.g., United Bhd. of Carpenters v. Scott, 463 U.S. 825, 103 S.Ct. 3352, 77 L.Ed.2d 1049 (1983) (Sec. 1985(3) applies in case of public conspiracy to deprive persons of their rights under the first amendment); Breckenridge, 403 U.S. 88, 91 S.Ct. 1790, 29 L.Ed.2d 338 (Sec. 1985(3) applies in case of private or public conspiracy to deprive persons of their rights under the thirteenth amendment). Less clear is the extent to which the statute remedies injuries resulting from private conspiracies to deprive persons or classes of persons of the equal protection of, or equal privileges and immunities under, federal statutory law or state law.

The Supreme Court first considered the extent to which Sec. 1985(3) applies to private conspiracies to deprive individuals and classes of the equal protection of federal statutory law in Novotny. In Novotny, the Court held that a person injured by a conspiracy to violate Sec. 704(a) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-3(a), is not deprived of "the equal protection of the laws, or the equal privileges and immunities under the laws," within the meaning of Sec. 1985(3). In reaching this conclusion, the Court noted that Title VII cases "are subject to a detailed administrative and judicial process designed to provide an opportunity for nonjudicial and nonadversary resolution of claims." 442 U.S. at 372-73, 99 S.Ct. at 2349. Thus, "[i]f a violation of Title VII could be...