US v. City of Yonkers, 80 Civ. 6761 (LBS).

• Decision Date: 27 March 1995
• Docket Number: No. 80 Civ. 6761 (LBS).,80 Civ. 6761 (LBS).
• Citation: 880 F. Supp. 212
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, and Yonkers Branch, NAACP, et al., Plaintiff-Intervenors, v. CITY OF YONKERS, Yonkers Community Development Agency, Yonkers Board of Education, Defendants, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Samuel Pierce, Secretary, Added-Defendants, and The State of New York; Mario Cuomo, as Governor of the State of New York; The Board of Regents of the State of New York; Martin C. Barell, R. Carlos Carballada, Adelaide L. Sanford, Willard A. Genrich, Emlyn I. Griffith, Jorge L. Battista, Lora Bradley Chodos, Louise P. Matteoni, Edward Meyer, Floyd S. Linton, Salvadore Sclafini, Mimi Levin Lieber, Shirley C. Brown, Norma Gluck, Thomas Frey and James McCabe, Sr., in their official capacities as members of the State Board of Regents; The Department of Education of The State of New York; Thomas Sobol, as Commissioner of Education of the State of New York; and The Urban Development Corporation of the State of New York and Vincent Tese, as Director of the Urban Development Corporation, Added-Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

880 F. Supp. 212

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, and Yonkers Branch, NAACP, et al., Plaintiff-Intervenors, v. CITY OF YONKERS, Yonkers Community Development Agency, Yonkers Board of Education, Defendants, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Samuel Pierce, Secretary, Added-Defendants,

and

The State of New York; Mario Cuomo, as Governor of the State of New York; The Board of Regents of the State of New York; Martin C. Barell, R. Carlos Carballada, Adelaide L. Sanford, Willard A. Genrich, Emlyn I. Griffith, Jorge L. Battista,

Lora Bradley Chodos, Louise P. Matteoni, Edward Meyer, Floyd S. Linton, Salvadore Sclafini, Mimi Levin Lieber, Shirley C. Brown, Norma Gluck, Thomas Frey and James McCabe, Sr., in their official capacities as members of the State Board of Regents; The Department of Education of The State of New York; Thomas Sobol, as Commissioner of Education of the State of New York; and The Urban Development Corporation of the State of New York and Vincent Tese, as Director of the Urban Development Corporation, Added-Defendants.

No. 80 Civ. 6761 (LBS).

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

March 27, 1995.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Michael H. Sussman, Goshen, NY, for plaintiff-intervenors NAACP.

Dennis C. Vacco, New York City, Atty. Gen. of State of N.Y., for N.Y. State defendants; Harvey J. Golubock, Howard L. Zwickel, Marion R. Buchbinder, Stephen Jacoby, Barry S. Schaevitz, of counsel.

Hogan & Hartson, Washington, DC, for Yonkers Bd. of Educ. of the City of Yonkers; Steven J. Routh, Daniel B. Kohrman, Paul A. Minorini, of counsel.

Anderson Banks Moore Curran & Hollis, Mt. Kisco, NY; Lawrence W. Thomas, of counsel, Whiteside & Fitzpatrick, Birmingham, AL, for City of Yonkers; Raymond P. Fitzpatrick, Jr., David P. Whiteside, of counsel.

OPINION

SAND, District Judge.

In response to the efforts of the Yonkers Board of Education ("YBE") and the Yonkers Branch, NAACP (collectively, "plaintiffs") to add as defendants the State of New York, the State Board of Regents, and various other State education officials (collectively, "the State"), as well as the Urban Development Corporation ("UDC") and its director, this Court has held a number of hearings and issued several opinions, familiarity with which we assume herein. See United States v. Yonkers, 833 F.Supp. 214 (S.D.N.Y. 1993) (holding that vestiges of segregation persist in the Yonkers Public School System); United States v. Yonkers, No. 80 Civ. 6761, 1992 WL 176953 (S.D.N.Y. July 10, 1992) (denying the State's motion for summary judgment); United States v. Yonkers, No. 80 Civ. 6761, 1989 WL 88698 (S.D.N.Y. August 1, 1989) (denying the State's motion to dismiss), appeal dismissed, 893 F.2d 498 (2d Cir.1990).

Following the last determination as to vestiges, the Court has conducted an exhaustive inquiry¹ into the question of liability of the State and the UDC for the condition of unlawful de jure segregation which this Court has previously found to exist in the Yonkers Public School System. United States v. Yonkers Bd. of Educ., 624 F.Supp. 1276 (S.D.N.Y.1985), aff'd, 837 F.2d 1181 (2d Cir. 1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1055, 108 S.Ct. 2821, 100 L.Ed.2d 922 (1988).²

By consent of the parties, there was established as a cut-off date for purposes of this inquiry the date of this Court's November, 1985 Opinion holding the City of Yonkers liable for the segregated conditions the Court found to exist. The virtue of the 1985 cut-off date is, of course, that it enables greater utilization of the record compiled in the original liability proceedings and permits the question to be posed whether the Court would have found the added State defendants to be liable had they been named as parties in the original proceedings. There was reserved to the parties the right to present evidence concerning the period November, 1985 to date as part of a subsequent remedy proceeding, should such be deemed appropriate.

The Court has gathered from the parties, especially from counsel for the NAACP, who proffered evidence concerning post-1985 events, that any such evidence would be of a cumulative nature and not qualitatively different from the vast submissions already made. Such evidence, while perhaps pertinent to remedy, would seem to have little impact on questions of liability. We have therefore proceeded to determine questions of State liability on the basis of the present record. If a party is of the opinion that post-1985 evidence would alter any of the legal or factual conclusions set forth in this Opinion, and wishes for that reason to reopen these proceedings, the Court should be so advised in writing no later than 20 days from the date of this Opinion. The writing should set forth a description of the evidence that the party would seek to introduce and the reasons why it is believed that such additional evidence would lead to a change in the rulings made herein.

I. THE CONTENTIONS OF THE PARTIES

The YBE and NAACP contend that the State contributed to the segregated status of the Yonkers Public Schools in several ways. The major emphasis has been on the alleged failure of the State officials primarily charged with education duties, i.e., the members of the Board of Regents, the Commissioner of Education, and representatives of the Department of Education of the State of New York ("SED"), "to execute State education policy on racial integration and in impeding the implementation of that policy by local school officials in Yonkers." Yonkers Board of Education's Post-Trial Brief on State Liability Issues ("YBE Post-Trial Brief") at 2. Further, it is claimed that the State "unlawfully established an `explicit racial' classification by singling out the racial integration policy as the one State education policy that would not be executed in accordance with the normal process of governance and decision making for education in New York State." Id. Independently of these grounds for the imposition of liability, the YBE and NAACP contend that the State is liable because of its participation in the development of housing in Yonkers which had a "known and foreseeable segregative effect on the public schools of Yonkers." Id. at 2-3.

The State asserts various defenses to these charges, including those of sovereign immunity and other jurisdictional defects. With respect to the housing claims, the State raises the defenses of statute of limitations and laches. On the merits, the State asserts that this case is controlled by Arthur v. Nyquist, 573 F.2d 134 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 860, 99 S.Ct. 179, 58 L.Ed.2d 169 (1978), and that the YBE and NAACP's claims that the State could and should have more aggressively pursued efforts to end segregation have already been rejected as a basis for asserting liability against the State. The State further asserts that the YBE and NAACP have failed to prove that the actions of either the UDC or the State defendants with respect to housing caused segregative consequences to the Yonkers Public School System. The City of Yonkers supports the position of the YBE and NAACP that the State is liable for contributing to such conditions of segregation which the Court has found to exist in Yonkers.

II. FINDINGS OF FACT

A. Schools

The YBE and NAACP claim that there is a causal relation between the acts and omissions of the State and the continuation of segregation in the Yonkers Public School System. The gist of their argument is as follows: that the State was aware of the severely segregative conditions that existed in the Yonkers Public Schools; that the State had the legal authority as well as the practical power to intervene in Yonkers and to compel Yonkers officials to take steps to remedy those conditions; that State officials, motivated by a fear of controversy, an aversion to aggressive efforts at integration, and, in some instances, racial prejudices, effectively adopted a hands-off policy toward Yonkers, whereby the State would act in support of desegregation only if invited to do so by an individual complainant or by the Yonkers authorities themselves; and that this handsoff policy had the foreseeable effect of preserving the segregative conditions in the Yonkers Public Schools.

Having reviewed the entire record, the Court finds there to be ample evidence supporting the plaintiffs' contentions regarding the nature of the State's desegregative posture prior to 1985. Our specific factual findings are outlined directly below. In a later section, we will explain why the facts, as found, nonetheless do not provide a basis for holding the State liable as a constitutional joint tortfeasor under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and why we do not reach the merits of possible State liability under The Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, 20 U.S.C.A. § 1701 et seq. (West 1990).

1. What the State Knew

There can be no doubt that the State was aware early on of the existence of at least de facto segregation in the Yonkers Public Schools. The record in this area begins with a February, 1968 letter from Yonkers resident Ruth Lowe to then-State Education Commissioner James E. Allen, informing him that

Yonkers public schools really need investigation — especially those in the predominantly Black ghetto areas. School 19 is a perfect example. This school has de facto segregation. Additionally, areas have been gerrymandered to keep this school segregated.... Something should be done to break up the All White and All Black schools of Yonkers. Can you do anything?

YBE Exh. 16-20. Commissioner Allen's assistant, Wilbur Nordos, wrote Ms. Lowe back that it was his hope that his division — the Division of Intercultural Relations, which at the time had the primary responsibility for promoting racial integration in New York schools — could "be of help to the school authorities in Yonkers in working toward a reduction of racial imbalance in the schools of that City." Id. Whether intended to be...