Wwbitv, Inc. v. Village of Rouses Point

• Decision Date: 09 December 2009
• Docket Number: Docket No. 08-5112-cv.
• Citation: 589 F.3d 46
• Parties: WWBITV, INC., Susan Clarke, and Gary Clarke, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The VILLAGE OF ROUSES POINT, George Rivers, in his official capacity and in his individual capacity, Michael Tetreault, Jr., in his official capacity and in his individual capacity, and Brian Pelkey, in his official capacity and in his individual capacity, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

589 F.3d 46

WWBITV, INC., Susan Clarke, and Gary Clarke, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The VILLAGE OF ROUSES POINT, George Rivers, in his official capacity and in his individual capacity, Michael Tetreault, Jr., in his official capacity and in his individual capacity, and Brian Pelkey, in his official capacity and in his individual capacity, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 08-5112-cv.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: August 27, 2009.

Decided: December 9, 2009.

Mark Schneider, Plattsburgh, NY, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Thomas W. Plimpton, Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane & Trombley, PLLC, Plattsburgh, NY, for Defendants-Appellees the Village of Rouses Point, George Rivers and Michael Tetreault, Jr.

Steven C. Shahan, Taddeo & Shahan, LLP, Syracuse, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Brian Pelkey.

Before: MINER, KATZMANN, and LYNCH,^* Circuit Judges.

GERARD E. LYNCH, Circuit Judge:

On June 6, 2006, an old hotel located in the Village of Rouses Point, New York, was badly damaged in a fire. The next morning, a team of contractors, acting under the direction of the Village's Board of Trustees, demolished most of what remained of the damaged building. Plaintiffs-appellants WWBITV, Inc., which owned the building, Susan Clarke, who owned WWBITV, and Susan Clarke's husband Gary Clarke filed suit, bringing claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and under state law against defendants-appellees, the Village of Rouses Point, George Rivers (the Village's mayor), Michael Tetreault, Jr. (the Village's code enforcement officer) and Brian Pelkey (the Village's fire chief). Plaintiffs-appellants alleged that their due process rights and their rights against unlawful seizure had been violated, as well as that the demolition had been an unlawful taking of private property without compensation under the Fifth Amendment and under New York law. The district court (Gary L. Sharpe, Judge) dismissed the substantive due process and Fifth Amendment claims and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claim. The court later granted summary judgment for defendants-appellees on plaintiffs-appellants' remaining claims. This appeal followed.

BACKGROUND

The Village of Rouses Point lies in New York's northeast corner, where the state borders Vermont and Canada. The Hotel Holland was located in the Village's downtown area, along State Road 11, an important thoroughfare connecting New York and Quebec. The Hotel was owned by WWBITV, Inc., a Delaware corporation wholly owned by Susan Clarke, who ran the company together with her husband Gary Clarke. WWBITV did not operate the building as a hotel, but did use it to store video equipment.

Shortly after midnight on June 6, 2006, the Hotel Holland caught fire. Teams of fire fighters from Rouses Point and neighboring towns responded. At 2:20 a.m., having been told of the fire by a friend, Susan Clarke arrived at the scene. She remained there until the fire was largely extinguished later that morning and then returned home. By the time Clarke left the scene, the building had been extensively damaged. The roof and the top floors had been completely destroyed. Debris hung off the hotel's facade, and officials were concerned that it would fall into the street. The instability of the building, as well as its proximity to the street, necessitated the closing of State Road 11.

At 11:30 a.m., the Board of Trustees for the Village held a special meeting to discuss the situation. The Board posted a notice of the meeting in the Village offices, but did not notify the Clarkes individually. At this meeting, the Board approved a motion pursuant to its local code to authorize the Village's fire chief, Brian Pelkey, to take measures to stabilize the building's remains and to make the street and sidewalk safe for the public. The Village then hired a contractor to demolish the portion of the building most damaged by the fire.

Demolition of the building began early on the afternoon of the 6th. As the demolition was starting, Susan Clarke learned from a friend that the hotel was being torn down. She immediately returned to the hotel to attempt to stop the demolition but was unsuccessful. That afternoon, the contractors demolished the burned portion of the building but left an unburnt annex to the building standing. This undemolished annex stood for several months, until it was itself condemned by the Village and torn down.

On June 10, 2006, Susan Clarke, together with her husband Gary Clarke, commenced suit against the Village of Rouses Point, as well as its mayor (George Rivers), code enforcement officer (Michael Tetreault, Jr.), and fire chief (Brian Pelkey), all of whom they sued in both their official and individual capacities. The plaintiffs asserted claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that their substantive and procedural due process rights had been violated, as well as their rights against unlawful seizure under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and against unlawful taking of their property without compensation under the Fifth Amendment. The plaintiffs also made a related inverse condemnation claim under state law.

Defendants moved pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted. At a hearing on the motion, the district court dismissed plaintiffs' Fifth Amendment claim, finding it premature, and dismissed plaintiffs' substantive due process claims as not cognizable because the rights in question were already explicitly protected by other provisions of the Constitution, citing Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 114 S.Ct. 807, 127 L.Ed.2d 114 (1994) (plurality opinion). The court then declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiffs' state law inverse condemnation claim, finding that New York courts were better situated to adjudicate it.

The parties proceeded to discovery, and, in due course, defendants moved for summary judgment. The court granted summary judgment for defendants on all remaining claims. Finding that there was competent evidence allowing Village officials to believe that an emergency existed and that nothing in the record indicated that this decision was abusive or arbitrary, the court ruled that there had been no procedural due process violation and no Fourth Amendment violation. Moreover, the court ruled that even if its determination that there had been no constitutional violation were mistaken, the individual defendants were entitled to qualified immunity, while liability on behalf of the Village itself was precluded by the fact that the decision to demolish the building was not the product of any municipal custom or policy.

On appeal, plaintiffs contest the district court's grant of summary judgment for the defendants, claiming that both their procedural due process and Fourth Amendment rights were violated. They also challenge the district court's determinations concerning qualified immunity and municipal liability. Finally, plaintiffs claim that it was an error for the district court to decline supplemental jurisdiction over their state law claim.

DISCUSSION

I. Standard of Review

We review an award of summary judgment de novo, "construing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and drawing all reasonable inferences in its favor." SCR Joint Venture L.P. v. Warshawsky, 559 F.3d 133, 137 (2d Cir.2009). Summary judgment may be granted only "if the pleadings, the discovery and disclosure materials on file, and any affidavits show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). "An issue of fact is genuine if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party. A fact is material if it might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law." SCR Joint Venture, 559 F.3d at 137.

We review a district court's decision to decline supplemental jurisdiction over pendent state law claims for abuse of discretion. See, e.g., Purgess v. Sharrock, 33 F.3d 134, 138 (2d Cir.1994).

II. Analysis

Plaintiffs' principal claim is that by tearing down the Hotel Holland without providing any form of hearing beforehand, defendants deprived them of their property without due process of law in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state from "depriv[ing] any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law...." U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. Due process requires that before state actors deprive a person of her property, they offer her a meaningful opportunity to be heard. See Armstrong v. Manzo, 380 U.S. 545, 552, 85 S.Ct. 1187, 14 L.Ed.2d 62 (1965). The Supreme Court has held, however, that in emergency situations a state may satisfy the requirements of procedural due process merely by making available "some meaningful means by which to assess the propriety of the State's action at some time after the initial taking." Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 539, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981). Where there is an emergency requiring quick action and where meaningful pre-deprivation process would be impractical, the government is relieved of its usual obligation to provide a hearing, as long as there is an adequate procedure in place to assess the propriety of the deprivation afterwards. Id. Plaintiffs assert that the district court's grant of summary judgment for the defendants was in error because they had produced evidence sufficient to create an issue of material fact regarding both whether there was a genuine emergency and whether a pre-deprivation hearing would have been practicable.

Our precedents concerning the application of the Parratt rule by district courts on motions for summary judgment may initially seem in tension. Further examination, however, reveals no fundamental inconsistency.

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