Source: http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19870202_0040991.C02.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2017-04-28 20:18:16
Document Index: 91715805

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 1961', '§ 1983', '§ 1005', '§ 901', '§ 1983', '§ 1961', '§ 1983', '§ 1964', '§ 1292', '§ 1291', '§ 1292', '§ 1291', '§ 1292', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 2657', '§ 1983', '§ 1983']

| Cullen v. Margiotta
LORRAINE C. CULLEN, JOHN L. JUND, AND MICHAEL LANDI, ON BEHALF OF EACH, AND ON BEHALF OF ALL PERSONS SIMILARLY SITUATED, NAMELY, THOSE EMPLOYEES OF THE COUNTY OF NASSAU, THE TOWNS OF HEMPSTEAD, NORTH HEMPSTEAD AND OYSTER BAY, AND THE VILLAGE OF HEMPSTEAD, WHO HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO SOLICITATIONS FOR CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN AN INHERENTLY COERCIVE MANNER OR WHO HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO SCRUTINY BY OFFICIALS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN AN INHERENTLY COERCIVE MANNER OR WHO HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO SCRUTINY BY OFFICIALS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN AN INHERENTLY COERCIVE MANNER OR WHO HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO SCRUTINY BY OFFICIALS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN CONNECTION WITH THEIR HIRING, EMPLOYMENT OR PROMOTION, AND CIVIL SERVICE MERIT COUNCIL OF LONG ISLAND, PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS-CROSS-APPELLEES,v.JOSEPH P. MARGIOTTA, JR., ET AL., DEFENDANTS, THE NASSAU COUNTY OF REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE, THE TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE, THE COUNTY OF NASSAU, AND THE TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES, THE NASSAU COUNTY REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE, THE TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE, AND THE TOWN OF HEMPSTEAD, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES-CROSS-APPELLANTS
Appeals and cross-appeals (1) from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District Court of New York entered after a jury trial on liability issues before Jacob Mishler, Judge, dismissing certain of plaintiffs' claims, and (2) from various interlocutory orders.
Before: MESKILL, KEARSE, and PIERCE, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiffs-appellants-cross-appellees appeal from a December 27, 1985 judgment, as amended ("1985 Judgment"), entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b) after a jury trial on liability issues before Jacob Mishler, Judge, dismissing certain parts of their complaint, brought principally under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1982) and the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-1964 (1982), charging defendants The Nassau County Republican Committee ("County Committee"), The Town of Hempstead Republican Committee ("Town Committee"), The County of Nassau ("County"), and The Town of Hempstead ("Town"), with having coercively exacted contributions to the defendant Committees from employees and prospective employees and prospective employees of the County and the Town. Plaintiffs having earlier stipulated to the dismissal of their complaint as to all defendants except those listed above and to the dismissal as to all defendants of certain other claims, the 1985 Judgment principally (1) dismissed all claims against the County for failure of proof at trial, (2) dismissed plaintiffs' RICO claims against the other three defendants for failure of proof at trial, and (3) summarily dismissed all claims of Landi as time-barred. Claims of the plaintiff class under § 1983 against the Town, the Town Committee, and the County Committee remain pending in the district court.
For the reasons below, we conclude that we lack jurisdiction to entertain defendants' cross-appeals and plaintiffs' challenges to the interlocutory orders entered with respect to the remedial stage of the proceedings below. As to the issues properly before us, we conclude (1) that the dismissal of the complaint against the County should be affirmed with respect to the period covered by the trial but that the County was not entitled to dismissal of plaintiffs' claims in their entirety because the court erred in ruling that the applicable statutes of limitations had not been tolled; (2) that Landi's individual claims were, for various reasons, properly dismissed as against the County or the County Committee; and (3) that the court erred in dismissing the RICO claims on the basis of the answers to special interrogatories posed to the jury. We thus vacate the judgment in part and remand to the district court for further proceedings with respect to the claims that were improperly dismissed.
Prior to commencing the present action, Cullen and Jund, purporting to sue on behalf of others "similarly situated," had brought suit challenging this alleged conduct in state court in 1974, naming as defendants, inter alios, Joseph M. Margiotta, individually and as County Leader of the Nassau County Republican Committee, Ralph G. Caso, individually and as County Leader of the Nassau County Republican Committee, Ralph G. Caso, individually and as County Executive of the County of Nassau, and the County of Nassau. Neither the Town nor the Town Committee was named as a defendant, either directly or indirectly. The state suit was dismissed on the grounds that the complaint did not set forth a cause of action under state law and that class action treatment was inappropriate under N.Y. Civ. Prac. Law ("CPLR") § 1005 (repealed and replaced by CPLR § 901 effective Sept. 1, 1975 (McKinney 1976)). Cullen v. Margiotta, 81 Misc. 2d 809, 367 N.Y.S.2d 638 (Sup. Ct. Nassau Co. 1975) ("State Court Judgment"), aff'd mem., 59 A.D.2d 831, 399 N.Y.S.2d 160 (2d Dep't 1977).
On December 14, 1976, plaintiffs commenced the present action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, contending principally that defendants' alleged conduct violated their rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution. Their present complaint also alleged that this conduct constituted a "pattern of racketeering activity" within the meaning ofRICO, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961(1) and (5). Plaintiffs sought, inter alia, single damages on their § 1983 claims and, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c), treble damages on their civil RICO claims.
Prior to commencement of the trial on liability, the district court ordered that a final judgment ("1979 Judgment") be entered pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b) on the claims it had dismissed, and it certified other questions for immediate appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). This Court, concluding that the dismissed claims were too closely related to the claims that remained pending, and observing that the district court had not given any reason for its view that judgment should be entered immediately, dismissed the appeal from the 1979 Judgment on the ground that the Rule 54(b) certification had been an abuse of discretion and that the 1979 Judgment was not properly a final judgment under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Cullen v. Margiotta, 618 F.2d 226 (2d Cir. 1980) (per curiam). In addition, we denied leave to appeal the orders certified pursuant to § 1292(b); and we dismissed still other attempted appeals as improper under either § 1291 or § 1292.
Further with respect to the § 1983 claims, the jury found that the practice and procedure had not "continued to the relatively recent past," -- i.e., as apparently interpreted by the court, past January 1, 1976. And although the jury found that from 1978 to 1984, Michael Limongelli, the Town's Commissioner of Public Safety, had induced employees of his department to purchase tickets to Republican Party fund raising events by threatening that their failure to contribute would result in a loss of overtime and other employment benefits, it concluded that Limongelli's practice was not a custom or policy of the Town and was not within the scope of Limongelli's authority.
Following the conclusion of the trial on the liability issues, the court denied motions by plaintiffs for a new trial of their claims against the County, for judgment n.o.v. against the Town on the basis of Limongelli's extortionate acts, and for judgment in their favor on the RICO claims on the basis that the jury's interrogatory answers compelled the conclusion that the Town, the Town Committee, and the County Committee each knowingly and willfully engaged in a pattern of legal activity in participating in the affairs of the RICO enterprise of which each was a member. The court also denied motions by the County Committee, the Town Committee, and the Town for judgment of dismissal or for a new trial on the § 1983 issues, concluding that these defendants are liable to plaintiffs for damages on the § 1983 claims.
In the Posttrial Decision, the court also granted the request of class counsel for an interim award of attorney's fees, ordering the County and Town Committees and the Town to pay counsel a total sum of $100,000. The court did not reject that this award be reflected in the 1985 Judgment.
Looking toward the remedy phase of the litigation, the court noted that it had originally defined the plaintiff class to include "those past and present employees whose claims accrued on or before June 27, 1977, the date of class certification." Posttrial Decision at 18. It concluded that the jury's finding that plaintiffs had failed to establish the continuance of the coercive solicitation after January 1, 1976, should be incorporated into the definition of the class, and it therefore redefined the class as "those public employees who made contributions during the period January 1, 1973 to January 1, 1976 and seek recovery of the sums contributed, and those public employees who claim injury by reason of refusal to make such payment demanded of them during the period." Id. This order apparently was modified orally at a conference on January 17, 1986, during which the district court indicated that the class consists of public employees whose claims accrued between December 14, 1973, and December 14, 1976.
Although the district court made many rulings both prior to and after the liability trial, its only final judgment was the 1985 Judgment. Defendants' cross-appeals do not challenge any of the decisions embodied in the 1985 Judgment, for that judgment only dismissed claims. The decisions challenged by defendants in the cross-appeals -- refusing to dismiss plaintiffs' § 1983 claims except against the County, refusing to decertify the plaintiff class, and making an interim award of attorney's fees -- are embodied only in the Posttrial Decision and other similarly interlocutory orders. The district court has never yet purported to determine with finality the extent of plaintiffs' rights to recover from the Town, the Town Committee, and the County Committee on the § 1983 claims. All of its interlocutory orders remain subject to modification or adjustment prior to the entry of a final judgment adjudicating the claims to which they pertain. See, e.g., Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(b); Leonhard v. United States, 633 F.2d 599, 608 (2d Cir. 1980) (interim order dismissing claims against defendant subject to revision), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 908, 101 S. Ct. 1975, 68 L. Ed. 2d 295, (1981); Hastings v. Maine-Endwell Central School District, 676 F.2d 893, 896 (2d Cir. 1982) (interim award of attorney's fees subject to revision and not immediately appealable).
We thus lack jurisdiction to entertain the cross appeals and they are dismissed.
the District Court's dismissal of the RICO claim; its denial of the new trial against Nassau County; its refusal to toll the statute of limitations; its refusal to permit recovery of the Limongelli funds; its refusal to grant refunds subsequent to 1976; its refusal to grant class-wide compensatory and punitive damages for the violation of First Amendment rights; and its refusal to establish an acceptable remedial mechanism . . .
The remaining issues, however, are related only to plaintiffs' § 1983 claims. Although plaintiffs assert here that defendants are liable for Limongelli's extortionate acts under RICO, the jury interrogatories with regard to the Limongelli acts and the Town's responsibility for those acts were posed only as claims under § 1983. We have seen no indication in the record that plaintiffs objected to the failure to ask the jury whether these acts constituted RICO predicate acts, and hence we see no basis for reviewing the court's refusal to grant judgment n.o.v. as to these acts as part of our review of the dismissal of the claims under RICO. The other issues listed by plaintiffs focus squarely on the remedy proceedings on their surviving § 1983 claims against the Town, the Town Committee, and the County Committee. These claims have not been finally adjudicated; the court's rulings with respect to such matters as the nature of the proof required for the establishment of damages, the procedures to be followed for the proof of individual class members' claims, and the period for which damages may be recovered are interlocutory orders. These rulings were not included within the court's direction that a final judgment enter immediately pursuant to Rule 54(b), nor, in view of their interlocutory nature, would their inclusion have been proper. See, e.g., Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Mackey, 351 U.S. 427, 437, 100 L. Ed. 1297, 76 S. Ct. 895 (1956) (court has no power to enter judgment pursuant to Rule 54(b) with respect to orders that are not final adjudications); Liberty Mutual Ins. Co. v. Wetzel, 424 U.S. 737, 742-44, 47 L. Ed. 2d 435, 96 S. Ct. 1202 (1976) (decision finding liability but not determining damages or other relief is not final and hence not appropriate for entry of judgment pursuant to Rule 54(b)).
Plaintiffs have argued that the district court's refusal to adopt remedy procedures that would ensure the plaintiff class members' anonymity should be regarded as a collateral order appealable under Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 93 L. Ed. 1528, 69 S. Ct. 1221 (1949). We are unpersuaded. To come within the "collateral order" doctrine, an order must at a minimum, (1) "'resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action'," (2) "'conclusively determine the disputed question'," and (3) "'be effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment.'" Richardson-Merrell, Inc. v. Koller, 472 U.S. 424, 105 S. Ct. 2757, 2761, 86 L. Ed. 2d 340 (1985) (quoting Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463, 468, 57 L. Ed. 2d 351, 98 S. Ct. 2454 (1978)). The denial of anonymity does not meet any of these tests.
First, rulings as to what showings must be made in order for plaintiff class members to recover can hardly be thought to be "collateral"; these rulings, focusing on such matters as proximate causation between an individual refusal to contribute and absence of promotion, or between coercion and an individual contribution, go straight to the merits of plaintiffs' rights to refunds. Second, even if it dealt with a collateral matter, the order of the district court establishing procedures that require disclosure of the identities of class members who wish to recover damages is no more a conclusive resolution of the anonymity question than would be any other order requiring the disclosure of information. See, e.g., Shattuck v. Hoegl, 523 F.2d 509, 516 (2d Cir. 1975) ( order requiring witness's disclosures despite assertion of work product and attorney-client privileges not reviewable until entry of either a final judgment or an order holding witness in contempt). As we have stated in dismissing an appeal from an order denying a motion to quash a subpoena,
The Rule is designed to allow the district court to provide relief, where it is needed to avoid undue hardship to the parties, from the normal principle that a final judgment is not entered prior to the complete adjudication of all the claims of all the parties. See generally Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Mackey, 351 U.S. at 431-36.
By the terms of the Rule, the court may direct entry of a partial final judgment either (1) disposing of claims of or against fewer than all of the parties to the case or (2) disposing of fewer than all of the claims. in either context, the matter of whether to direct the entry of a partial final judgment in advance of the final adjudication of all of the claims in the suit must be considered in light of the goal of judicial economy as served by the "'historic federal policy against piecemeal appeals.'" Curtiss-Wright Corp. v. General Electric Co., 446 U.S. 1, 8, 64 L. Ed. 2d 1, 100 S. Ct. 1460 (1980) (quoting Sears Roebuck & Co. v. Mackey, 351 U.S. at 438). Respect for that goal requires that the court's power to enter a final judgment before the entire case is concluded, and thereby permit an aggrieved party to take an immediate appeal, be exercised sparingly. See, e.g., Cullen v. Margiotta, 618 F.2d at 228 ("'The power which this Rule confers upon the trial judge should be used only "in the infrequent harsh case" . . ." (quoting Panichella v. Pennsylvania R.R., 252 F.2d 452, 455 (3d Cir. 1958)). There are few guidelines as to when entry of the partial judgment should be ordered but several clear-cut strictures as to when it should be eschewed.
In a case involving multiple claims, the court should not enter final judgment dismissing a given claim unless that claim is separable from the claims that survive. See I.L.T.A. Inc. v. United Airlines, Inc., 739 F.2d 82, 84 (2d Cir. 1984). Claims are normally regarded as separable if they involve at least some different questions of fact and law and could be separately enforced, see United States v. Kocher, 468 F.2d 503, 509 (2d Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 931, 93 S. Ct. 1897, 36 L. Ed. 2d 390 (1973), or if "different sorts of relief" are sought and, consequently, the claim for greater relief would be pressed by the plaintiff even if the other claim were granted, see Seatrain Shipbuilding Corp. v. Shell Oil Co., 444 U.S. 572, 580-81 & n.18, 63 L. Ed. 2d 36, 100 S. Ct. 800 (1980) (claimant would pursue requested ban on all vessels even after ban of one); see also 10 C. Wright, A. Miller, & M. Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2657, at 67 (2d 3d. 1983) (claims are separable when there is more than one possible recovery and the recoveries are not mutually exclusive). When these features are present, claims may be considered separable even if they have arisen out of the same transaction or occurrence. See Cold Metal Process Co. v. United Engineering & Foundry Co., 351 U.S. 445, 452, 76 S. Ct. 904, 100 L. Ed. 1311 (1956); Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Mackey, 351 U.S. at 436-37 & n.9.
If the court concludes that the above criteria with respect to separability and disparity of claims are met, it may direct that the partial final judgment be entered, but only, in the terms of Rule 54(b), if it determines that "there is no just reason for delay." Such a determination is committed to the sound discretion of the district court and may be set aside only for abuse of discretion, see Curtiss-Wright Corp. v. General Electric Co., 446 U.S. at 8-10 (to justify reversal, district court's determination must be "clearly unreasonable"); Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Mackey, 351 U.S. at 437; Cold Metal Process Co. v. United Co., 351 U.S. at 452, but the certification should not be granted routinely, see Curtiss-Wright Corp. v. General Electric Co., 446 U.S. at 8 ("Not all final judgments on individual claims should be immediately appealable, even if they are in some sense separable from the remaining unresolved claims.") Rather it should be "granted only if there exists 'some danger of hardship or injustice through delay which would be alleviated by immediate appeal,'" Cullen v. Margiotta, 618 F.2d at 228 (quoting Brunswick Corp. v. Sheridan, 582 F.2d 175, 183 (2d Cir. 1978)). Such a danger may be presented where an expensive and duplicative trial could be avoided if, without delaying prosecution of the surviving claims, a dismissed claim were reversed in time to be tried with the other claims. See, e.g., Hunt v. Mobil Oil Corp., 550 F.2d 68, 70 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 984, 98 S. Ct. 608, 54 L. Ed. 2d 477 (1977).
The present case, of course, involves both multiple claims and multiple parties, and insofar as is pertinent to the present appeals, the district court dismissed all the claims of one of the plaintiffs (Landi), all the claims against one of the defendants (the County), and one of the remaining claims (RICO) but not the other (§ 1983). The direction for the immediate entry of the 1985 Judgment as a final judgment was accompanied by the court's statement of its view that since the issues of law presented by the 1985 Judgment were unrelated to the surviving § 1983 claims, and the remedy phase of the letter claims could last years, and the remedy phase of the latter claims could last years, there was no just reason to require the parties to await the conclusion of that remedy phase in order to seek review of the claims already dismissed. We conclude that the Rule 54(b) certification with respect to the 1985 Judgment was within the proper bounds of the court's discretion.
Finally, we find not appropriate the district court's view that, in light of the possible length of the remedy stage of the case, it would be unjust to require the plaintiffs to wait until that phase is concluded to obtain appellate review of the dismissal of the County, for vacation of that dismissal could require plaintiffs to go through a ...