Opinion ID: 480173
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Present Amended Complaint

Text: 32 In February 1982, Cameron commenced the present action pro se, alleging that the defendants had arrested him in violation of his constitutional rights and seeking damages under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. The district court's early dismissal of the action was reversed by this Court as premature, Cameron v. Fogarty, 705 F.2d 676 (2d Cir.1983), and on remand, counsel was assigned and filed the complaint that is the focus of this appeal. Cameron alleged that his arrest took place on Eighth Avenue when he was required to accompany the officers to the police station, and that the arrest violated his constitutional rights because at that time the officers lacked probable cause to believe that a crime had occurred or that he had committed it and lacked any good faith belief that probable cause existed for his arrest. 33 Defendants answered and moved for summary judgment on the ground that the state court's ruling that the evidence was admissible at Cameron's criminal trial because it had been obtained in a search incident to a lawful arrest necessarily included a finding that there had been probable cause to make the arrest, and that Cameron's claim was therefore barred by principles of collateral estoppel. 34 In a Memorandum Order dated August 19, 1985 (Decision), the district court granted defendants' motion for summary judgment on the ground that, even if the issue of probable cause to arrest had not been raised and rejected at the criminal trial, under New York common law Cameron's conviction barred his subsequent civil suit for arrest without probable cause. Reasoning that a claim under New York law for false arrest or false imprisonment would be barred by a conviction of the offense for which the arrest or imprisonment occurred, Decision at 6 (citing Broughton v. State, 37 N.Y.2d 451, 458, 373 N.Y.S.2d 87, 95, 335 N.E.2d 310, 315, cert. denied, 423 U.S. 929, 96 S.Ct. 277, 46 L.Ed.2d 257 (1975)), and that a Sec. 1983 claim alleging an arrest without probable cause is similar to a state law claim for false arrest, Decision at 6 (citing Raysor v. Port Authority, 768 F.2d 34 (2d Cir.1985), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 1227, 89 L.Ed.2d 337 (1986)), the court concluded that 35 [g]iven the similarities in the state and federal claims here, logic would dictate that plaintiff's state conviction would also bar a federal claim asserting the absence of probable cause to arrest.... 36 .... 37 ... Although the court's ruling that plaintiff's conviction bars the instant suit is not based upon collateral estoppel per se, see Pouncey v. Ryan, 396 F.Supp. 126, 128 n. 2 (D.Conn.1975),     the preclusion mandated for state court judgments by section 1738 is not expressly restricted to that achieved under the 'res judicata ' or 'collateral estoppel' labels;   . Brown v. Edwards, 721 F.2d 1442, 1449 n. 8 (5th Cir.1984) (emphasis in original). Thus, although a finding of probable cause to arrest was not necessary to sustain plaintiff's conviction, see United States v. Crews, 445 U.S. 463, 474, 100 S.Ct. 1244, 1251-52, 63 L.Ed.2d 537 (1980), under the law of New York, that conviction, sustained on appeal, necessarily includes a finding that there was probable cause to arrest and thereby bars a subsequent civil suit challenging the existence of probable cause for the arrest. 38 Decision at 7-8. 39 Accordingly, the court dismissed the complaint. This appeal followed.