Opinion ID: 784897
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Defendants' Motions to Dismiss the Complaint

Text: 18 By motion dated January 18, 2002, named-defendants Catterson, Dunne, McPartland, and Kelleher moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that plaintiffs' federal claims were barred by the Eleventh Amendment and absolute prosecutorial immunity, and that the court should not exercise supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiffs' state law claims. Defendants further argued for dismissal because plaintiffs failed to state cognizable claims for (a) violation of substantive due process, (b) violation of equal protection, and (c) intentional infliction of emotional distress. Defendants also invoked common law immunity in urging dismissal of plaintiffs' state law malicious prosecution claims. 19 By motion dated February 27, 2002, Suffolk County similarly moved to dismiss on the grounds that the complaint failed to plead the municipal custom or policy necessary to state a claim under § 1983 and that its conspiracy claim was barred by the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine. 20 In a detailed memorandum decision dated September 12, 2002, the district court granted defendants' motions in part and denied them in part. It dismissed the complaint against Suffolk County in its entirety but without prejudice to plaintiffs' filing an amended complaint within thirty days. As for the individual defendants, the district court, apparently without opposition from plaintiffs, granted dismissal of all claims brought against defendants in their official capacities based on the Eleventh Amendment. Insofar as defendants were sued in their individual capacities, the district court ruled that plaintiffs had failed adequately to plead defendant Catterson's personal involvement in the alleged constitutional deprivations and, accordingly, dismissed the complaint against him without prejudice to plaintiffs' filing an amended pleading within thirty days. 2 With respect to defendants Dunne, McPartland, and Kelleher, the district court dismissed plaintiffs' third federal claim for violation of substantive due process in light of Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 274-75, 114 S.Ct. 807, 127 L.Ed.2d 114 (1994) (holding that a § 1983 claim for prosecution without probable cause arises under the Fourth Amendment not substantive due process). Nevertheless, it denied defendants' motion to dismiss the first two federal claims, i.e., the substantive and conspiratorial claims for malicious and selective prosecution, ruling that defendants' alleged political motivations in pursuing plaintiffs' prosecutions took their actions outside the scope of their official roles. Bernard v. County of Suffolk, No. 01 CV 5403, at 11. As the court explained: 21 The plaintiffs allege that the defendants acted outside the scope of their official duties in conducting a politically motivated witch hunt, initiating and continuing to prosecute them in the absence of probable cause. Accepting the allegations that the defendants misused their authority and abused the judicial process to advance their own political agenda as true, the Court concludes that defendants' conduct clearly falls outside the scope of their official duties. Consequently, the Court rejects the defendants' argument that the claims should be dismissed on the basis of absolute immunity. Id. at 12. 3 22 The district court also declined to dismiss plaintiffs' state law claims.