Opinion ID: 411733
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Substantiality of the Federal Claim

Text: 18 We also agree with the court below that the State's federal claim was sufficient to allow the court to exercise jurisdiction over the pendent state claim. People of the State of New York v. 11 Cornwell Co., No. 80 C 2139 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. 23, 1981) (Memorandum Decision and Order). The Supreme Court has stated that a federal court lacks jurisdiction to resolve pendent state claims only when the federal question is so insubstantial, implausible, foreclosed by prior decisions of this Court or otherwise completely devoid of merit as not to involve a federal controversy within the jurisdiction of the District Court, whatever may be the ultimate resolution of the federal issues on the merits. Hagans v. Lavine, 415 U.S. 528, 543, 94 S.Ct. 1372, 1382, 39 L.Ed.2d 577 (1974) (quoting Oneida Indian Nation v. County of Oneida, 414 U.S. 661, 666-67, 94 S.Ct. 772, 776-77, 39 L.Ed.2d 73 (1974)). This is not such a case; the State's claim under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985(3) is not, as 11 Cornwell argues, one whose unsoundness so clearly results from ... previous decisions ... as to foreclose the subject and leave no room for the inference that the question sought to be raised can be the subject of controversy. Hagans v. Lavine, 415 U.S. at 537, 94 S.Ct. at 1379 (quoting Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin, 289 U.S. 103, 105, 53 S.Ct. 549, 550, 77 L.Ed. 1062 (1933)). See Lynch v. Philbrook, 550 F.2d 793, 795 (2d Cir.1977). See also Friedman v. Berger, 547 F.2d 724, 727 & n. 6 (2d Cir.1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 984, 97 S.Ct. 1681, 52 L.Ed.2d 378 (1977); Van Gemert v. Boeing Co., 520 F.2d 1373, 1380-82 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 947, 96 S.Ct. 364, 46 L.Ed.2d 282 (1975). 19 Section 1985(3) provides in part as follows: 20 If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire ... for the purpose of preventing or hindering the constituted authorities of any State or Territory from giving or securing to all persons within such State or Territory the equal protection of the laws ... the party so injured or deprived may have an action for the recovery of damages occasioned by such injury or deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators. 21 11 Cornwell contends that the State's claim under this provision is insubstantial on several grounds. 3 First, it is argued that the State did not aver a conspiracy between two or more persons. The State did, however, allege that the members of the partnership had conspired through and with the partnership (Complaint paragraphs 16, 17), and that Mrs. Samuels had also been a party to the conspiracy (Complaint p 18). Certain courts have stated that there is no conspiracy when two or more agents of a corporation take action on behalf of the corporation, see, e.g., Girard v. 94th Street and Fifth Avenue Corp., 530 F.2d 66 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 947, 96 S.Ct. 2173, 48 L.Ed.2d 798 (1976); Dombrowski v. Dowling, 459 F.2d 190, 196 (7th Cir.1972); but see Note, Intracorporate Conspiracies Under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985(c), 92 Harv.L.Rev. 470 (1978). But this reasoning does not apply at all to a partnership. A corporation is a distinct and fictional legal entity; a partnership is not distinct from its members at all. We decline, therefore, to find that the dictum to the contrary in Clark v. Universal Builders, Inc., 409 F.Supp. 1274, 1279 (N.D.Ill.1976), makes the allegation of conspiracy here frivolous. Moreover, it would be anomalous in any case to permit an entity which was established for the very purpose of engaging in a discriminatory act to be insulated, and to insulate its members, from liability as conspirators, by virtue of its establishment. See Dombrowski v. Dowling, 459 F.2d at 196 (recognizing a similar exception to its rule with respect to corporations). Additionally, the State's pleading that Mrs. Samuels participated in the conspiracy with the partnership, even with the State's later determination not to pursue its claims against Mrs. Samuels, alone would establish the court's jurisdiction. 22 The partnership's second contention is that the State failed to state a federal claim because it suffered no injury to a protected property interest, since it had not signed a contract to buy the house and had not fully complied with the procedures detailed in section 41.34 of the Mental Hygiene Law pertaining to notice to and objection by the municipality involved. To hold that the State has no claim because it had not yet signed a contract or taken the final steps to comply with the Mental Hygiene Law, however, would be absurd. 11 Cornwell's actions injured the State by preventing it from engaging in the very conduct whose absence the defendant would use to show there was no injury. Nor does the possibility of finding alternative housing prove that there was no injury; other houses are always theoretically available, and there was no evidence that the State would have canceled its plans to use the house at 11 Cornwell Street for the designated purpose had it found another suitable house. 23 The partnership's third contention is that the State's federal claim is completely and totally insubstantial, lacking any colorability whatsoever, because the actions complained of did not prevent or hinder the State from providing the mentally retarded with equal protection of the laws within the meaning of section 1985(3). The partnership's arguments, however, succeed only in demonstrating that serious legal issues would need to be resolved before the State could recover on its federal claim; they fail to demonstrate that the federal claim is not colorable. 24 We disagree with the argument that 11 Cornwell did not engage in a type of private conduct that might be actionable under section 1985(3). New York has an obligation under its own laws, N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law Secs. 41.34, 41.36, as well as the federal Constitution, see, e.g., O'Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563, 95 S.Ct. 2486, 45 L.Ed.2d 396 (1975), to release from institutional confinement those mentally retarded citizens who are not dangerous to themselves or others. New York chose to fulfill that obligation by establishing the equivalent of halfway houses for those retarded citizens not requiring institutionalization. Even though the Fourteenth Amendment may not have compelled the State to select this method of deinstitutionalization, the alleged conspiracy to hinder the State from carrying out its chosen means of securing substantive rights is, in our view, a colorable subject for an action under the preventing or hindering clause. See generally Life Insurance Co. of North America v. Reichardt, 591 F.2d 499, 505 (9th Cir.1979) (Violations of state conferred rights and privileges are sufficient to constitute a deprivation of 'equal protection of the laws' ). 4 25 Even under the approach used by the Fifth Circuit in McLellan v. Mississippi Power & Light Co., 545 F.2d 919 (5th Cir.1977) (en banc), 11 Cornwell's conduct here would be a colorable subject for a section 1985(3) action. The Fifth Circuit held that private action constitutes a deprivation of equal protection of the laws under section 1985(3) only when the action violates some federal or state law other than section 1985(3). Id. at 925. That condition is met here by the partnership's violation of the New York Human Rights Law. Nor would the partnership's conduct fall outside the scope of section 1985(3) under the less restrictive approach suggested in Note, Private Conspiracies to Violate Civil Rights, 90 Harv.L.Rev. 1721, 1731 (1977), namely, that the limitation on the type of private conduct the provision reaches be a narrow one, designed to insure that certain private conduct ... which is bound up with associational and privacy interests is not subject to governmental regulation under section 1985(3). 11 Cornwell's actions do not implicate any of the First Amendment interests at stake, e.g., in Weiss v. Willow Tree Civic Association, 467 F.Supp. 803, 816-17 (S.D.N.Y.1979) (Weinfeld, J.) (defendant spoke out against plaintiffs' zoning application and opposed it in court), or the privacy interests associated with membership in private clubs, in which, compared to housing, the State has a lesser interest. 26 We also find colorable the State's claim that 11 Cornwell's discrimination was class-based. Since it is equal protection that conspirators may not hinder the State from providing, there must be some racial, or perhaps otherwise class-based, invidiously discriminatory animus behind the conspirators' actions. Griffin v. Breckenridge, 403 U.S. 88, 102, 91 S.Ct. 1790, 1798, 29 L.Ed.2d 338 (1971). The State contends, without opposition on the issue from 11 Cornwell, that the mentally retarded are a class protected by section 1985(3). Cases since Griffin v. Breckenridge have been generous in applying section 1985(3) to nonracial classifications, even though some of the classifications would not receive strict scrutiny under the equal protection clause. The Eighth Circuit, for example, has held that supporters of an insurgent candidate for a tribal council presidency were a sufficient class for section 1985(3)/Griffin purposes. See Means v. Wilson, 522 F.2d 833, 839-40 (8th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 958, 96 S.Ct. 1436, 47 L.Ed.2d 364 (1976). The Sixth Circuit has found that supporters of a political candidate, see Cameron v. Brock, 473 F.2d 608, 610 (6th Cir.1973), were a sufficient section 1985(3) class. The Ninth Circuit, in Life Insurance Co. of North America v. Reichardt, 591 F.2d at 505, found that women purchasers of disability insurance were an appropriate class for section 1985(3) protection. And several courts have held that ethnic and religious groups are sufficient classes under section 1985(3). See, e.g., Marlowe v. Fisher Body, 489 F.2d 1057 (6th Cir.1973); Action v. Gannon, 450 F.2d 1227 (8th Cir.1971) (en banc); Weiss v. Willow Tree Civic Association, 467 F.Supp. at 812 & n. 15. The only case squarely holding that a class such as the mentally retarded is not protected under section 1985(3) is Cain v. Archdiocese of Kansas City, 508 F.Supp. 1021, 1027 (D.Kan.1981) (handicapped persons not a class), although the First Circuit has also expressed some doubt, see Downs v. Sawtelle, 574 F.2d 1, 16 (1st Cir.) (deaf persons), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 910, 99 S.Ct. 278, 58 L.Ed.2d 256 (1978). These cases, in which the analysis is scant, are, with respect, unconvincing; they surely have not foreclosed the issue. 5 27 In short, we think that both the nature of 11 Cornwell's conduct and the class basis of the discrimination complained of are sufficient to make out a colorable claim that 11 Cornwell prevented or hindered the State from providing the mentally retarded with equal protection of the laws within the meaning of section 1985(3). 28 Finally, 11 Cornwell contends that the State's federal claim is deficient because there was no state action in the conspiracy. In Griffin v. Breckenridge the Court held that section 1985(3) reached a private conspiracy against blacks. Limiting Griffin to actions premised on Congress's power under section two of the Thirteenth Amendment and on the constitutional right to travel in interstate commerce, District Judge Weinfeld in Weiss v. Willow Tree Civic Association held that section 1985(3) actions whose substantive foundation is in the Fourteenth Amendment do require state action. That holding, however persuasive, does not foreclose the issue. More important, Judge Weinfeld was not dealing in Weiss with the preventing or hindering clause of section 1985(3). Since there would almost never be a situation in which the State would be involved in hindering its own efforts to secure equal protection to its citizens, we think the State's position that state action is not required under the preventing or hindering clause is more than a colorable one. 29 We recognize that the State's position raises the question whether Congress has the power under section five of the Fourteenth Amendment to extend Fourteenth Amendment guarantees to purely private conduct. We need not resolve this question, however, for our inquiry is merely to decide whether the overall claim is a colorable one. The Supreme Court has left this question open, see Griffin v. Breckenridge, 403 U.S. at 107, 91 S.Ct. at 1801, although it has held that section 1985(3)'s criminal analogue, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 241, could constitutionally reach private conspiracies, see United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745, 86 S.Ct. 1170, 16 L.Ed.2d 239 (1966). Our own circuit has not resolved the issue. The Eighth Circuit has squarely held that Congress was given the power in Sec. 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to enforce the rights guaranteed by the Amendment against private conspiracies. Action v. Gannon, 450 F.2d at 1235. Thus we have no doubt that a claim that section 1985(3) can constitutionally reach private nonracial conspiracies is colorable. 30 Accordingly, the court below properly denied defendant's motion to dismiss and considered the pendent claim on the merits.