Court Opinion

ID: 9458712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:00:02.596509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:52.289487
License: Public Domain

IRVING R. KAUFMAN, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I concur in Parts I and II of Judge Hays’ opinion, affirming summary judgment against Ender on its claims under 15 U.S.C. § 1120. Although I agree with the result reached in Part III, which affirms summary judgment against Ender on its constitutional claims, I am unable to concur in the third ground advanced to support that result. Judge Hays holds, as I read his opinion, that Ender’s constitutional claims of denial of due process and equal •protection of the law were presented to the New York courts and Ender’s only recourse from an adverse decision was an appeal to the Supreme Court. I do not believe, however, that raising the constitutional issues in an application to the New York Court of Appeals for leave to appeal can be considered a sufficiently full litigation of these claims to bar Ender from raising them de novo in a federal court.1 Compare England v. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, 375 U.S. 411, 84 S.Ct. 461, 11 L.Ed.2d 440 (1964). Instead, I would reach the merits of these claims and would hold that Ender was not deprived of any constitutional rights.2 The death of the trial judge before acting on End-er’s post trial motion did not ipso facto entitle Ender to a new trial. His claim that under New York law he was entitled to a new trial or to have the trial court’s decision set aside on the ground of newly discovered evidence was presented to the Appellate Division and the Court of Appeals and, we must as*333sume, considered by both courts. Accordingly, I fail to see how the procedures employed by the New York courts in these circumstances deprived Ender of due process or equal protection of the law.

. Judge Hays notes that “The record does not clearly disclose whether Ender actually presented the constitutional claims to the Appellate Division . . . .”

. I realize there is a deceptive similarity between Judge Hays’ position and my own. The distinction becomes immediately apparent if we assume arguendo that Ender had been deprived of constitutional rights by the New York courts. As I read Judge Hays’ opinion, in that instance he would have affirmed summary judgment because the constitutional claims were not properly before us while I would have reached the merits and reversed the summary judgment, assuming, of course, Ender’s action against General Foods was an otherwise proper vehicle for presenting these constitutional claims.