Court Opinion

ID: 9840119
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-15 14:00:32.402081+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:06:57.266428
License: Public Domain

22-1482-cv
    Alicea v. Yang

                          UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                              FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

                                SUMMARY ORDER
RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY
ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF
APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY
ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL
APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY
CITING TO A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY
COUNSEL.

               At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the
    Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40
    Foley Square, in the City of New York, on the 15th day of September, two
    thousand twenty-three.

    PRESENT:
               DEBRA ANN LIVINGSTON,
                     Chief Judge,
               JOSÉ A. CABRANES,
               MARIA ARAÚJO KAHN,
                     Circuit Judges.
    _______________________________________

    Maria Alicea,

                           Plaintiff-Appellant,

                     v.                                          22-1482

    David Haung Yang, Medical Doctor,
    Individual and Official Capacity, Shideh
    Imanian Parsa, Medical Doctor, Individual
and Official Capacity, Robben Levine,
Registered Nurse, Individual and Official
Capacity, Jenna Masiel, Registered Nurse,
Individual and Official Capacity, Daniel
Marchetti, Suing Individual and Official
capacity, Bridgeport Hospital, It’s Official
capacity, Andrew Villabona, Suing
Individual and Official capacity, Greg
Marrinan,     Individual   and      Official
capacity, Kristen Glasgow, Individual and
Official capacity, Madeleline K. Carroll,
Individual and Official capacity,

                   Defendants-Appellees.

_______________________________________

FOR PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT:                                  Maria Alicea, pro se,
                                                          Bridgeport, CT.

FOR DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES:                                 Sandy Roussas,
                                                          Stockman O’Connor
                                                          Connors PLLC,
                                                          Bridgeport, CT.

      Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District

of Connecticut (Kari A. Dooley, Judge; Robert M. Spector, Magistrate Judge).

      UPON      DUE     CONSIDERATION,          IT   IS   HEREBY       ORDERED,

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ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the judgment of the district court is

AFFIRMED.

      Appellant Maria Alicea, proceeding pro se, appeals the district court’s

dismissal of her 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil rights complaint.         Alicea sued the

defendants—Bridgeport Hospital and several of its employees—for violating her

constitutional rights while involuntarily hospitalizing and medicating her. The

district court dismissed her amended complaint because she failed to plead that

the defendants were acting under color of state law and denied further leave to

amend as futile. See Alicea v. Yang, No. 21-CV-1638 (KAD), 2022 WL 2527994, at

*3–4 (D. Conn. July 7, 2022).      We assume the parties’ familiarity with the

underlying facts, the procedural history, and the issues on appeal.

      We review a dismissal for failure to state a claim de novo. See Vengalattore

v. Cornell Univ., 36 F.4th 87, 101 (2d Cir. 2022). In conducting this review, we

assume all well-pleaded allegations in the operative complaint are true and draw

every reasonable inference in the plaintiff’s favor. N.Y. Pet Welfare Ass’n, Inc. v.

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City of New York, 850 F.3d 79, 86 (2d Cir. 2017). 1 While pro se filings “must be

construed liberally and interpreted to raise the strongest arguments that they

suggest,” a pro se complaint must still state a “plausible claim for relief” to survive

a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss. Meadows v. United Servs., Inc., 963 F.3d 240, 243

(2d Cir. 2020) (per curiam) (citation omitted).

      We agree with the district court that Alicea’s complaint, which was

premised on constitutional violations by private parties, failed to demonstrate that

the defendants were acting under color of state law.           See 42 U.S.C. § 1983;

Meadows, 963 F.3d at 243. As we have explained, state action “requires both the

exercise of some right or privilege created by the State and the involvement of a

person who may fairly be said to be a state actor.” Meadows, 963 F.3d at 243

(internal quotation marks, alterations, and emphasis omitted).         As a result, a

§ 1983 claim against a private actor will usually fail because private actors do not

      1   Like the district court, we reviewed the factual allegations in Alicea’s
motion papers and attachments to better understand the context of the allegations
in the complaint. See Walker v. Schult, 717 F.3d 119, 122 n.1 (2d Cir. 2013) (“A
district court deciding a motion to dismiss may consider factual allegations made
by a pro se party in his papers opposing the motion.”); Alicea, 2022 WL 2527994, at
*1 n.1 (citing Sira v. Morton, 380 F.3d 57, 67 (2d Cir. 2004)).
                                          4
act under the color of state law, no matter how “discriminatory or wrongful” their

conduct might be. Am. Mfrs. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Sullivan, 526 U.S. 40, 50 (1999).

      Alicea did not allege that the defendants were state actors and does not

press any meaningful argument to that end on appeal. See also Yale New Haven

Health, Hospital Overview, https://www.bridgeporthospital.org/about/hospital-

overview (“Bridgeport Hospital is a private, not-for-profit acute care hospital[.]”)

(last visited August 25, 2023). Instead, she focuses on the severity and illegality

of the defendants’ misconduct. But even egregious acts cannot form the basis of

a § 1983 claim unless the defendant is also acting under color of state law.

      Although there are several ways in which a private defendant might act

under color of state law, Alicea does not suggest they apply here. See City of New

York v. Mickalis Pawn Shop, LLC, 645 F.3d 114, 137 (2d Cir. 2011) (explaining that

arguments not in the briefs are generally forfeited and will not be considered). In

any event, the facts pleaded would not satisfy the relevant three tests, which look

to whether the complained-of conduct was compelled by the state, the product of

a “close nexus” with the state, or the kind of conduct that is traditionally the

exclusive prerogative of the state. McGugan v. Aldana-Barrier, 752 F.3d 224, 229
                                         5
(2d Cir. 2014).

      In McGugan, we determined that a private hospital was not engaged in state

action for purposes of § 1983 when it forcibly medicated a plaintiff—an action

permitted, but not compelled, by state law. See id. at 229–31. We have found

state action, by contrast, when private hospitals acted in ways that were required

by statute or regulation. See, e.g., Barrows v. Becerra, 24 F.4th 116, 135–39 (2d Cir.

2022); Kia P. v. McIntyre, 235 F.3d 749, 756–57 (2d Cir. 2000) (observing that hospital

acting “as part of the reporting and enforcement machinery for . . . a government

agency charged with detection and prevention of child abuse and neglect” was a

state actor, but that those actions had no effect). While the defendants concede

that they made use of a Connecticut statute providing for involuntary

hospitalization, the statute did not compel them to do so—resembling more the

lack of state action in McGugan than the presence of state action in Barrows. We

also squarely held in McGugan that a private hospital’s involuntary hospitalization

of a patient is not “traditionally [] within the exclusive prerogative of the state” for

purposes of a public-function analysis. 752 F.3d at 231.

      Finally, while Alicea seems to argue, for the first time on appeal, that there
                                           6
was a conspiracy between the defendants and local police to hold her against her

will—an argument we also need not consider, see Greene v. United States, 13 F.3d

577, 586 (2d Cir. 1994) (“[I]t is a well-established general rule that an appellate

court will not consider an issue raised for the first time on appeal.”)—a “merely

conclusory allegation that a private entity acted in concert with a state actor does

not suffice to state a § 1983 claim against the private entity.” Ciambriello v. Cnty.

of Nassau, 292 F.3d 307, 324 (2d Cir. 2002) (citing Spear v. Town of West Hartford, 954

F.2d 63, 68 (2d Cir. 1992)). Alicea’s only relevant allegation is that the police

informed the defendants of her condition, not that they suggested that she be

involuntarily hospitalized. Accordingly, Alicea cannot satisfy the state action

requirement based on such a claim.

      Accordingly, the district court correctly dismissed her complaint. Doing so

with prejudice was also proper; Alicea had already amended her complaint once

after being put on notice of the state-action defect by the magistrate judge, and the

district court did not abuse its discretion in deciding that further amendment

would be futile. See Cuoco v. Moritsugu, 222 F.3d 99, 112 (2d Cir. 2000).

      Our decision is narrow. We have not decided that the defendants acted
                                          7
properly, and we do not reach whether Alicea could have pleaded claims under

other causes of action. We conclude only that under the circumstances here, these

defendants—a private hospital and its employees—are not susceptible to suit

under § 1983.

      We have considered all of Alicea’s remaining arguments and find them to

be without merit. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court. 2

                                       FOR THE COURT:
                                       Catherine O=Hagan Wolfe, Clerk of Court

      2  The Clerk is directed to seal Alicea’s brief, 2d Cir. 22-1482, doc. 45. See
Fed. R. App. P. 25(a)(5) (incorporating Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2, which requires redaction
of full dates of birth).
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