Huang v. Johnson

760 N.E.2d 341, 96 N.Y.2d 599, 734 N.Y.S.2d 553, 2001 N.Y. LEXIS 3412
New York Court of Appeals·Decided November 15, 2001·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Levine, J.

Plaintiff Michelle Huang commenced this Federal civil rights action alleging that her minor son, Raymond Yu, was falsely imprisoned.

In 1996, Yu was adjudicated a juvenile delinquent for attempted assault in the second degree and placed for 18 months with the State Division for Youth, predecessor to the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). Yu’s scheduled release date was September 13, 1997.

Yu was placed in the Ella McQueen Residential Center, a limited secure facility. In January 1997, he was transferred to OCFS’s Brooklyn Evening Reporting Center placement pro *601 gram, a transitional program for youths returning to their communities from residential centers. The program is less restrictive than a residential center in that it provides evening and weekend supervision but permits participants to live at home.

One of the conditions of Yu’s participation in the less restrictive program was that he report daily, which he failed to do on March 22 and 23, 1997. Consequently, his release date was set back two days to account for his absence. Yu was again absent without leave for 96 days from March 28 until July 2, 1997, when OCFS discovered that he was in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction at Bikers Island, a City-operated jail facility, on unrelated charges of murder in the second degree and gang assault in the first degree, committed while he was AWOL. OCFS then added the 96 days to Yu’s placement, making his release date December 20, 1997.

The Department of Correction held Yu at Bikers Island until September 23, 1997, at which time it returned him to OCFS. At the time of Yu’s return to OCFS custody, the criminal charge was still pending. OCFS placed Yu back at a residential center. Further, OCFS set back his release date by an additional 83 days to reflect the July 2 — September 23 period during which he was detained at Bikers Island. Consequently, Yu’s new release date was March 13, 1998.

Family Court granted temporary extensions of Yu’s placement and fixed his release date as April 23, 1998. Following his release, Yu pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the second degree.

In July 1998, plaintiff commenced this action pursuant to 42 USC §§ 1983 and 1985 alleging that defendants — OCFS officials — both in their official and individual capacities (1) violated Yu’s due process rights when they returned him to the more restrictive residential center instead of the evening reporting center without a hearing, (2) violated Yu’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by not crediting the 83 days served at Bikers Island against his OCFS placement, thereby unlawfully confining him from December 20, 1997 until April 23, 1998, and (3) conspired to deprive Yu of his civil rights. Plaintiff sought declaratory relief and $50 million in damages, plus attorneys’ fees.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment in defendants’ favor, dismissing all claims (1999 WL 760633, 1999 US Dist Lexis *602 15267). The court concluded that the claim for money damages was barred by the Eleventh Amendment, that Yu did not have a right to a hearing upon his reinstatement to Ella McQueen, and that Huang failed to state a claim for violation of 42 USC § 1985. The court also denied the false imprisonment claim and held that Yu’s term of confinement was correctly calculated under Executive Law § 510-b (7) (b).

On appeal, the Second Circuit rejected the District Court’s conclusion that Huang’s claims were barred by the Eleventh Amendment. (251 F3d 65.) It agreed with the District Court’s conclusion that a hearing was not required prior to Yu’s return to Ella McQueen. The court concluded that Huang’s section 1983 claim for false imprisonment was not barred by Heck v Humphrey (512 US 477 [holding that section 1983 claims are barred where a judgment favorable to the plaintiff would imply the invalidity of a conviction or sentence which was not otherwise previously invalidated]). The court determined that an open question exists regarding whether section 510-b (7) (b) requires that a credit against a youth’s OCFS placement be given for pretrial detention served on an unrelated charge when that charge has not culminated in conviction prior to the youth’s discharge. The court certified the following question to us:

“[Wjhether appellees properly refused to credit Yu, under New York Executive Law Subsection 510-b (7) (b), for the eighty-three days served at [Hikers] on an unrelated charge that did not culminate in a conviction until after Yu’s release from OCFS custody.”

We accepted certification (96 NY2d 841) and now answer the question in the affirmative.

Executive Law § 510-b (7) (b) states in relevant part:

“When a child who is placed with [OCFS] * * * is absent from a division facility or an authorized agency without the consent of the director of such facility or authorized agency, the absence shall interrupt the calculation of the time of such placement * * *. Any time spent by such child in custody from the date of absence to the date the placement * * * resumes shall be credited against the time of such placement or commitment provided:
“(a) That such custody was due to an arrest or surrender based upon the absence; or
*603 “(b) That such custody arose from an arrest or surrender on another charge which did not culminate in a conviction, adjudication or adjustment” (emphasis added).

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Huang v. Johnson, 760 N.E.2d 341, 96 N.Y.2d 599, 734 N.Y.S.2d 553, 2001 N.Y. LEXIS 3412 (N.Y. 2001).

760 N.E.2d 341 (Huang v. Johnson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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