Hudson Valley Marine, Inc. v. Town of Cortlandt

79 A.D.3d 700, 912 N.Y.S.2d 623
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 7, 2010
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 79 A.D.3d 700 (Hudson Valley Marine, Inc. v. Town of Cortlandt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hudson Valley Marine, Inc. v. Town of Cortlandt, 79 A.D.3d 700, 912 N.Y.S.2d 623 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

[701]*701In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for malicious prosecution, the plaintiff appeals, as limited by its brief, from stated portions of an order of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Scheinkman, J.), entered September 22, 2009, which, inter alia, granted those branches of the defendants’ motion which were for summary judgment dismissing the causes of action to recover damages for malicious prosecution, abuse of process, negligent training and supervision, and violations of 42 USC §§ 1983 and 1985 (3).

Ordered that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.

The plaintiff is a corporation that owns a parcel of land on the Hudson River on which it operates a marina. The defendant Barbara Miller was employed by the defendant Town of Cortlandt as the Deputy Director of the Division of Code Enforcement. The defendant Robert Conlon was employed by the Town as a fire inspector. On April 19, 2000, a stop work order written by Miller was issued to the plaintiff for placing fill in the Hudson River without obtaining a permit. A few days later, the Town issued three appearance tickets written by Miller citing the plaintiff for violating the Town Code by illegally depositing fill into the Hudson River without a permit and by failing to obtain a special permit to engage in certain uses of the subject land as required under the Town Code (see Town of Cortlandt Code §§ 307-14, 307-67). A fourth appearance ticket written by Conlon dated June 16, 2000, was issued by the Town citing the plaintiff for violating the stop work order. The Town subsequently commenced an action against the plaintiff seeking a permanent injunction barring the plaintiff from, inter alia, [702]*702continuing to engage in construction work on or near the marina until the plaintiff obtained the requisite approvals and permits from the Town. The Town also moved for a preliminary injunction to prevent the plaintiff from conducting any further activity on its property pending the final outcome of the action, which was denied by the Supreme Court upon a finding that the Town failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits. Thereafter, the Town voluntarily discontinued the action for a permanent injunction without prejudice. The Town subsequently dropped the criminal charges against the plaintiff without prejudice.

Thereafter, the plaintiff commenced this action, alleging, inter alia, that the Town’s issuance of the stop work order, the commencement of the civil action seeking a permanent injunction, and the prosecution of criminal charges caused the plaintiff, among other things, a loss of income. The plaintiff alleged various causes of action to recover damages for, inter alia, malicious prosecution of a civil action, abuse of process, negligent training and supervision, and violations of 42 USC §§ 1983 and 1985 (3). The Supreme Court, among other things, granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint. We affirm the order insofar as appealed from.

“In order to prevail on [an abuse of process] claim, the plaintiff must establish that the defendants (1) used regularly-issued process, either civil or criminal, (2) intended to do harm without excuse or justification, and (3) used the process in a perverted manner to obtain a collateral objective” (Johnson v Kings County Dist. Attorney’s Off., 308 AD2d 278, 288-289 [2003]).

As the Supreme Court correctly determined, the defendants established their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law dismissing the causes of action to recover damages for abuse of process by demonstrating that they issued the stop work order and the appearance tickets, as well as commencing the civil action, to accomplish the lawful purpose of requiring the plaintiff to comply with the Town Code and not to obtain a collateral objective (see Berisic v Winckelman, 40 AD3d 561, 562 [2007]; Pomeranz v Bourla, 257 AD2d 516 [1999]; see generally Sipsas v Vaz, 50 AD3d 878, 879 [2008]). In opposition, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact. Furthermore, the plaintiff’s causes of action relying on the defendants’ alleged negligent conduct cannot support a claim for abuse of process since it is an intentional tort (see Johnson v Kings County Dist. Attorney’s Off., 308 AD2d at 289).

“The elements of the tort of malicious prosecution of a civil [703]*703action are (1) prosecution of a civil action against the plaintiff, (2) by or at the instance of the defendant, (3) without probable cause, (4) with malice, (5) which terminated in favor of the plaintiff, and (6) causing special injury” (Castro v East End Plastic, Reconstructive & Hand Surgery, P.C., 47 AD3d 608, 609 [2008]; see Furgang & Adwar, LLP v Fiber-Shield Indus., Inc., 55 AD3d 665, 666 [2008]).’’The favorable termination element must be established by evidence that ‘the court passed on the merits of the charge or claim . . . under such circumstances as to show . . . nonliability,’ or evidence that the action was abandoned under circumstances ‘which fairly imply the plaintiffs innocence’ ” (Castro v East End Plastic, Reconstructive & Hand Surgery, P.C., 47 AD3d at 609, quoting Pagliarulo v Pagliarulo, 30 AD2d 840, 840 [1968]).

Contrary to the plaintiffs contention, the denial of the Town’s motion for a preliminary injunction in the civil action does not demonstrate that the civil action was terminated in its favor, since that denial was not an adjudication on the merits (see Castro v East End Plastic, Reconstructive & Hand Surgery, P.C., 47 AD3d at 609; Icy Splash Food & Beverage, Inc. v Henckel, 14 AD3d 595, 596 [2005]; Peterson v Corbin, 275 AD2d 35, 40 [2000]). Additionally, that action was discontinued without prejudice by agreement entered into by the parties to this action. Under the circumstances, there was no termination of the action favorable to the plaintiff which would give rise to a cause of action to recover damages for malicious prosecution (see Furgang & Adwar, LLP v Fiber-Shield Indus., Inc., 55 AD3d at 666; Pagliarulo v Pagliarulo, 30 AD2d 840 [1968]).

42 USC § 1983 provides that “[e]very person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage . . . subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States ... to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured.” A municipality is not liable under 42 USC § 1983 for an injury inflicted solely by its employees or agents (see Monell v New York City Dept. of Social Servs., 436 US 658, 694 [1978]; Johnson v Kings County Dist. Attorney’s Off., 308 AD2d at 293). However, “[a] 42 USC § 1983 action may lie against a municipality if the plaintiff shows that the action that is alleged to be unconstitutional either implement[s] or execute[s] a policy statement, ordinance, regulation, or decision officially adopted and promulgated by that body’s officers or has occurred pursuant to a practice so permanent and well settled as to constitute a custom or usage with the force of law” (Maio v Kralik, 70 AD3d 1, 10-11 [2009] [internal citations and quota[704]*704tion marks omitted]; see Bassett v City of Rye, 69 AD3d 667, 668 [2010]; Johnson v Kings County Dist. Attorney’s Off., 308 AD2d at 293).

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Bluebook (online)
79 A.D.3d 700, 912 N.Y.S.2d 623, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hudson-valley-marine-inc-v-town-of-cortlandt-nyappdiv-2010.