Williams v. City of New York

2017 NY Slip Op 6477, 153 A.D.3d 1301, 62 N.Y.S.3d 401
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedSeptember 13, 2017
Docket2015-05831
StatusPublished
Cited by264 cases

This text of 2017 NY Slip Op 6477 (Williams v. City of New York) 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
Williams v. City of New York, 2017 NY Slip Op 6477, 153 A.D.3d 1301, 62 N.Y.S.3d 401 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for false arrest and malicious prosecution, the plaintiff appeals, as limited by his brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Flug, J.), entered May 7, 2015, as granted those branches of the defendants’ motion which were for summary judgment dismissing the state common-law causes of action alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution, and the cause of action alleging civil rights violations pursuant to 42 USC § 1983.

Ordered that the order is modified, on the law, by deleting the provision thereof granting those branches of the defendants’ motion which were for summary judgment dismissing the state common-law cause of action alleging malicious prosecution and the cause of action alleging civil rights violations pursuant to 42 USC § 1983, and substituting therefor a provision denying those branches of the motion; as so modified, the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, without costs or disbursements.

On April 23, 2008, the plaintiff was arrested by the New York City Police Department and detained at Rikers Island after a single eyewitness identified him as a shooter involved in a gunfight in South Jamaica, Queens. The eyewitness identified the plaintiff in both a statement to a detective and in testimony before a grand jury. The plaintiff was indicted on charges of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree (two counts) and related crimes.

On December 11, 2009, after almost 20 months in jail, the plaintiff was released on his own recognizance. On June 30, 2010, the People moved to dismiss the charges against him because they were unable to locate the eyewitness after the eyewitness testified at the grand jury. On July 28, 2010, the charges were dismissed.

In September 2011, the plaintiff commenced this action against the City of New York and Detective Michael Failla of the New York City Police Department, asserting, inter alia, state common-law causes of action alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution, as well as a cause of action alleging civil rights violations pursuant to 42 USC § 1983.

The defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint. Among other things, the defendants argued that the state common-law causes of action alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution, and the cause of action alleging civil rights violations pursuant to 42 USC § 1983 must be dismissed because the eyewitness’s identification statement to police and his grand jury testimony provided the defendants with probable cause to arrest, detain, and prosecute the plaintiff.

In opposition, the plaintiff submitted a sworn affidavit from the eyewitness, dated September 9, 2011. The eyewitness averred that his statement and grand jury testimony had been fabricated and that this fabrication resulted from coercion by the police and an unnamed assistant district attorney (hereinafter ADA).

The Supreme Court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint in its entirety, concluding that the defendants established, prima facie, their entitlement to judgment as a matter of law and that the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether they lacked probable cause for his arrest, detention, and prosecution. As pertinent to this appeal, the court concluded that the eyewitness’s affidavit improperly raised a new theory of liability and, in any event, was insufficient because it presented feigned issues of fact. The court’s determination left unresolved certain alternative contentions raised by the defendants in support of their summary judgment motion.

The plaintiff appeals from so much of the order as granted those branches of the defendants’ motion which were for summary judgment dismissing the state common-law causes of action alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution, and the cause of action alleging civil rights violations pursuant to 42 USC § 1983. We modify.

“The existence of probable cause constitutes a complete defense to causes of action alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution” (Paulos v City of New York, 122 AD3d 815, 817 [2014]; see Shaw v City of New York, 139 AD3d 698, 699 [2016]; Batten v City of New York, 133 AD3d 803, 805 [2015]), and this includes “causes of action asserted pursuant to 42 USC § 1983 to recover damages for the deprivation of Fourth Amendment rights under color of state law that are the federal-law equivalents of state common-law false arrest and malicious prosecution causes of action” (Paulos v City of New York, 122 AD3d at 817, citing, inter alia, Betts v Shearman, 751 F3d 78, 82 [2d Cir 2014]). While an indictment creates a presumption of probable cause, such presumption may be overcome by evidence establishing either “ ‘that the conduct of the police deviated so egregiously from acceptable police activity as to demonstrate an intentional or reckless disregard for proper procedures’ ” (Blake v City of New York, 148 AD3d 1101, 1107 [2017], quoting De Lourdes Torres v Jones, 120 AD3d 572, 574 [2014], mod 26 NY3d 742 [2016]), or “that the indictment was produced by fraud, perjury, the suppression of evidence or other police conduct undertaken in bad faith” (Colon v City of New York, 60 NY2d 78, 83 [1983]; see Washington-Herrera v Town of Greenburgh, 101 AD3d 986, 989 [2012]; O’Donnell v County of Nassau, 7 AD3d 590, 591 [2004]).

Here, contrary to the Supreme Court’s determination, the eyewitness’s affidavit did not raise a new theory of liability (see generally Mezger v Wyndham Homes, Inc., 81 AD3d 795, 796 [2011]). The complaint alleged that the defendants arrested, detained, and prosecuted the plaintiff without probable cause and that they knew that the criminal complaint contained falsehoods. The eyewitness’s affidavit, rather than raising a new theory of liability, supported these allegations by asserting that police and an ADA coerced the eyewitness to make a false identification of the plaintiff. Therefore, the court erred in concluding that the affidavit impermissibly asserted a new theory of liability for the first time in opposition to the defendants’ summary judgment motion, (cf. Hubbard v City of New York, 84 AD3d 1313, 1314 [2011]; Araujo v Brooklyn Martial Arts Academy, 304 AD2d 779, 780 [2003]; Winters v St. Vincent’s Med. Ctr. of Richmond, 273 AD2d 465 [2000]).

Further, contrary to the Supreme Court’s determination, the eyewitness’s affidavit did not present feigned issues of fact. The eyewitness did not give any prior testimony in this action (cf. Paulos v City of New York, 122 AD3d at 817; Capasso v Capasso, 84 AD3d 997, 998 [2011]). Moreover, his affidavit did not contradict the plaintiff’s prior testimony, including the plaintiff’s deposition testimony that the eyewitness was “scared” when the police talked to him about the shooting. Accordingly, the court erred in determining that the affidavit presented feigned issues of fact (cf. Paulos v City of New York, 122 AD3d at 817; Keizer v SCO Family of Servs., 120 AD3d 475, 477 [2014]).

Considering all the evidence, including the eyewitness’s affidavit, in the light most favorable to the plaintiff (see Santelises v Town of Huntington, 124 AD3d 863, 865 [2015]), we conclude that he raised a triable issue of fact as to whether the defendants had probable cause to arrest, detain, and prosecute him.

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Bluebook (online)
2017 NY Slip Op 6477, 153 A.D.3d 1301, 62 N.Y.S.3d 401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-city-of-new-york-nyappdiv-2017.