Linden Democratic Comm. v. City of Linden

251 N.J. 415

277 A.3d 1047

LINDEN DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE, Plaintiff,andPaul Coates, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.CITY OF LINDEN and City of Linden Municipal Council, Defendants-Respondents.

A-30 September Term 2021

086255

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Argued April 25, 2022

Decided July 6, 2022

Louis N. Rainone argued the cause for appellant (Rainone Coughlin Minchello, attorneys; Louis N. Rainone, David L. Minchello, Matthew R. Tavares, and Brian P. Trelease, Woodbridge, on the briefs).

Victoria A. Lucido argued the cause for respondents (Aloia Law Firm, attorneys; Victoria A. Lucido and Andrea M. Beckford, of counsel and on the brief, and Brian J. Aloia, on the brief).

JUSTICE ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Municipal Vacancy Law (Vacancy Law), N.J.S.A. 40A:16-1 to -23, sets forth the procedures for filling vacancies on a municipal governing body -- procedures ultimately designed to ensure the right of citizens to representation in local government. The question in this appeal concerns the requisite procedure for filling the vacated seat previously held by the nominee of a political party. Is the governing body mandated to select one of the three candidates submitted by the municipal committee of the political party to which the prior officeholder belonged, or does the governing body have full discretion to keep the seat vacant until the next general election?

In this case, the representative of the 8th Ward on the City of Linden Municipal Council (City Council) -- a member of the Democratic Party -- resigned from her position ten months before the next general election. Plaintiff Paul Coates, Jr., claims that the Linden Democratic City Committee (Democratic Committee) had the authority to fill that seat, while the City Council claims that it had the authority to keep that seat vacant until the next election. Each invokes the Vacancy Law as the source of its power. The ultimate resolution of that dispute is a matter of statutory interpretation.

After the 8th Ward councilmember resigned, the Democratic Committee nominated three individuals from whom the City Council could choose a successor. The City Council, however, refused to fill the vacancy with any of the submitted nominees and voted to leave the seat open for ten months until the next general election.

In response, the Democratic Committee selected Paul Coates, Jr. -- one of its three nominees -- to fill the vacancy, but the City Council refused to seat him. The Democratic Committee and Coates then brought an action in the Superior Court, Chancery Division, to compel the City Council to accept Coates as the 8th Ward's representative. The Chancery Division -- relying on N.J.S.A. 40A:16-11 (Section 11) of the Vacancy Law -- granted relief, ordering that Coates be seated as a member of the City Council. The Appellate Division -- relying on N.J.S.A. 40A:16-5 (Section 5) -- reversed the Chancery Division, concluding that the City Council had the ultimate authority whether to fill the vacant seat. Linden Democratic Comm. v. City of Linden, 469 N.J. Super. 149, 168, 262 A.3d 1216 (App. Div. 2021).

We now hold that the Appellate Division's interpretation of the Vacancy Law cannot be squared with the plain language of the statutory scheme or its legislative history.

In amending Section 11 and N.J.S.A. 40A:16-13 (Section 13) of the Vacancy Law in 1990, the Legislature removed the governing body's discretion to keep vacant a seat previously occupied by a nominee of a political party. Instead, the Legislature empowered the municipal committee of the political party whose nominee previously occupied the vacant seat to submit three names to the governing body. N.J.S.A. 40A:16-11. Section 11 mandates that the governing body choose one of the municipal committee's three nominees. Ibid.

Under the 1990 amendments to the Vacancy Law, members of the governing body may not deny a member of the opposite political party or a dissident faction of a political party a seat on that legislative council. See L. 1990, c. 57. Simply stated, the 1990 amendments constrain the majority party from arbitrarily depriving the minority party or a party's dissident faction from representation on the governing body.

The Linden City Council's decision not to fill the empty seat deprived the citizens of the 8th Ward of Linden of representation on their legislative body. That outcome is wholly inconsistent not only with the Legislature's intent in enacting the 1990 amendments, see S. Cnty. & Mun. Gov't Comm. Statement to A. 2592 (May 17, 1990), but also with the general guarantee of our laws to ensure representation to all citizens within a municipality, cf. Tumpson v. Farina, 218 N.J. 450, 468, 95 A.3d 210 (2014).

For reasons more fully explained, we reverse the judgment of the Appellate Division.

I.

The City of Linden operates under a form of government in which the mayor exercises executive power and the City Council exercises legislative power. See N.J.S.A. 40A:61-1 to -8.¹ The City Council consists of a council president and ten councilmembers, each of whom represents one of the City's ten wards. Linden, N.J., Mun. Code ch. 2, art. II, § 2-5.1. Each councilmember is elected by the citizens of a ward to serve a three-year term, and the mayor and council president are each elected to serve a four-year term after a city-wide contest. Ibid. General elections are conducted in November for those offices. N.J.S.A. 40:69A-150 ; see also N.J.S.A. 40:45-7.1.

In November 2017, Michele Yamakaitis, the nominee of the Democratic Party, was re-elected to a three-year term as the councilmember representing the 8th Ward.² One year later, Yamakaitis was elected council president. She resigned as the councilmember for the 8th Ward, effective midnight, December 31, 2018, with two years remaining in her term, to assume her position as council president. That vacancy left the citizens of the 8th Ward without a representative on the City Council.

That same day, December 31, the Linden city clerk forwarded a letter to Nicholas P. Scutari, Chairman of the Linden Democratic Committee, alerting him to Yamakaitis's resignation and to the process for filling the 8th Ward vacancy.³ On January 11, 2019, Chairman Scutari advised the city clerk that the Democratic Committee had met and selected three candidates, including Paul Coates, Jr., for the City Council's consideration to fill the vacant 8th Ward seat.

At a contentious public meeting on January 15, 2019, the City Council rejected all three candidates submitted by the Linden Democratic Committee and decided to leave the 8th Ward seat vacant. During the meeting, Daniel Yamakaitis, President of the 8th Ward Democratic Club, complained that the Democratic Committee had "disrespected" the Club by rebuffing its recommended candidates and accused Chairman Scutari of acting arbitrarily. Mr. Yamakaitis called for the seat to remain vacant. The mayor criticized Chairman Scutari for not consulting with Council President Yamakaitis about her replacement, stating that "no one is going to dictate to this governing body what ... they should do." The mayor encouraged the Council "not to fill the vacancy." A public member expressed that the three candidates submitted by the Democratic Committee were "very qualified" and that the Council should not engage in "political retribution" at the expense of the residents of the 8th Ward.

The Council adopted Resolution 2019-73, leaving the 8th Ward seat vacant until the next general election. The comments at the hearing made clear the deep rift within the Linden Democratic Party.

On January 28, 2019, the mayor issued a letter to all councilmembers and department heads stating that any candidate selected and sworn in by the Democratic Committee as the 8th Ward's representative would not be recognized as a member of the City Council. The letter related that the city attorney "has issued a legal opinion that confirms [the] Council's right to maintain a vacancy until the November 2019 General Election" pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40A:16-5(b).

Despite the action taken by the City Council, Chairman Scutari advised the city clerk that, on February 6, 2019, the Democratic Committee had voted and sworn in Coates to serve as the councilmember representing the 8th Ward. Chairman Scutari cited to N.J.S.A. 40A:16-11 as the authority for the Democratic Committee to fill the vacancy.

The city attorney wrote to Chairman Scutari, stating that the City Council had "exercised [its] right under [ N.J.S.A. 40A:16-5(b) ] to maintain a vacancy in the 8th Ward" and therefore the City would not recognize Coates as the councilmember for the 8th Ward.

II.

A.

On February 7, 2019, Paul Coates and the Linden Democratic Committee filed a three-count Verified Complaint and Order to Show Cause in the Superior Court, Chancery Division, alleging that defendants, the City of Linden and the Linden Municipal Council, violated the Municipal Vacancy Law by refusing to seat Coates as the 8th Ward's councilmember. They sought an order voiding Resolution 2019-73 and declaring Coates as the 8th Ward's rightful representative on the City Council. They also sought an order declaring that defendants violated Coates's substantive rights under the New Jersey Civil Rights Act (CRA), N.J.S.A. 10:6-2(c). Coates and the Democratic Committee submitted a request for attorneys’ fees and costs in the event they succeeded on their CRA claim.

The Honorable Katherine Dupuis, P.J.Ch., denied the request for preliminary injunctive relief but later granted the Order to Show Cause, finding that defendants violated the Municipal Vacancy Law. Judge Dupuis voided Resolution 2019-73 and directed that Coates be seated as the 8th Ward councilmember.

The court also granted summary judgment in favor of Coates and the Democratic Committee on their CRA claim, finding that defendants denied Coates his substantive right -- a right conferred by the Vacancy Law -- to be seated as a member of the City Council. Judge Dupuis focused on...