Ortiz v. Stambach

657 F.Supp.3d 243

Josue ORTIZ, Plaintiff, v. Mark STAMBACH, Defendant.

1:16-CV-00321 EAW

United States District Court, W.D. New York

Signed February 17, 2023

Alan J. Pierce, Hancock Estabrook, LLP, Syracuse, NY, Wayne C. Felle, Law Office of Wayne C. Felle, P.C., Williamsville, NY, for Plaintiff.

Robert Emmet Quinn, Buffalo Public Schools, Buffalo, NY, Hugh M. Russ, III, Peter A. Sahasrabudhe, Hodgson Russ LLP, Buffalo, NY, for Defendant.

DECISION AND ORDER

ELIZABETH A. WOLFORD, Chief Judge

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Josue Ortiz ("Plaintiff") sued defendant Mark Stambach ("Defendant") for violations of his civil rights related to his arrest and conviction for the murders of Nelson and Miguel Camacho, and his subsequent exoneration. (Dkt. 1). A jury found in Plaintiff's favor after a five-day trial, and awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages. (Dkt. 158).

Currently pending before the Court are several post-trial motions: (1) a motion for attorneys' fees filed by Plaintiff (Dkt. 167); (2) a motion for attorneys' fees filed by Plaintiff's former counsel, Hancock Estabrook LLP ("Hancock") (represented here by Alan Pierce, Esq.) (Dkt. 169); and (3) motions for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(b), for a new trial pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(a), and for remittitur pursuant to Fed R. Civ. P. 59(e) filed by Defendant (Dkt. 177). For the reasons that follow, the Court denies Defendant's motions, grants in part and denies in part Plaintiff's motion for attorneys' fees, and grants in part and denies in part Hancock's motion for attorneys' fees.

BACKGROUND

Familiarity with the prior history of this case—including particularly the Court's Decision and Order entered on February 26, 2021 (Dkt. 82), and the evidence adduced at trial—is assumed for purposes of the instant Decision and Order. The Court has summarized the salient procedural background below.

Plaintiff commenced the instant action on April 26, 2015. (Dkt. 1). Following discovery and motion practice, the only claims that proceeded to trial were Plaintiff's claims against Defendant for malicious prosecution, fabrication of evidence, and violation of the right against self-incrimination. (See Dkt. 82 at 36; Dkt. 160). The jury found in Plaintiff's favor on each of these claims. (Dkt. 160).

Following entry of judgment, Plaintiff filed his motion for attorneys' fees on May 20, 2022. (Dkt. 167). This motion did not include a request for any fees by Hancock, which had been terminated by Plaintiff on the eve of trial. (See Dkt. 140). Hancock filed its separate request for attorneys' fees on May 23, 2022. (Dkt. 169). Defendant filed his motion for judgment as a matter of law, for a new trial, and for remittitur on June 7, 2022. (Dkt. 177).

On June 10, 2022, Defendant filed his opposition to both of the pending motions for attorneys' fees. (Dkt. 179; Dkt. 180). Hancock filed reply papers on June 21, 2022. (Dkt. 182).

Plaintiff filed his opposition to Defendant's post-trial motions on June 28, 2022. (Dkt. 187). Defendant filed his reply on July 8, 2022. (Dkt. 192). The Court heard oral argument on January 31, 2023, and reserved decision. (Dkt. 194).

DISCUSSION

I. Defendant's Post-Trial Motions

Because Plaintiff's entitlement to attorneys' fees turns on his status as a prevailing party, the Court considers first Defendant's challenges to the trial and the jury's verdict.

A. Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law

Pursuant to Rule 50, the Court may grant a motion for judgment as a matter of law in a jury trial if it finds "that a reasonable jury would not have a legally sufficient evidentiary basis to find for the party" opposing the request. Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(a). The same standard applies where, as here, a party renews its request for judgment as a matter of law after the trial is complete. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(b).

"In ruling on a motion for judgment as a matter of law, the court may not itself weigh credibility or otherwise consider the weight of the evidence; rather, it must defer to the credibility assessments that may have been made by the jury and the reasonable factual inferences that may have been drawn by the jury." Williams v. Cnty. of Westchester, 171 F.3d 98, 101 (2d Cir. 1999); see also Stevens v. Rite Aid Corp., 851 F.3d 224, 228 (2d Cir. 2017) ("Judgment as a matter of law may not properly be granted under Rule 50 unless the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the opposing party, is insufficient to permit a reasonable juror to find in his favor." (citation and alteration omitted)). Accordingly, the Court may not grant judgment as a matter of law unless "(1) there is such a complete absence of evidence supporting the verdict that the jury's findings could only have been the result of sheer surmise and conjecture, or (2) there is such an overwhelming amount of evidence in favor of the movant that reasonable and fair minded persons could not arrive at a verdict against it." Williams, 171 F.3d at 101 (alterations omitted and quoting Cruz v. Local Union No. 3 of the Int'l Bhd. of Elec. Workers, 34 F.3d 1148, 1154 (2d Cir. 1994)); see also Wierzbic v. Howard, 331 F.R.D. 32, 45 (W.D.N.Y. 2019) ("In ruling on a motion for judgment as a matter of law, the motion will be granted only if (1) there is a complete absence of probative evidence to support a verdict for the non-movant or (2) the evidence is so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of the movant that reasonable and fair minded men in the exercise of impartial judgment could not arrive at a verdict against him." (quotation and alteration omitted)), aff'd, 836 F. App'x 31 (2d Cir. 2020). This "standard places a particularly heavy burden on the movant where, as here, the jury has deliberated in the case and actually returned its verdict in favor of the non-movant." Morse v. Fusto, 804 F.3d 538, 546 (2d Cir. 2015) (quotations omitted).

Defendant contends that a reasonable jury could not have found for Plaintiff on any of the three causes of action that were presented at trial. The Court disagrees, for the reasons that follow.

1. Malicious Prosecution

The Court turns first to Plaintiff's claim for malicious prosecution. "To prevail on a claim of malicious prosecution, four elements must be shown: (1) the defendant initiated a prosecution against plaintiff, (2) without probable cause to believe the proceeding can succeed, (3) the proceeding was begun with malice and, (4) the matter terminated in plaintiff's favor." Ricciuti v. N.Y.C. Transit Auth., 124 F.3d 123, 130 (2d Cir. 1997). "The existence of probable cause is a complete defense to a claim of malicious prosecution . . . , and indictment by a grand jury creates a presumption of probable cause." Manganiello v. City of New York, 612 F.3d 149, 161-62 (2d Cir. 2010) (quotations and citation omitted). This presumption "may be rebutted only by evidence that the indictment was procured by fraud, perjury, the suppression of evidence or other police conduct undertaken in bad faith." Id. at 162 (quotation omitted).

Defendant argues that the evidence at trial was insufficient to permit a reasonable jury to find that the presumption of probable cause had been rebutted in this case.¹ In particular, Defendant argues that there was "no evidence, direct or circumstantial, of bad faith" on his part. (Dkt. 177-4 at 18). However, Defendant ignores key evidence presented at trial, and improperly construes the facts in a manner favorable to his position.

More particularly, Defendant ignores or downplays the following critical evidence presented to the jury: (1) it is undisputed that Plaintiff was not involved in the murders of the Camacho brothers; (2) Dr. Evelyn Coggins testified that Plaintiff was "in the throes of a psychotic episode" during the relevant time period (Dkt. 157 at 45-47); (3) Plaintiff testified that he spoke very limited English at the relevant time period (Dkt. 173 at 25-26); (4) Defendant testified, and record evidence corroborated, that he was alone with Plaintiff for approximately 40 minutes prior to Plaintiff giving his confession, during which time he spoke to Plaintiff about the crime without advising him of his Miranda rights (Dkt. 165 at 18-19, 39-42); (5) Officer Edwin Torres, who had participated in an interview of Plaintiff at Buffalo General Hospital the day prior to his interview with Defendant², testified that Plaintiff was determined at that time not to have any credible information about the murders (Dkt. 176 at 30-32); (6) Officer Torres testified that Defendant's notes from his conversation with Plaintiff during the time that Plaintiff and Defendant were alone contained "details that would only be known by somebody who committed the crimes" (id. at 81); and (7) Officer Torres testified that those same details from Defendant's notes and which would only have been known to the perpetrator were repeated by Plaintiff in his confession (id.).

Distilled to its essence, Defendant's argument is that this circumstantial evidence is insufficient because Plaintiff was unable to remember his interaction with Defendant and provide direct eyewitness testimony to contradict Defendant's account. However, Defendant has cited no authority holding that direct evidence is required to rebut a presumption of probable cause in a jury trial on a malicious prosecution claim. Defense counsel did point at oral argument to certain reported decisions in which such direct evidence was presented, but the fact that other plaintiffs in other, unrelated cases were able to present stronger evidence does not render the jury's verdict in this case unreasonable. To the contrary, it is well established that—even in the more demanding criminal context—"the jury's verdict may be based entirely on circumstantial evidence, and may be inferred from the evidence, so long as the inference is reasonable, for it is the task of the jury, not the court, to choose among competing inferences." United States v. Morgan, 385...