Reyes v. Cnty. of Suffolk

995 F.Supp.2d 215

Jaime REYES, Plaintiff,

v.The COUNTY OF SUFFOLK, Defendant.

No. 13–CV–441 (ADS)(GRB).

United States District Court, E.D. New York.

Feb. 6, 2014.

Andrew J. Campanelli, Esq., of Counsel, Campanelli & Associates, PC, Merrick, NY, for the Plaintiff.

Christopher M. Gatto, Assistant County Attorney, Suffolk County Attorney's Office, Hauppauge, NY, for the Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

SPATT, District Judge.

On January 25, 2013, the Plaintiff Jaime Reyes (the “Plaintiff”) commenced this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988 against the Defendant County of Suffolk (the “County” or the “Defendant”). The Defendant is a municipal corporation organized and operating under the law of the State of New York. The Plaintiff alleges that the Defendant violated his rights under the Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution in connection with its retention of his motor vehicle.

In this regard, the Plaintiff asserts the following three causes of action: (1) pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a claim that the Defendant denied him of procedural due process in violation of his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution; (2) pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a claim that the Defendant deprived him of substantive due process in violation of his rights under the FourteenthAmendment of the United States Constitution; and (3) a claim for a declaratory judgment finding that the Defendant's practices with respect to retaining vehicles is unconstitutional and for permanent injunctive relief enjoining the Defendant from continuing the allegedly unconstitutional practices.

Presently before the Court is a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Fed. R. Civ.P.”) 12(b)(6) motion by the Defendants to dismiss the Plaintiff's Complaint in its entirety. The Court pauses here to note that the Plaintiff's opposition to the Defendant's motion uses footnotes in its memorandum of law, which is contrary to this Court's Individual Rule II.A. Notwithstanding this infraction, the Court will consider the Plaintiff's papers in rendering its decision. However, the Court advises the Plaintiff's counsel that any future filings that contain footnotes will not be considered by this Court.

For the reasons that follow, the Court grants in part and denies in part the Defendant's motion.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Rule 12(b) Standard for Considering Factual Allegations and Evidence Outside the Complaint

Before reciting the underlying factual allegations of this case, the Court observes, as an initial matter, that evidence outside of the Complaint may not be considered by the Court when deciding a motion to dismiss brought pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). See, e.g., DiFolco v. MSNBC Cable L.L.C., 622 F.3d 104, 113 (2d Cir.2010) (“In ruling on a motion pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), the duty of a court is merely to assess the legal feasibility of the complaint, not to assay the weight of the evidence which might be offered in support thereof.”) (citation and internal question marks omitted); Hahn v. Rocky Mt. Express Corp., No. 11 Civ. 8512(LTS)(GWG), 2012 WL 2930220, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. June 16, 2012) (“When deciding a motion to dismiss ... [e]vidence outside [the complaint] ... cannot [ ] be considered on review of a 12(b)(6) motion.”) (citation and internal quotation marks and alterations omitted).

In this regard, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(d), where matters outside the complaint are presented in connection with a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, “a district court must either ‘exclude the additional material and decide the motion on the complaint alone’ or ‘convert the motion to one for summary judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56 and afford all parties the opportunity to present supporting material.’ ” Friedl v. City of New York, 210 F.3d 79, 83 (2d Cir.2000) (quoting Fonte v. Bd. of Managers of Continental Towers Condo., 848 F.2d 24, 25 (2d Cir.1988)).

In this case, the Defendant includes with its Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss several exhibits that are outside of the Complaint. These exhibits are as follows: (1) a transcript of the September 20, 2012 post-seizure retention hearing, the constitutionality of which the Plaintiff challenges; (2) the “Simplified Information” or complaint against the Plaintiff's uncle, Mario Ramirez (“Ramirez”), as well as supporting depositions, charging Ramirez with driving the Plaintiff's vehicle without a license in violation of New York Vehicle and Traffic Law (the “VTL”) § 509–1 and driving an unregistered vehicle in violation of VTL § 401–1A; (3) the driving record of Ramirez from the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (the “DMV”); (4) the DMV title and registration record for the Plaintiff's vehicle at issue in this case; (5) the “Notice of Seizure and Hearing” informing the Plaintiff that his vehicle had been seized and impounded by the police pursuant to the unlicensed operator seizure law, Suffolk County Code Law (“SCCL”) § 818–13, and advising him that a hearing concerning the retention of his vehicle was scheduled for September 6, 2012; (6) the September 20, 2012 determination of the purportedly “neutral magistrate” ordering that the Plaintiff's vehicle remain in the Defendant's custody; (7) a copy of SCCL § 818–13; and (8) the summons and complaint, dated February 13, 2013, for a civil forfeiture action entitled Paul J. Margiotta, Acting County Attorney for the County of Suffolk vs. a 2005 Dodge, Vin No. 1D8HB58D25F50890, Jamie Reyes that was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Suffolk.

Generally, when a defendant attempts to counter a plaintiff's Complaint with its own factual allegations and exhibits, such allegations and exhibits are inappropriate for consideration by the Court at the motion to dismiss stage. See, e.g., Dual Groupe, LLC v. Gans–Mex LLC, 932 F.Supp.2d 569, 572 (S.D.N.Y.2013) (“Defendants dispute many of the complaint's factual allegations, which the court cannot adjudicate at the motion to dismiss stage.”). Nevertheless, in its analysis, the Court may refer “to documents attached to the complaint as an exhibit or incorporated in it by reference, to matters of which judicial notice may be taken, or to documents either in [the] [P]laintiff['s] possession or of which [the] [P]laintiff[ ] had knowledge and relied on in bringing suit.” Brass v. Am. Film Tech., Inc., 987 F.2d 142, 150 (2d Cir.1993); see also Karmilowicz v. Hartford Fin. Servs. Group, 494 Fed.Appx. 153, 155–57 (2d Cir.2012) (“[A] plaintiff cannot evade a properly argued motion to dismiss simply because [the] plaintiff has chosen not to attach [a document on which he relies in bringing suit] to the complaint or to incorporate it by reference.”) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted); Cortec Industries, Inc. v. Sum Holding L.P., 949 F.2d 42, 47 (2d Cir.1991) (“[W]hen a plaintiff chooses not to attach to the complaint or incorporate by reference a prospectus upon which it solely relies and which is integral to the complaint, the defendant may produce the prospectus when attacking the complaint for its failure to state a claim, because plaintiff should not so easily be allowed to escape the consequences of its own failure.”).

In this regard, the Court finds that it may consider all of the Defendant's exhibits “without converting the motion[ ] to dismiss into [a] motion[ ] for summary judgment[.]” Dellate v. Great Neck Union Free Sch. Dist., CV 09–2567 AKT, 2010 WL 3924863, at *5 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2010), aff'd sub nom. Dellatte v. Great Neck Union Free Sch. Dist., 448 Fed.Appx. 164 (2d Cir.2012). This is “because ‘the record was available to and clearly known of’ by all parties to this action.” Dellate, 2010 WL 3924863, at *5 (quoting Bennett v. Tucker, No. 95 Civ. 8029(SAS), 1996 WL 288202, at *1 n. 3 (S.D.N.Y. May 30, 1996)); see also Tiraco v. New York State Bd. of Elections, 963 F.Supp.2d 184, 12–CV–2273 KAM MDG, 2013 WL 4046257 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 7, 2013) (“[A] court may also consider ‘public documents of which the plaintiff has notice.’ ”) (quoting Brodeur v. City of New York, No. 04–CV–1859 (JG), 2005 WL 1139908, at *3 (E.D.N.Y. May 13, 2005)); Johnson v. County of Nassau, 411 F.Supp.2d 171, 178 (E.D.N.Y.2006) (“[T]he Court ‘may take judicial notice of the records of state administrative procedures as these are public records, without converting a motion to dismiss to one for summary judgment.’ ”) (quoting Evans v. New York Botanical Garden, No. 02 Civ.3591 RWS, 2002 WL 31002814, at *4 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 4, 2002)).

Thus, the Court draws the following facts from the Plaintiff's Complaint and the Defendant's exhibits and construes them in a light most favorable to the Plaintiff. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949–50, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).

B. Underlying Factual Allegations

The Plaintiff resides in Hampton Bays, located within the County. (Compl., ¶ 6.) At all times relevant, he owned a Dodge Durango automobile bearing Vehicle Identification Number 1D8HB58D25F508980 (the “Plaintiff's vehicle”). (Compl., ¶ 8.) While the Plaintiff asserts that his vehicle is a 1995 model, the DMV record indicates it is actually a 2005 model. (Compl., ¶ 8; Def. Mot., Exh. D.)

On August 23, 2012, the Defendant seized the Plaintiff's vehicle. (Compl., ¶ 9.) According to the Complaint, the Plaintiff's vehicle was seized pursuant to a DWI seizure program within which the Defendant seized and retained possession of motor vehicles incident to DWI arrests and subjected these vehicles to civil forfeitures as “the instrumentalities of a crime.” (Comp., ¶ 9.) However, the Defendant's exhibits reveal that the Defendant did not seize the Plaintiff's vehicle pursuant to a DWI seizure program, but rather, seized the Plaintiff's vehicle in connection with the arrest of the Plaintiff's uncle, Ramirez, who, at the time of the seizure, was allegedly operating the Plaintiff's vehicle without a license and without the consent of the Plaintiff. (Comp...