Rivera v. Inc. Vill. of Farmingdale

ISIDORO RIVERA, et al., Plaintiffs, v. THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF FARMINGDALE, Defendant.

06-CV-2613 (PKC)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Dated: December 31, 2013

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

ON DEFENDANT'S MOTION

IN LIMINE

PAMELA K. CHEN, United States District Judge:

This Court presumes the parties' familiarity with the facts in this case, particularly as they pertain to the claims against Defendant the Incorporated Village of Farmingdale (the "Village").¹ In essence, Plaintiffs claim that, in violation of the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601 et seq., the Village carried out a redevelopment plan for an area populated predominantly by Latinos, intending to discriminate against or, at the very least, having a discriminatory impact on its Latino residents. Plaintiffs' specific allegation is that, pursuant to this plan, the Village facilitated Fairfield Acquisition, LLC's ("Fairfield") privately-funded renovation of—thereby forcing Latino residents, including Plaintiffs, to vacate—a rental apartment building in that area (the "Building" or "150 Secatogue Avenue"). See generally Rivera, 784 F. Supp. 2d 133.

The parties have litigated this case for more than seven years, and are finally ready to go to trial. In anticipation of a projected six-week trial, scheduled to begin on January 13, 2014, the Village has filed an omnibus motion to exclude evidence (Dkt. No. 194).² For the reasons set forth below, the Village's motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.

I. Discussion

A. Standard of Review

A motion in limine lies in this Court's "inherent authority to manage the course of its trials." Highland Capital Mgmt., L.P. v. Schneider, 551 F. Supp. 2d 173, 176 (S.D.N.Y. 2008) (Leisure, J.). "The purpose of an in limine motion is to aid the trial process by enabling the Court to rule in advance of trial on the relevance of certain forecasted evidence, as to issues that are definitely set for trial, without lengthy argument at, or interruption of, the trial." Palmieri v. Defaria, 88 F.3d 136, 141 (2d Cir. 1996) (quotations omitted).

The Federal Rules of Evidence provide that "[r]elevant evidence is admissible unless any of the following provides otherwise: the United States Constitution; a federal statute; these rules; or other rules prescribed by the Supreme Court." Fed. R. Evid. 402. Even relevant evidence should be excluded, however, "if its probative value is substantially outweighed by a danger of one or more of the following: unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly presenting cumulative evidence." Id. at 403.

B. Evidence Regarding the Secatogue Avenue Redevelopment Plan ("SARP"), Traffic Enforcement Policies, Day Laborers, and Financing of the Building

The Village categorically challenges the admission of evidence regarding (i) the SARP (Dkt. No. 196 ("Vill. Br."), at 14-17); (ii) traffic enforcement policies (id. at 18-20); (iii) day laborers (id. at 8-9); and (iv) financing for the purchase and renovation of the Building by Fairfield (id. at 21). As the Village contends, any evidence in the above categories raises dual admissibility concerns, i.e., that such evidence is (i) irrelevant and/or (ii) confusing, misleading, and prejudicial.

The Village's categorical challenges are little more than a veiled attempt to relitigate findings that Judge Hurley made in denying the Village's summary judgment motion. The Village will not be permitted to invalidate Judge Hurley's findings indirectly through a motion in limine. See NIC Holding Corp. v. Lukoil Pan Ams., No. 05-CV-9372, 2009 WL 996408, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 14, 2009) (holding that the court "will not indulge [the moving party's] efforts to revive its unsuccessful summary judgment arguments" in a motion in limine) (collecting cases); U.S. Underwriters Ins. Co. v. Falcon Constr. Corp., No. 02-CV-4182, 2006 WL 3146422, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 30, 2006) ("[The defendant's] motion attempts to relitigate an issue already decided by the Court. This is an improper use of an in limine motion. If [the defendant] wanted to contest the legal conclusions in the Court's [decision denying its summary judgment motion], it should have filed a timely motion for reconsideration.").³

In denying summary judgment, Judge Hurley found that, with respect to whether Plaintiffs had standing to bring claims based on the Village's alleged redevelopment plan:

[G]enuine issues of fact do exist as to the role the Village played in Fairfield's renovation of the Building, whether via a formal redevelopment plan such as the SARP or a more informal course of action taken to achieve the Village's desired redevelopment result.

Rivera, 784 F. Supp. 2d at 139. Even though the Village insisted that Plaintiffs lacked such standing, in that it never enacted the SARP through its "legislative body," there was, at the very least, an issue of whether it reached the same result intended by the SARP through some "informal" process. Id. at 139-41. The SARP would be significant in proving Plaintiffs' standing, whether it was enacted formally or informally. The Village cannot use its motion in limine now to undo this finding, by again arguing that Plaintiffs "should be precluded from referring to SARP" which was "nothing more than a concept or idea" (Vill. Br., at 14).⁴

Judge Hurley also found an issue of fact for trial with respect to the discriminatory intent that the Village purportedly possessed when implementing its alleged redevelopment plan. Rivera, 784 F. Supp. 2d at 147, 153. This finding was premised on, among other things, the fact that pre-existing issues with the presence of day laborers in the Village, and the Village's increasing efforts to employ traffic enforcement policies to resolve these issues, supported a context in which such intent likely informed the adoption of the alleged redevelopment plan. Id.at 147-49; see also Vill. of Arlington Heights v. Metro. Hous. Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 267 (1977) (Powell, J.) (holding that, in inferring the intent regarding a racially-discriminatory housing decision, the "historical background of the decision" is relevant). Although these activities centered on "day laborers congregating near the Building," and Plaintiffs "are not day laborers themselves," Judge Hurley ruled that, because the Village's day laborers were predominantly Hispanic and treated as synonymous with its Hispanic population, a "reasonable juror could find" that these activities reflected an "anti-Hispanic element." Rivera, 784 F. Supp. 2d at 149-50. The present motion by the Village simply rehashes its earlier argument that the Village's activities pertained solely to day laborers, and not its Hispanic residents or the availability of housing in the Village (Vill. Br., at 8-9, 18-20). This argument ignores Judge Hurley's prior finding that, even though these activities otherwise involved day laborers, they could still support an inference of discriminatory intent, viewed in the overall context.

Finally, Judge Hurley's finding of a triable issue with respect to intent was reinforced further by the fact that the Village allegedly failed to require Fairfield to bring the Building into conformity with the building code, even though the renovation exceeded 50% of the Building's value. As Judge Hurley explained, this failure constituted one of the Village's disputed "[d]epartures from [n]ormal [p]rocedure" from which its discriminatory intent is possibly inferred. Rivera, 784 F. Supp. 2d at 150-52; see also Vill. of Arlington Heights, 429 U.S. at 267 ("Departures from the normal procedural sequence also might afford evidence that improper purposes are playing a role."). The Village voices its dissatisfaction with this finding by trying to block the very evidence, i.e., evidence of the "extent of mortgages taken out by Fairfield" to purchase and renovate the Building (Vill. Br., at 21), which would permit Plaintiffs to prove that the Village failed to follow "[n]ormal [p]rocedure." As Plaintiffs argue, such evidence will showthat Fairfield procured (i) a mortgage greater than the Building's purchase price, purportedly to cover "extensive renovation costs," and (ii) a specific loan for renovating the Building; and that, given the amount of financing for the renovation, Fairfield's conformity with the building code should have been required. (Dkt. No. 211 ("Pls. Opp."), at 20-21.)

Accordingly, this Court denies the Village's motion to categorically exclude the evidence identified above, since it directly conflicts with Judge Hurley's prior findings that such evidence is relevant to resolving disputed issues of material fact in Plaintiffs' case against the Village.

C. Evidence Regarding the Bartone Project

The Village contends that another category of evidence regarding the redevelopment of a separate property at 120 Secatogue Avenue, also called the "Bartone Project,"⁵ similarly raises dual admissibility concerns. (Vill. Br., at 30-31; see Vill. Reply, at 10.) Allegedly, the Bartone Project is privately-funded, but has been approved by the Village, and proposes to replace a non-residential warehouse with a "mixed-use development (commercial space on the ground level and residences above)." (Vill. Br., at 30.)

The Village's dispute over the admissibility of the Bartone Project evidence is no different than its dispute over the admissibility of evidence about the SARP's existence. This Court already considered, and rejected, the contention that the existence of the SARP is irrelevant, since the Village did not formally enact it. See supra discussion at Section I.B. There is no reason now to exclude other evidence relevant to a finding that the SARP was enacted.

Plaintiffs argue that the Bartone Project evidence will show that, in fact, the SARP was enacted, be it formally or informally. (Pls. Opp., at 32-34.) The project, unlike the renovation ofthe Building, (i) does not propose to deplete affordable housing options,...