EDGARDO RAMOS, District Judge.
Plaintiff Davidson Heights LLC ("Plaintiff" or "Davidson Heights"), the owner of a building located at 1285 Shakespeare Avenue, Bronx, New York, brings this suit pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the New York City Housing Authority ("NYCHA") and John Rhea, Chairman of NYCHA
8. For the reasons set forth below, Defendants' motion is GRANTED.
The following facts are based on the allegations in the Complaint, which the Court accepts as true for purposes of the instant motion. See Koch v. Christie's Int'l PLC, 699 F.3d 141, 145 (2d Cir. 2012).
Section 8 is a federal housing subsidy program for low income tenants of privatelyowned buildings that is administered by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD"). Compl. ¶ 10. Defendant NYCHA is a local Public Housing Authority charged with the administration of a program governed by Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937. Id. ¶¶ 7, 10. In this capacity, NYCHA oversees the administration of 92,000 housing vouchers in the City of New York. Id. ¶ 7. According to the Complaint, one such voucher was issued to Maria Silverio ("Ms. Silverio"), Plaintiff's former tenant. Id.
Under the Section 8 program, NYCHA enters into Housing Assistance Payment ("HAP") contracts with participating landlords, pursuant to which NYCHA provides payments directly to landlords to subsidize the cost of housing for low-income tenants. Id. ¶ 11. In order for an apartment to qualify as suitable under the Section 8 program, it must meet certain Housing Quality Standards ("HQS"). Id. ¶ 15. Though the tenant is required to fix any damage he or she causes, the landlord is otherwise responsible for maintaining the habitability of a Section 8 apartment. Id. ¶ 17.
As a Public Housing Authority, NYCHA must follow certain guidelines implemented by HUD. Id. ¶ 9. In particular, NYCHA is required to conduct initial and annual inspections of Section 8 apartments, as well as special or "complaint" inspections. Id. ¶ 18. Public Housing Authorities are required to terminate program assistance to property owners who fail to correct HQS deficiencies within specified time periods. Id. ¶ 22. If an HQS violation is issued, the landlord has 24 hours to correct life-threatening conditions, and 30 days to correct other conditions. Id. ¶ 23. NYCHA must then verify that HQS violations have been corrected through either a re-inspection or the submission of a Certification of Completed Repairs signed by the landlord and tenant. Id. ¶ 24. HAP contracts are automatically terminated 180 days after the last subsidy payment to the landlord. Id. ¶ 27.
According to the Complaint, NYCHA failed to make housing subsidy payments to Davidson Heights for the apartment formerly occupied by Ms. Silverio (the "Apartment"), which is located at 1285 Shakespeare Avenue, Bronx, New York. Id. ¶ 41. Ms. Silverio was a recipient of monthly Section 8 rental subsidies from NYCHA in the amount of $1,031.86. Id. ¶¶ 42, 43. Total rent for the Apartment was $1,396.86. Id. ¶ 43.
On December 1, 2011, NYCHA performed an inspection of the Apartment without prior notice to Davidson Heights.
On May 8, 2012, NYCHA re-inspected the Apartment and issued a new HQS violation. Id. ¶ 52. After it corrected this violation, Davidson Heights and Ms. Silverio executed another certification, which Plaintiff faxed to NYCHA on May 25, 2012. Id. ¶ 54. Again, NYCHA did not reinstate Section 8 payments. Id. ¶ 55. Plaintiff alleges that NYCHA has not re-inspected the Apartment since May 2012. Id. ¶ 56.
In August 2012, without notice to Davidson Heights,
In September 2012, Davidson Heights called NYCHA to inquire about the status of the Section 8 subsidy payments. Id. ¶ 60. A NYCHA representative told Plaintiff that Ms. Silverio's move was pending; however, the representative did not know when the past-due payments would be made. Id.
In October 2012, Davidson Heights commenced an eviction proceeding against Ms. Silverio in Bronx County Housing Court. Id. ¶ 62. On February 27, 2013, Ms. Silverio and a NYCHA representative appeared in court in connection with this proceeding. Id. ¶ 63. On that date, Plaintiff and Ms. Silverio entered into a Stipulation of Settlement. Id.; see Compl., Ex. J.
Also in February 2013, counsel for Ms. Silverio confirmed that her move from the Apartment was pending. Compl. ¶ 67. According to the Complaint, this was the first time Davidson Heights received confirmation that NYCHA had issued a transfer voucher to Ms. Silverio. Id. ¶ 68.
In February, May, and July 2013, Plaintiff again contacted NYCHA concerning the status of the past-due payments. Id. ¶¶ 70-72. On each occasion, a NYCHA representative confirmed that a transfer voucher had been issued to Ms. Silverio, and that her move was pending, but the representative did not know when the Section 8 payments would be made. Id.
Ms. Silverio surrendered the Apartment on August 5, 2013. Id. ¶ 76. Plaintiff alleges that NYCHA owes it $19,605.34, which represents the monthly subsidy payments for the period February 2012 through August 2013. Id. ¶ 78. According to the Complaint, NYCHA did not provide Davidson Heights with written notice that (i) the Section 8 payments had been suspended, (ii) a transfer voucher was issued to Ms. Silverio, or (iii) NYCHA terminated the HAP contract for the Apartment. Id. ¶ 61.
Plaintiff commenced this action on February 13, 2014. Doc. 2. The Complaint alleges three due process violations, respectively relating to NYCHA's failure to (i) comply with its policy for the correction of HQS violations; (ii) comply with its policy for the reinstatement of Section 8 subsidy payments following the correction of HQS violations; and (iii) provide Plaintiff with notice of, inter alia, the abatement of the subsidy payments in connection with Ms. Silverio's apartment. Plaintiff also brings a claim for unjust enrichment under New York state law.
Pending before the Court is Defendants' motion to dismiss the Complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Defendants contend that the Complaint fails to state a claim because Plaintiff has not alleged that it was party to a HAP contract with NYCHA for the Apartment, and that, even if Plaintiff were a party to such a contract, the contract would not confer a right entitled to protection under the Due Process Clause. Defendants further argue that even if Plaintiff did enjoy such a right, an Article 78 proceeding provided Plaintiff with adequate post-deprivation process.
When ruling on a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), the Court must accept all factual allegations in the complaint as true and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff's favor. Koch, 699 F.3d at 145; see also, e.g., Ruotolo v. City of New York, 514 F.3d 184, 188 (2d Cir. 2008). However, the Court is not required to credit "mere conclusory statements" or "threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action." Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (citing Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007)); see also id. at 681 (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 551). "To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter . . . to `state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.'" Id. at 678 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570). A claim is facially plausible "when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Id. (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556). More specifically, the plaintiff must allege sufficient facts to show "more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully." Id. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8 "marks a notable and generous departure from the hyper-technical, code-pleading regime of a prior era, but it does not unlock the doors of discovery for a plaintiff armed with nothing more than conclusions." Id. at 678-79. If the plaintiff has not "nudged [his] claims across the line from conceivable to plausible, [the] complaint must be dismissed." Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570.
To state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a defendant must have been acting under the color of state law when he deprived the plaintiff of a constitutional or federal statutory right. West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 48 (1986). Section 1983 does not create any rights, but merely provides "a procedure for redress for the deprivation of rights [already] established." Sykes v. James, 13 F.3d 515, 519 (2d Cir. 1993) (citation omitted). The Second Circuit has held that it is "well settled in this Circuit that personal involvement of defendants in alleged constitutional deprivations is a prerequisite to an award of damages under section 1983." Farrell v. Burke, 449 F.3d 470, 484 (2d Cir. 2006) (quoting Wright v. Smith, 21 F.3d 496, 501 (2d Cir. 1994)) (internal quotation marks omitted).
"The two threshold questions in any § 1983 claim for denial of procedural due process are whether the plaintiff possessed a liberty or property interest protected by [federal or state law] and, if so, what process was due before the plaintiff could be deprived of that interest." Green v. Bauvi, 46 F.3d 189, 194 (2d Cir. 1995) (citations omitted). To possess a federally protected property interest, a person must have a legitimate claim of entitlement to it. Bd. of Regents of State Colls. v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577 (1972). Such a claim does not arise from the Constitution, but rather from an independent source such as state or local law. Id.; see also Donato v. Plainview-Old Bethpage Cent. Sch. Dist., 96 F.3d 623, 629 (2d Cir. 1996). "An abstract need, desire or unilateral expectation is not enough." Abramson v. Pataki, 278 F.3d 93, 99 (2d Cir. 2002) (citing Roth, 408 U.S. at 577).
Davidson Heights argues in opposition to the instant motion that it had a right entitled to protection under the Due Process Clause based on its automatic assumption of the HAP contract for the Apartment upon Plaintiff's ownership of the 1285 Shakespeare Avenue building. Pl. Opp. Mem. L. 3. However, Section 14 of Part B of the HAP contract Mr. Otufale executed for the Apartment specifically states that the owner may not assign the HAP contract to a new owner without NYCHA's prior written consent. Dineen Decl., Ex. 2;
The Complaint is properly dismissed because, even assuming that Davidson Heights possessed a property interest protected under the Due Process Clause as landlord of the Apartment, it had an adequate post-deprivation proceeding for the alleged denial of that right. In Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335 (1976), the Supreme Court set forth a three-factor balancing test for evaluating a procedural due process claim: (1) the private interest, (2) the risk of an erroneous deprivation (and the value of additional safeguards), and (3) the government's interest. Courts in this Circuit that have analyzed due process claims relating to public contractual rights under this framework have generally regarded post-deprivation proceedings as a sufficient remedy for the alleged denial of such rights. For example, in S & D Maintenance Co. v. Goldin, 844 F.2d 962, 966 (2d Cir. 1988), the Second Circuit noted that even if all public contract rights warranted the procedural protection of due process, there would be a substantial argument that in most circumstances post-deprivation state court remedies—such as Article 78 proceedings—would provide all the process that is due. In that case, the court upheld the grant of summary judgment against the plaintiff contractor holding that it did not have a constitutionally protected right to the continuation of its contract with the City of New York for the maintenance of parking meters. Id. at 967. In reaching its conclusion, the Second Circuit distinguished cases where due process is invoked to protect an ordinary contractual right from those where procedural protection is sought in connection with a state's revocation of a status, i.e., "an estate within the public sphere characterized by a quality of extreme dependence in the case of welfare benefits, or permanence in the case of tenure, or sometimes both, as frequently occurs in the case of social security benefits." Id. at 966; cf. Costello v. Town of Fairfield, 811 F.2d 782, 784 (2d Cir. 1987) ("A contract dispute [with the State] does not give rise to a cause of action under section 1983."); A.F.C. Enters., Inc. v. New York City Sch. Constr. Auth., No. CV-98-4534 (CPS), 1999 WL 1417210, at *10 (E.D.N.Y. June 29, 1999) (stating that the Second Circuit has repeatedly rejected attempts to expand simple contract disputes into federal constitutional claims).
In 35-41 Clarkson LLC v. New York City Housing Authority, No. 11 Civ. 6770 (PKC), 2012 WL 5992094, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 30, 2012), the court dismissed a putative class action brought by landlords participating in the Section 8 program against NYCHA. As in this case, the plaintiffs in 35-41 Clarkson claimed that NYCHA failed to comply with, inter alia, regulations governing the Section 8 program as well as its own policies, and that such noncompliance constituted a denial of their Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. Id. And as here, the plaintiffs sought compensatory damages as well as equitable relief to remedy the alleged denial of due process. There, the court noted that it was perhaps a close question as to whether the landlords (who had entered into HAP contracts with NYCHA) adequately asserted a property right capable of protection under the Due Process Clause. Id. at *3. Regardless, the court held that post-deprivation state court remedies provide a sufficient process for the denial of the property interests conferred by the public contracts at issue there. Id. at *5 ("This proposition is supported by the Mathews factors as well as relevant Supreme Court and Second Circuit case law, and it is therefore adopted on the facts of this case."). In reaching this conclusion, the court found that review of the plaintiffs' contentions pursuant to an Article 78 proceeding encompassed the landlords' claims, which included allegations that NYCHA failed to resume subsidy payments following the identification of an HQS violation. Id. at *6;
Davidson Heights has not identified any case law for the proposition that landlords who enter HAP contracts with Public Housing Authorities such as NYCHA are entitled to anything more than post-deprivation proceedings in connection with the alleged denial of rights relating to Section 8 assistance.
Plaintiff further alleges that NYCHA has been unjustly enriched by the HAP payments it has withheld from Plaintiff. Compl. ¶ 99. Where, as here, all federal law claims are eliminated before trial, the "traditional `values of judicial economy, convenience, fairness, and comity'" weigh in favor of declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over any remaining state law claims. Kolari v. N.Y.-Presbyterian Hosp., 455 F.3d 118, 122 (2d Cir. 2006) (quoting Carnegie-Mellon Unin v. Cohill, 484 U.S. 343, 350 (1988)). Having dismissed Plaintiff's federal claims, the Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Plaintiff's state law claim. 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3).
Therefore, Plaintiff's unjust enrichment claim in DISMISSED without prejudice.
For the reasons set forth above, Defendants' motion to dismiss is GRANTED. The Clerk of the Court is respectfully directed to terminate the motion (Doc. 8) and close the case.
It is SO ORDERED.
