Filed: Apr. 19, 2016
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: 15-1749 Allyn v. Rockland Cnty. UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT=S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION ASUMMARY ORDER
Summary: 15-1749 Allyn v. Rockland Cnty. UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT=S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION ASUMMARY ORDER@..
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15-1749
Allyn v. Rockland Cnty.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
SUMMARY ORDER
RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY
ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF
APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT=S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER
IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN
ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION ASUMMARY ORDER@). A PARTY CITING TO A SUMMARY
ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.
At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit,
held at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of
New York, on the 19th day of April, two thousand sixteen.
PRESENT:
ROBERT A. KATZMANN
Chief Judge,
JOSÉ A. CABRANES,
Circuit Judge,
LEWIS A. KAPLAN, *
District Judge.
__________________________________________
Glenn B. Allyn,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
Marianne Allyn,
Plaintiff,
v. 15-1749
Rockland County, The Rockland County District
Attorneys Office, Rockland County Sheriff, and the
following employees, agents and/or representatives
of the above entities to be named individually as well
as employees, agesnt, servants, ETC of the above
entitites, Thomas P. Zugibe, Gary Lee Heavner, Gia
Morris, Martin Ancin,
* Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New
York, sitting by designation.
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Defendants-Appellees.
__________________________________________
FOR PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT: GLENN B. ALLYN, pro se, White Plains, New York.
FOR DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES: ROBERT B. WEISSMAN, Saretsky Katz Dranoff, LLP,
New York, New York.
MATTHEW W. GRIECO, Assistant Solicitor General
(Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General, Anisha
S. Dasgupta, Deputy Solicitor General, on the brief),
for Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General of the
State of New York, New York, New York.
Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of
New York (Briccetti, J.).
UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND
DECREED that the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Appellant Glenn B. Allyn, a disbarred attorney proceeding pro se, appeals two orders of the
district court. The first order, issued July 30, 2013, dismissed Allyn’s claims against defendants
Gary Lee Heavner and Gia Morris on the ground of absolute prosecutorial immunity.1 The
second order, issued May 4, 2015, granted summary judgment in favor of defendant Martin Ancin
with respect to Allyn’s false arrest, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process claims. We
assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, the procedural history of the case, and the
issues on appeal.
I. Claims against Morris and Heavner
We review de novo a district court’s decision to dismiss a complaint pursuant to Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), see Patane v. Clark,
508 F.3d 106, 111 (2d Cir. 2007), or grant
1
The July 30, 2013 order dismissed claims against other defendants as well. On appeal, Allyn
has not challenged the dismissal of those claims.
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judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Rule 12(c), see Kirkendall v. Halliburton, Inc.,
707 F.3d
173, 178 (2d Cir. 2013). In both cases, we accept the factual allegations in the complaint as true
and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiff’s favor. See
Kirkendall, 707 F.3d at 178;
Patane, 508 F.3d at 111. To survive either motion, the complaint must plead “enough facts to
state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly,
550 U.S. 544, 570
(2007); see also
Kirkendall, 707 F.3d at 178-79. “A claim has facial plausibility when the
plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the
defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal,
556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009).
Upon review, we conclude that the district court correctly dismissed Allyn’s claims against
Morris and Heavner on the ground of absolute prosecutorial immunity. See Imbler v. Pachtman,
424 U.S. 409, 424 (1976). We affirm for substantially the reasons stated by the district court in its
thorough July 30, 2013 decision. Two points warrant further discussion. First, Allyn contends
that the dismissals were improper because, in Allyn’s view, Ancin’s deposition testimony
established that Morris and Heavner were acting as investigators, rather than prosecutors, and
because the district court dismissed the claims “with no evidence” that Morris was a prosecutor.
This misapprehends the nature of the district court’s dismissal, which was based only on the
allegations on the face of the complaint. In any event, Allyn has not identified any act that Morris
or Heavner took in their alleged capacities as investigators that caused Allyn harm. Second,
Allyn alleges that Heavner failed to disclose a video that purportedly shows who cashed the $5,000
check that Allyn was suspected of misappropriating. Because this argument is raised for the first
time on appeal, we decline to consider it. See In re Nortel Networks Corp. Sec. Litig.,
539 F.3d
129, 133 (2d Cir. 2008).
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II. Claims Against Ancin
We review orders granting summary judgment de novo. “Summary judgment is
appropriate only if the moving party shows that there are no genuine issues of material fact and
that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” See Miller v. Wolpoff &
Abramson, L.L.P.,
321 F.3d 292, 300 (2d Cir. 2003). We resolve all ambiguities and draw all
factual inferences in favor of the nonmovant. See Nationwide Life Ins. Co. v. Bankers Leasing
Ass’n,
182 F.3d 157, 160 (2d Cir. 1999).
Upon review, we conclude that the district court properly granted summary judgment to
Ancin on Allyn’s claims of false arrest, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process. We affirm
for substantially the reasons stated by the district court in its thorough May 4, 2015 decision.
We have considered all of Allyn’s arguments and find them to be without merit.
Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.
FOR THE COURT:
Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk
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