CHARLES J. SIRAGUSA, District Judge.
Plaintiff alleges that she was sexually abused by a counselor while undergoing court-ordered alcohol treatment and counseling. The Complaint (Docket No. [# 1]) purports to assert tort claims under New
Unless otherwise noted the following facts are taken from the Complaint and are presumed to be true for purposes of this motion. In 2000, Plaintiff was convicted of DWI, and as part of her sentence of probation, she was required to obtain outpatient treatment and counseling through defendant LCCASA. LCCASA is a non-profit organization which provided alcohol treatment services. Plaintiff was assigned to work with defendant John Hanglow ("Hanglow"), who was a treatment counselor employed by LCCASA. As a condition of her probation, Plaintiff was required to attend counseling sessions at LCCASA for a period of years, ending in 2004.
In 2007, Plaintiff was again convicted of DWI. As part of her sentence, Plaintiff was again placed on probation and directed to participate in alcohol counseling and Treatment Court. As noted earlier, at this time Hanglow was Director of Treatment Court. Hanglow continued to sexually abuse Plaintiff and to threaten her by telling her that he could have her sent to prison. The last time that Hanglow had sexual contact with Plaintiff was in September 2007. Complaint ¶ 46. After that, Hanglow periodically renewed his threats to have her sent to prison if she told anyone about his misconduct. Id. at ¶¶ 47-47-50.
On or about October 23, 2008, Plaintiff's Probation Officer, Colleen Fronk ("Fronk"), conducted a random compliance check and determined that Plaintiff had used alcohol. Complaint ¶ 51. At that time, Plaintiff told Fronk that Hanglow "had been raping her for years." Complaint ¶ 52. According to the Complaint, October 23, 2008 is the first time that Plaintiff told anyone connected with any of the defendants in this action that Hanglow was abusing her.
On October 31, 2008, Plaintiff was arrested for violating the terms of her probation, based on Fronk's determination that
Moreover, in November 2008, a Livingston County Sheriff's Investigator, Kim Moran ("Moran"), interviewed Plaintiff, "specifically for the purpose of gathering information on the allegations made concerning Hanglow's treatment of Pamela." Complaint ¶ 64. Plaintiff further maintains that in November 2008, her boyfriend, Tom Budreau ("Budreau"), told Moran that he had talked with another female probationer in Treatment Court, "Kit," who told him that Hanglow had refused to help her because she would not have sex with him. Id. at ¶ 66. Kit purportedly told Budreau that she had reported Hanglow's behavior to "counselors at LCCASA." Id. The Complaint does not indicate when the alleged incident between Kit and Hanglow occurred, or when she allegedly complained to LCCASA. There is no indication that "Kit" complained to the County.
Plaintiff also alleges that another female probationer, Debbie Mease ("Mease"), complained to unspecified "authorities" that Hanglow had made unwanted sexual advances toward her. Complaint ¶ 68. The Complaint does not indicate when Mease allegedly notified "authorities,"
On January 20, 2009, an investigator with OCA's Inspector General's Office, Elizabeth Candreva ("Candreva"), interviewed Plaintiff "for over two hours" concerning her allegations against Hanglow. Complaint ¶ 69. Subsequently, Hanglow "either was fired or asked to resign or retire involuntarily." Id. at ¶ 74.
On April 7, 2009 Plaintiff was released from jail and restored to probation. Complaint ¶ 70. As a condition of her probation, Plaintiff was required to receive the medication Antabuse, a drug used to treat chronic alcoholism, three times per week. Id. ¶ 72. Plaintiff maintains that in order to receive this medication, defendant Livingston County Probation "required [her] to visit the male area of the jail—unescorted—to receive her mandated medication of Antabuse, invariably subjecting her to cat-calls and explicit vulgarities from the male jail population," which caused her to experience "great anxiety." Id. ¶ 72. Plaintiff's doctor contacted the sentencing judge, and indicated that Plaintiff's "visits to the male area of the jail subject her to rude behavior by the inmates and contributes to a continuation of her traumatic symptoms from past abuse." Id. ¶ 73. The sentencing judge responded by permitting Plaintiff to receive her Antabuse treatments at the office of her primary care physician. Id.
On June 26, 2009, Plaintiff filed a Notice of Claim [# 8-2] against Livingston County and Livingston County Probation pursuant to New York General Municipal Law
On December 18, 2009, Plaintiff commenced this action. The Complaint purports to state six causes of action: 1) assault and battery; 2) false imprisonment; 3) negligent hiring, training, and supervision; 4) intentional infliction of emotional distress ("IIED"); 5) negligent infliction of emotional distress ("NIED"); and 6) a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violation of Plaintiff's rights under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Complaint does not specify which of the causes of action are being asserted against the separate defendants.
Livingston County and Livingston County Probation subsequently filed the instant motion [# 8] to dismiss the Complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ. P. 12(b)(6), on the following grounds: 1) the Section 1983 cause of action fails to state a claim because it does not allege that Hanglow acted pursuant to a county policy or custom; 2) the Section 1983 claims arising prior to December 18, 2006 are barred by the applicable three-year statute of limitations; 3) all state-law claims arising prior to September 19, 2008, are time-barred by the applicable statute of limitations found in General Municipal Law § 50-1(1)(C), which is one year and ninety days; 4) the County is not liable for Hanglow's actions during the period that he was Director of Treatment Court, since he was an employee of New York State OCA; 5) any claims against the County arising from Hanglow's employment with LCCASA are time-barred; 6) any state law claims involving Plaintiff's probation supervision in 2009 (having to take Antabuse at the jail) were not included in the notice of claim; 7) any state-law claims arising prior to March 25, 2009 are barred because Plaintiff did not file a timely notice of claim; 8) the Complaint does not state a claim for IIED; 9) the Complaint does not state a claim for NIED; and 10) the County is immune from the state law claims because the complained-of conduct related to discretionary determinations by public employees.
LCCASA then filed the subject motion for judgment on the pleadings, primarily on the basis that the claims against it are time-barred. Additionally, LCCASA contends that it cannot be liable under Section 1983 because it is not a "government entity." Further, LCCASA adopts the arguments raised by Livingston County and Livingston County insofar as they pertain to LCCASA.
Plaintiff opposes Defendants' motions, and maintains that: 1) the Complaint pleads a municipal policy or custom; 2) the civil rights claims are not time-barred because there was an "ongoing violation"; 3) the state-law claims are not time barred because there was a continuous "pattern of systemic violations"; 4) Livingston County is liable for Hanglow's actions, even though he was an employee of OCA; 5) the claims against LCCASA are not time-barred, because there was a continuing "pattern of systemic violations"; 6) Plaintiff may pursue the municipal claims arising in April 2009, even though they were not included in the Notice of Claim; 7) municipal claims occurring more than ninety days prior to the filing of the Notice of Claim are still timely, because there was an ongoing violation; 8) the Complaint states a claim for IIED against Hanglow
On March 31, 2011, counsel for the moving parties appeared before the undersigned for oral argument. At that time, Plaintiff's counsel clarified, inter alia, that the municipal liability claims under Section 1983 against Livingston County and Livingston County Probation are based on the County's failure to train and supervise Hang low.
The applicable legal standard for determining whether a complaint is sufficient to survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion is clear:
Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1964-65, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007); see also, ATSI Communications, Inc. v. Shaar Fund, Ltd., 493 F.3d 87, 98 (2d Cir.2007) ("To survive dismissal, the plaintiff must provide the grounds upon which his claim rests through factual allegations sufficient `to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.'") (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly) (footnote omitted); Iqbal v. Hasty, 490 F.3d 143, 157-58 (2d Cir.2007) (Indicating that Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly adopted "a flexible `plausibility standard,' which obliges a pleader to amplify a claim with some factual allegations in those contexts where such amplification is needed to render the claim plausible[,]" as opposed to merely conceivable.), reversed on other grounds, Ashcroft v. Iqbal, ___ U.S. ____, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009). When applying this standard, a district court must accept the allegations contained in the complaint as true and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Burnette v. Carothers, 192 F.3d 52, 56 (2d Cir.1999). A Plaintiff may satisfy the Twombly plausibility standard by pleading facts "upon information and belief," "where the facts are peculiarly within the possession and control of the defendant, or where the belief is based on factual information that makes the inference of culpability plausible." Arista Records, LLC v. Doe 3, 604 F.3d 110, 120 (2d Cir.2010) (citations omitted). "The same standard applicable to Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss applies to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c) motions for judgment on the pleadings." Bank of New York v. First Millennium, Inc., 607 F.3d 905, 922 (2d Cir.2010) (citation omitted).
As discussed above, Plaintiff asserts a Section 1983 claim against the County,
Section 1983 provides, in pertinent part:
Roe v. City of Waterbury, 542 F.3d 31, 36-37 (2d Cir.2008). In this regard,
White-Ruiz v. City of New York, No. 93CIV.7233(DLC)(MHD), 1996 WL 603983 at *7 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 22, 1996) (citation omitted). "The mere assertion that a municipality has such a custom or policy is insufficient in the absence of allegations of fact tending to support, at least circumstantially, such an inference." Zahra v. Town of Southold, 48 F.3d 674, 685 (2d Cir.1995) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
Applying these principles, the Complaint fails to plausibly state a municipal liability claim against the County based on a failure to train or supervise, since the County never employed Hanglow. See, Bliven v. Hunt, 478 F.Supp.2d 332, 340 (E.D.N.Y.2007) ("[B]oth Family Court judges and their court attorneys are not municipal employees; they are State employees. Defendant does not train or supervise these employees and therefore, cannot be held liable for any alleged failure to train and supervise.").
Cornwell v. Robinson, 23 F.3d 694, 703-704 (2d Cir.1994) (citations omitted). Here, even assuming arguendo that LCCASA can be sued under Section 1983 for having acted under color of state law, the "continuing violation" doctrine does not prevent the claims against LCCASA from being time-barred. LCCASA did not employ Hanglow after 2004, and the Court finds that Plaintiff's Section 1983 claim against LCCASA accrued, at the latest, when Hanglow's employment with LCCASA ended.
At the outset, the Court finds that the County is not vicariously liable for Hanglow's alleged torts. The County contends that it is not liable for Hanglow's actions, since he was not a county employee.
As for whether the County breached a duty to protect Plaintiff from a third-party, i.e. Hanglow, in connection with the operation of the Probation Department, the law in New York is that,
McLean v. City of New York, 12 N.Y.3d 194, 199, 878 N.Y.S.2d 238, 905 N.E.2d 1167, 1171 (2009) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Plaintiff does not allege that her case falls within any of these three situations, nor does the Complaint raise any such reasonable inference.
The Complaint also fails to state a direct claim against the County for the intentional torts of assault, battery, false imprisonment, negligent hiring, or IIED. In that regard, the Complaint does not allege that any County employee committed any of those torts against Plaintiff. As for the NIED claim, the Complaint alleges that the County committed the tort by "requiring her" to "walk unescorted through portions of [the] male population jail," to receive her Antabuse treatments, which caused her to experience anxiety.
Bernstein v. East 51st Street Development Co., LLC, 78 A.D.3d 590, 591, 914 N.Y.S.2d 3, 4 (1st Dept.2010) (citation omitted). Furthermore, the defendant's conduct must be "so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community." Burger v. Singh, 79 A.D.3d 1086, 1088, 915 N.Y.S.2d 113, 115 (2d Dept.2010) (citations omitted); see also, Lau v. S & M Enterprises, 72 A.D.3d 497, 498, 898 N.Y.S.2d 42, 43 (1st Dept.2010) ("The existence of extreme and outrageous conduct is also a necessary element for a claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress."). Here, the County's alleged conduct was not outrageous, and there is no indication that Plaintiff's physical safety was threatened.
As for the tort claims against LCCASA, it is undisputed that the limitations period for the intentional torts is one year, and that the limitations period for the NIED claim is three years. LCCASA contends that these limitations periods expired prior to Plaintiff commencing this action in 2009, since Hanglow had not worked for the company since 2004. Plaintiff responds that the tort claims are timely, because there was a "continuing violation." Pl. Memo of Law [# 15-3] at 14. In support of this argument, Plaintiff alleges that LCCASA "took no action against Defendant Hanglow," and "showed deliberate indifference to the quid pro quo sexual demands made upon other probationers." Id. at 14. In this regard,
Margrabe v. Sexter & Warmflash, P.C., No. 07-CV-2798 (KMK) (GAY), 2009 WL 361830 at *7 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 11, 2009) (citations omitted). In this case, the "continuing wrong" or "continuing violation" doctrine does not apply. The Complaint does not plausibly state that LCCASA committed any tortious act against Plaintiff within the relevant limitations periods, or for that matter, after 2004 when Hanglow left LCCASA's employ. Specifically, Plaintiff has not alleged that LCCASA committed the torts of assault, battery, false imprisonment, negligent hiring, IIED, or NIED, within any relevant limitations period. To the extent that the Complaint purports to
Plaintiff's Cross-motion for Attorney's Fees
Plaintiff contends that she is entitled to attorney's fees incurred in opposing Defendants' motions, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1927. In support of that application, Plaintiff's counsel generally states that, in his opinion, motions under FRCP 12(c) are "an ineffective hybrid" between motions under FRCP 12(b)(6) and FRCP 56, and should be avoided. Wicks Declaration [#15-2] at ¶ 2. Additionally, he maintains that the motions are without merit and "premature as discovery is incomplete at best." Id. at ¶ 3. However, "[i]t is well established that the imposition of sanctions under § 1927 requires a clear showing of bad faith on the part of an attorney, and that bad faith may be inferred only if actions are so completely without merit as to require the conclusion that they must have been undertaken for some improper purpose such as delay." Salovaara v. Eckert, 222 F.3d 19, 35 (2d Cir.2000) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Here, Plaintiff has clearly failed to demonstrate that Defendants acted in bad faith. Consequently, Plaintiff's cross-motion is denied.
Defendants' motions [#8][#10] are granted, and the claims against Livingston County, Livingston County Probation, and LCCASA are dismissed. The Clerk of the Court is directed to terminate Livingston County, Livingston County Probation, and LCCASA, as parties to this action. Plaintiff's cross-motion [# 15] is denied. Plaintiff's counsel is directed to contact the chambers of the Honorable Jonathan W. Feldman, United States Magistrate Judge, to request a scheduling conference concerning the remaining claims in this action.
SO ORDERED.