Adams v. Han

11-603 Adams v. Han 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 “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. 1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals 2 for the Second Circuit, held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan 3 United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, in the City of 4 New York, on the 19th day of April, two thousand twelve. 5 6 PRESENT: DENNIS JACOBS, 7 Chief Judge, 8 BARRINGTON D. PARKER, 9 PETER W. HALL, 10 Circuit Judges. 11 12 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X 13 LOVADO ADAMS, 14 Plaintiff-Appellant, 15 16 -v.- 11-603 17 18 KYU H. HAN, JULIE HAN, HAN, SALLY’S 19 REALTY INC., 20 Defendants-Appellees. 21 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X 22 23 FOR APPELLANT: Lovado Adams, pro se, Bronx, 24 N.Y. 25 26 FOR APPELLEES: No Appearance. 27 1 1 Appeal from a judgment of the United States District 2 Court for the Southern District of New York (Marrero, J.). 3 4 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED 5 AND DECREED that the judgment of the district court be 6 AFFIRMED. 7 8 9 Appellant Lovado Adams, pro se, appeals the district 10 court’s January 11, 2011 order denying a motion to 11 reconsider a previous order dismissing, as time-barred, 12 Adams’ complaint brought pursuant to the Fair Housing Act 13 (“FHA”). We assume the parties’ familiarity with the 14 underlying facts, the procedural history, and the issues 15 presented for review. 16 17 Adams’ motion for reconsideration is construed as a 18 motion seeking relief from the district court’s final order 19 pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b). See 20 Branum v. Clark, 927 F.2d 698, 704 (2d Cir. 1991). Denial 21 of that motion is reviewed for abuse of discretion. See 22 Johnson v. Univ. of Rochester Med. Ctr., 642 F.3d 121, 125 23 (2d Cir. 2011) (per curiam). An appeal from the district 24 court’s denial of a Rule 60(b) motion “brings up for review 25 only the denial of the motion and not the merits of the 26 underlying judgment.” Branum, 927 F.2d at 704. 27 28 An independent review of the record in light of these 29 principles confirms that the district court acted within the 30 bounds of discretion in denying the motion for 31 reconsideration. The FHA provides that a person “may 32 commence a civil action in an appropriate United States 33 district court or State court not later than 2 years after 34 the occurrence or the termination of an alleged 35 discriminatory housing practice . . . to obtain appropriate 36 relief with respect to such discriminatory housing practice 37 or breach.” 42 U.S.C. § 3613(a)(1)(A). “The computation of 38 such 2-year period shall not include any time during which 39 an administrative proceeding . . . was pending with respect 40 to a complaint or charge . . . based upon such 41 discriminatory housing practice.” Id. § 3613(a)(1)(B). 42 When a complainant receives a final letter from a Department 43 of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) regional office, 44 “stating that HUD has closed its investigation based on 45 notification that the certified agency to which the 46 complaint was referred has closed its investigation, we will 47 consider the administrative proceeding to have been 2 1 ‘pending,’ and the filing limitation tolled, until the date 2 of the final letter.” Boykin v. KeyCorp, 521 F.3d 202, 211 3 (2d Cir. 2008). 4 5 HUD’s letter advising that the agency had closed Adams’ 6 complaint (based on the New York State Division of Human 7 Rights notification that it had closed its investigation) 8 was dated May 15, 2008. The statute of limitations was thus 9 tolled--during the course of the administrative proceeding-- 10 until that date. Adams’ complaint, however, was not filed 11 in the district court until May 28, 2010, after the two- 12 year statute of limitations expired. 13 14 No argument or evidence undermining this conclusion 15 appears in either Adams’ response to the district court’s 16 order to show cause or Adams’ motion for reconsideration. 17 Although Adams vaguely asserted that there were “extenuating 18 circumstances . . . relating to [Adams’] medical conditions 19 [and] financial situation,” Adams provided no details or 20 arguments as to why they would serve to toll the statute of 21 limitations. Moreover, on appeal, Adams has set forth no 22 concrete arguments concerning either the district court’s 23 denial of the motion for reconsideration or the timeliness 24 of the original complaint. See Norton v. Sam’s Club, 145 25 F.3d 114, 117 (2d Cir. 1998) (“Issues not sufficiently 26 argued in the briefs are considered waived and normally will 27 not be addressed on appeal.”). 28 29 30 Finding no merit in Adams’ remaining arguments, we 31 hereby AFFIRM the judgment of the district court. 32 33 34 FOR THE COURT: 35 CATHERINE O’HAGAN WOLFE, CLERK 36 3