Eliacin v. County of Broome

11-4679 Eliacin v. Fiala 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 TO 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 for 2 the Second Circuit, held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United 3 States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, in the City of New York, on 4 the 9th day of November, two thousand twelve. 5 6 PRESENT: 7 Richard C. Wesley, 8 Denny Chin, 9 Circuit Judges, 10 David G. Larimer, 11 District Judge.* 12 _____________________________________ 13 BERONNE R. ELIACIN, 14 15 Plaintiff-Appellant, 16 v. 11-4679 17 18 COUNTY OF BROOME, 19 20 Defendant-Appellee, 21 22 Barbara Fiala, County of Broome 23 Executive, Willow Point Nursing 24 Home, Steven Reagan, Willow Point 25 Nursing Home Administrator, 26 27 Defendants. 28 _____________________________________ 29 * The Honorable David G. Larimer, of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, sitting by designation. 1 FOR PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT: Beronne R. Eliacin, pro se, 2 Binghamton, NY. 3 4 FOR DEFENDANT-APPELLEE: Robert G. Behnke III, Broome County 5 Attorney, Binghamton, NY. 6 7 Appeal from the judgment of the United States District Court 8 for the Northern District of New York (McAvoy, J.). 9 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND 10 DECREED that the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED. 11 Plaintiff-Appellant Beronne R. Eliacin, pro se, appeals from 12 the district court’s December 8, 2009 order partially granting 13 the defendants’ motion to dismiss and its October 17, 2011 order 14 and judgment granting the summary judgment motion of the County 15 of Broome (the “County”) and dismissing Eliacin’s action brought 16 pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title 17 VII”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. We assume the parties’ 18 familiarity with the underlying facts, the procedural history of 19 the case, and the issues on appeal. 20 We affirm the district court’s partial dismissal of 21 Eliacin’s claims for failure to state a claim for substantially 22 the reasons set forth in the court’s December 8, 2009 order. 23 None of Eliacin’s allegations or arguments relating to the three 24 claims dismissed by the district court are sufficient “to state a 25 claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Ashcroft v. 26 Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (internal quotation marks 27 omitted). Although the court dismissed these claims without 2 1 providing Eliacin an opportunity to amend her complaint, we 2 conclude that a remand for this purpose would be futile. See 3 Cuoco v. Moritsugu, 222 F.3d 99, 112 (2d Cir. 2000). 4 We also affirm the district court’s October 17, 2011 order 5 and judgment granting the County’s summary judgment motion for 6 substantially the reasons set forth in that decision. Eliacin 7 failed to present a prima facie case of retaliation under Title 8 VII. See, e.g., Kessler v. Westchester Cnty. Dep’t of Soc. 9 Servs., 461 F.3d 199, 205-06 (2d Cir. 2006). On appeal, Eliacin 10 argues that a February 7, 2008 letter she sent to the County 11 Executive was sufficient to put the County on notice of her Title 12 VII claims.1 Even assuming that Eliacin subjectively believed 13 that the County’s underlying acts were unlawful under Title VII, 14 the contents of the letter were insufficient to put the County on 15 notice that her letter was “directed at conduct prohibited by 16 Title VII.” Rojas v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, 660 17 F.3d 98, 107-08 (2d Cir. 2011) (emphasis in original) (citation 18 and internal quotation marks omitted). 1 Eliacin moved to attach this letter as an exhibit to her reply brief. We deny that motion as unnecessary. The letter is included in the record and was considered on appeal. To the extent Eliacin requests that we consider a letter attached to her reply brief that she sent to the district court regarding a July 2011 discovery order, we deny her request. Eliacin did not properly challenge that discovery order in her opening brief and no “manifest injustice” results from this denial. See J.P. Morgan Chase Bank v. Altos Hornos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., 412 F.3d 418, 428 (2d Cir. 2005). We have, however, considered the remaining arguments set forth in her reply brief. 3 1 We have considered Eliacin’s remaining arguments and, 2 after a thorough review of the record, find them to be 3 without merit. 4 For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district 5 court is hereby AFFIRMED. 6 FOR THE COURT: 7 Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk 8 9 4