15-3841
Meyers v. City of New York
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
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At a stated Term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the
Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, at 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, on
the 2nd day of February, two thousand seventeen.
Present: ROBERT A. KATZMANN,
Chief Judge,
RALPH K. WINTER,
Circuit Judge,
SIDNEY H. STEIN,
District Judge.*
CHARLES MEYERS, JOHN BAKER, JUSTIN
STREKAL, MILES WALSH,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
-v- No. 15-3841
CITY OF NEW YORK, MICHAEL
BLOOMBERG, individually and in his official
capacity as former Mayor of the City of New York,
CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT JOSEPH J.
ESPOSITO, Individually and in his official
capacity, NYPD COMMISSIONER RAYMOND
KELLY, individually and in his official capacity,
Defendants-Appellants,
*
Judge Sidney H. Stein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New
York, sitting by designation.
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OFFICER DOES 1 THROUGH 100, NYPD
PATROL OFFICER FREDDY YNOA, NYPD
Patrol Officer, Shield # 18851; HANS FRANCOIS,
Shield #25825, JOHN ZARANIS, Shield # 09645,
VASILE DUBOVICI, Shield # 28892,
Defendants.
For Plaintiffs-Appellees: PAUL L. MILLS, Law Office of Paul L. Mills,
New York, NY.
For Defendants-Appellants: MAX MCCANN, Assistant Corporation
Counsel, (Richard Dearing and Devin Slack,
on the brief), for Zachary W. Carter,
Corporation Counsel of the City of New
York, New York, NY.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
(Carter, J.).
ON CONSIDERATION WHEREOF, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED,
and DECREED that the judgment of the district court is VACATED and REMANDED.
Plaintiffs-appellees, participants in an Occupy Wall Street protest, were arrested and
charged with trespass and disorderly conduct after they refused a police order to vacate Zuccotti
Park in lower Manhattan. Plaintiffs brought this suit challenging the lawfulness of their removal
from Zuccotti Park and the decisions of defendants-appellants, New York City officials at the
time, to arrest and charge plaintiffs. The district court dismissed several of plaintiffs’ claims but
left intact plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claims for false arrest and malicious prosecution and
First Amendment retaliation claims. The district court also denied qualified immunity to
defendants-appellants, which allowed defendants-appellants to bring the present interlocutory
appeal. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530 (1985). We assume the parties’ familiarity
with the underlying facts, the procedural history of the case, and the issues on appeal.
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“We review a district court’s denial of qualified immunity on a motion to dismiss de
novo, accepting as true the material facts alleged in the complaint and drawing all reasonable
inferences in plaintiffs’ favor.” Garcia v. Does, 779 F.3d 84, 91 (2d Cir. 2014) (internal
quotation marks omitted).
“Qualified immunity protects public officials from liability for civil damages when one of
two conditions is satisfied: (a) the defendant’s action did not violate clearly established law, or
(b) it was objectively reasonable for the defendant to believe that his action did not violate such
law.” Id. at 92. For instance, “[a]n officer is entitled to qualified immunity against a suit for false
arrest if he can establish that he had arguable probable cause to arrest the plaintiff.” Id. (internal
quotation marks omitted).
Although the district court considered the issue of probable cause, the district court
needed also to conduct adequate analysis of arguable probable cause and of whether qualified
immunity protects defendants-appellants – a more “forgiving” standard than the probable cause
inquiry. Amore v. Novarro, 624 F.3d 522, 530, 536 (2d Cir. 2010). In particular, we respectfully
think the district court did not sufficiently take into account our holding in Garcia:
police officers [are not required] to engage in an essentially speculative inquiry
into the potential state of mind of . . . [arrestees]. Neither the law of probable
cause nor the law of qualified immunity requires such speculation. Whether or not
a suspect ultimately turns out to have a defense, or even whether a reasonable
officer might have some idea that such a defense could exist, is not the question.
An officer still has probable cause to arrest, and certainly is entitled to qualified
immunity, so long as any such defense rests on facts that are so unclear, or a legal
theory that is not so clearly established, that it cannot be said that any reasonable
officer would understand that an arrest under the circumstances would be
unlawful.
Garcia, 779 F.3d at 96 (citations omitted).
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Upon remand, the district court should undertake a complete analysis of the qualified
immunity issue. The district court should do so in light of the Amended Complaint filed in this
case.
We have considered the parties’ remaining arguments on appeal and find in them no basis
for altering our decision. For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is
VACATED and REMANDED.
FOR THE COURT:
CATHERINE O’HAGAN WOLFE, CLERK
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