Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-9-1994
Abstract
Plaintiffs-appellants Vincent and Sally Gagliardi appeal from a judgment entered on May 27, 1993 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Brieant, J.) dismissing their complaint for failure to state claims under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985 & 1986. The Gagliardis allege in the complaint that the Village of Pawling, the Pawling Village Zoning Board of Appeals ("ZBA") and its individual members, the Pawling Village Planning Board ("Planning Board"), the Pawling Village Board of Trustees ("Board of Trustees") and Village Building Inspector Bluford Jackson (collectively, the "Municipal Defendants") made improper zoning decisions affecting industrially zoned property owned by the Lumelite Corporation adjacent to the Gagliardis' residentially zoned property. They also allege that the Municipal Defendants failed to enforce the zoning laws as to the Lumelite property, all in a series of purposeful, retaliatory and conspiratorial actions designed to deprive them of their constitutional rights to substantive and procedural due process, equal protection and free speech.
The district court dismissed the complaint, finding that the Gagliardis did not have a property right in the enforcement of the zoning laws against others and that they failed to establish any viable equal protection or free speech claims. The Gagliardis contend on appeal that the district court erred in dismissing the complaint. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court's dismissal of the due process and equal protection claims and reverse the dismissal of the free speech claim.
Recommended Citation
Miner '56, Roger J., "Gagliardi v. Village of Pawling, 18 F. 3d 188 - Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit 1994" (1994). Circuit Court Opinions. 408.
https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/circuit_opinions/408
Comments
18 F.3d 188 (1994)
Vincent GAGLIARDI and Sally Gagliardi, Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
The VILLAGE OF PAWLING; Joseph Governale; Louis Musella; Thomas Sage; Darrell Dumas; Robert Nielsen, individually and as members of the Board of Appeals of Pawling; the Board of Appeals of the Village of Pawling; The Planning Board of the Village of Pawling; the Board of Trustees of the Village of Pawling; Bluford Jackson, Building Inspector of the Village of Pawling, Defendants-Appellees, Lumelite Corporation, Defendant.
No. 666, Docket 93-7639. United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Argued November 15, 1993.
Decided March 9, 1994.
New York Law School location: File #1797, Box #132