Griffin-Robinson v. Salov
- Paul Engelmayer
- 1:20-cv-02712
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Griffin-Robinson v. Salov, Judge Engelmayer granted the motion, dismissing federal claims with prejudice and state claims without prejudice but without leave to amend.
Sonja R. Griffin-Robinson’s federal and state-law claims against Darwin Marrero, Henry Bautista, Marilin Peralta, Jacquelynn Opirhory, Gabriel Cabral, Gregory Ulses, and Richard DiDonato were dismissed as described in the order. The order terminated those seven defendants from the case.
What happened
Sonja R. Griffin-Robinson, who represented herself, claimed that police officers violated her constitutional rights by searching her home, taking her personal property, and arresting her. She brought claims under a federal civil-rights law against several defendants. The pending motion concerned seven defendants identified as the NYPD Defendants: Darwin Marrero, Henry Bautista, Marilin Peralta, Jacquelynn Opirhory, Gabriel Cabral, Gregory Ulses, and Richard DiDonato.
The NYPD Defendants asked the court to dismiss all claims against them, arguing that Griffin-Robinson had not alleged that they personally participated in the claimed violations and that her claims failed for additional reasons. A magistrate judge recommended granting the motion. No party objected, so the court reviewed the recommendation for clear error and found none.
In Griffin-Robinson v. Salov, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer adopted the recommendation in full and granted the NYPD Defendants’ motion to dismiss. He dismissed Griffin-Robinson’s federal claims against those defendants with prejudice. He dismissed her state-law claims against them without prejudice, but without leave to amend, and directed that the seven defendants be terminated from the case.
The detailed version
- Griffin-Robinson v. Salov · No. 1:20-cv-02712
- Paul Engelmayer
- Mar. 18, 2022
Background
Sonja R. Griffin-Robinson represented herself in this lawsuit. The court construed her complaint as asserting claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal law that allows claims against state or local officials for violating constitutional rights. She alleged that police officers searched her home, seized her personal property, and arrested her.
The pending motion was filed by Darwin Marrero, Henry Bautista, Marilin Peralta, Jacquelynn Opirhory, Gabriel Cabral, Gregory Ulses, and Richard DiDonato, whom the opinion calls the “NYPD Defendants.” They moved to dismiss all claims against them. They argued that the Second Amended Complaint did not allege their personal involvement in the alleged constitutional violations, as required for a claim under Section 1983, and that the claims failed even if personal involvement had been alleged. They also requested dismissal with prejudice and without leave to amend.
Report and Recommendation
Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman recommended granting the motion in its entirety. Her recommendation called for Griffin-Robinson’s claims against the NYPD Defendants to be dismissed with prejudice and her state-law claims against them to be dismissed without prejudice, but without leave to amend.
No party objected to the recommendation. Judge Engelmayer therefore reviewed it for clear error, meaning an obvious mistake apparent from the record. He found no such error and adopted the recommendation in full.
Ruling
The court granted the NYPD Defendants’ motion to dismiss. It dismissed Griffin-Robinson’s federal-law claims against those defendants with prejudice. It also dismissed her state-law claims against them without prejudice, but without leave to amend. The court directed the clerk to close the motion and terminate Marrero, Bautista, Peralta, Opirhory, Cabral, Ulses, and DiDonato as defendants. The opinion states that the case remained under Judge Freeman’s pretrial supervision, indicating that the ruling concerned these defendants and claims rather than necessarily ending every aspect of the case.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.