Perez v. City of New York

What the order did

The court invited the parties to file supplemental letter briefs addressing a question related to the defendants’ anticipated request for summary judgment. Summary judgment is a decision without a trial when the undisputed evidence shows that a party is entitled to judgment under the law.

Question presented

The court stated two assumptions for purposes of the parties’ briefing: first, that the defendants could not prevail on their argument that the plaintiff’s claims failed because the criminal proceeding did not end favorably for the plaintiff; and second, that undisputed evidence established probable cause for charges of aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle under New York Vehicle and Traffic Law § 511(1)(a) and unlicensed driving under § 509(1).

The court asked whether the defendants would nevertheless have to show the absence of a genuine factual dispute about probable cause for each other charge in the criminal complaint to obtain summary judgment. It directed the parties to consider whether probable cause must be evaluated separately for each charge, including under the cited decisions, and whether probable cause would have to be shown for a charge such as driving while impaired when that charge carries a lesser criminal sanction than aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Disposition

The order did not grant or deny a motion and did not resolve the probable-cause or summary-judgment questions. It required supplemental letter briefs of no more than three single-spaced pages, to be filed by September 12, 2022. Judge Lewis J. Liman signed the order on September 6, 2022.