DENISE COTE, District Judge
This Opinion addresses the extent to which outside counsel for an employer may be liable under federal and state civil rights statutes for counsel's alleged misconduct in litigation connected to employment discrimination claims. In this action, Michael Wesley Frierson-Harris ("Harris"), a tenured professor of church history at Union Theological Seminary (the "Seminary") in New York City, alleges that the Seminary and other actors committed constitutional violations and violations of New York state law by forcing Harris to leave his university-sponsored apartment. Defendants L. Robert Batterman ("Batterman") and John F. Fullerton, III ("Fullerton"), attorneys representing the Seminary in its dealings with Harris, have moved to dismiss the claims against them. For the reasons stated below, their motion is granted.
Background
All facts are as alleged in the Amended Verified Complaint (the "Complaint"), unless otherwise noted. Harris was hired by the Seminary in 1998. He had previously been a full tenured professor at another university. His employment contract specified that he would be entitled to a faculty residence, the assignment of which would be determined by a point system. Points are assigned for pre-appointment seniority, rank, tenure, and family size, among other factors. All faculty at the Seminary are required to live in faculty housing. The dean of the Seminary at that time (the "Dean"), offered first choice of apartments to a Caucasian Hispanic female associate professor, even though Harris, a Black man, scored higher on the point system than the other professor. The Dean stated that she would not "stand" to see "exceptions made for another Black man." Harris notes that, at the time, the two most highly paid professors other than the Dean were Black men. Harris alleges that, while the Seminary was in the process of hiring him, the Dean conducted her own search and attempted to have a white man hired in Harris's place, even though the faculty had already voted unanimously for his appointment.
According to the Complaint, the Seminary recognized that the Dean's actions in giving the first choice of available faculty apartments to the associate professor had been improper and had had a racially discriminatory effect. The Dean was accordingly removed from her faculty apartment in a building known as Knox Hall (the "Knox Hall Apartment"). Harris was offered a new contract (the "Contract") pursuant to which he would waive all legal claims, including claims for racial discrimination, that had accrued up through December 10, 1998 in exchange for an assignment to the Knox Hall Apartment. Harris is not aware of any other faculty contracts that include a waiver of legal claims against the Seminary.
Knox Hall is the Seminary's "premier" faculty housing facility. Another building, McGiffert Hall, contains smaller, less desirable dwellings. The faculty employment handbook ("Handbook") that was in place when Harris signed the Contract disallowed discretionary housing reassignments unless agreed to by the faculty member. Once installed in the Knox Hall Apartment, Harris never sought reassignment. He also alleges that he performed his contractual duties in an exemplary manner, including using his residence to advise students, host dinners, hold classes, and entertain faculty, in compliance with the Seminary's policies for use of a faculty residence.
In 2002, the Seminary implemented a new housing policy that granted discretionary housing reassignment powers to Joseph C. Hough, Jr. ("Hough"), the president of the Seminary. Harris was absent from the faculty vote on the new policy, but alleges that support was obtained from Caucasian faculty by assuring the four Caucasian professors who lived with their families that they would be exempt from the policy. No exemptions were guaranteed for Black faculty members. The policy was approved by the Executive Committee of the Seminary's Board of Directors on the condition that each faculty member assent in writing to the policy. All faculty members except Harris gave their assent.
On April 4, 2003, Hough notified Harris that he was being reassigned to an apartment in McGiffert Hall (the "McGiffert Hall Apartment"). The McGiffert Hall Apartment was the residence to which the Dean attempted to assign Harris upon his arrival at the Seminary. When Harris objected to his reassignment to the less desirable apartment, Hough initiated an Article 78 proceeding in New York state court and obtained a Decision and Order transferring Harris's housing rights to the McGiffert Hall Apartment.
Harris alleges that attorneys Batterman and Fullerton conspired with Hough to obtain this Decision and Order and to deprive Harris of due process, to prevent him from suing to enforce the Contract, to force his compliance with the reassignment scheme, to deprive him of the apartment to which he was contractually entitled, and to prevent him from giving evidence in the Article 78 proceeding regarding the Contract and the fact that a number of Caucasian professors had been exempted from the reassignment scheme. He alleges that, "in furtherance of the conspiracy," Batterman, Fullerton, and Hough submitted an affidavit from Hough falsely representing the Seminary's financial condition and attesting that Harris's holdover tenancy of the Knox Hall Apartment would put the Seminary in a state of "financial exigency from which it might never recover" and stating that Harris had no contractual entitlement to the Knox Hall Apartment. Batterman, Fullerton, and Hough also opposed Harris's motion for limited discovery to obtain evidence refuting Hough's statement regarding the Seminary's financial condition. He further alleges that these individuals "conspired with [the] Court" to prevent the conversion of the Article 78 proceeding into a plenary contract action. They also submitted an identical affidavit in opposition to a discrimination action that Harris had filed before the State Division of Human Rights.
Although it is not entirely clear from the Complaint, the Seminary was apparently attempting to vacate Knox Hall to turn it over to Columbia University, with which the Seminary is affiliated.
Soon thereafter, Hough obtained an Eviction Order from the New York County Housing Court. That Order granted Hough a warrant to evict Harris from the Knox Hill Apartment. Harris alleges that Hough "began a conspiracy [with Batterman, Fullerton, and others] to rescind [Harris's] contractual rights to any and all housing in the Seminary" by threatening to deny Harris rights to any faculty housing if he did not voluntarily vacate the Knox Hall Apartment by March 11, 2004. Harris alleges that these actions were taken without the consent of the Seminary's Executive Board. On March 23, 2004, Harris and his
Comments