Grezak v. Grezak
670 F. App'x 15
2d Cir.
2016
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Grazyna GREZAK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Evelina GREZAK, Defendant-Appellee, Nancy Rubenstein, Defendant.

No. 15-2490-cv

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

November 4, 2016

APPEARING FOR APPELLANT: GRAZYNA SKLODOWSKA-GREZAK, pro se, Cresco, Pennsylvania.

APPEARING FOR APPELLEE: MATTHEW R. SHAPIRO (Beth C. Finkelstein, on the brief), Ropes & Gray LLP, New York, New York.

PRESENT: PIERRE N. LEVAL, ROBERT D. SACK, REENA RAGGI, Circuit Judges.

SUMMARY ORDER

Plaintiff Grazyna Grezak appeals from a judgment denying reconsideration of the magistrate judge’s May 15, 2015 order imposing a leave-to-file sanction. That order bars Grezak from (1) filing new claims in the Eastern District of New York against her daughter, appellee Evelina Grezak, and (2) alleging breach of her settlement agreement with appellee, without first obtaining leave from the magistrate judge. Grezak argues that she was entitled to reconsideration because sanctions were imposed without affording her the notice and opportunity to respond to Evelina’s motion for sanctions required by due process. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the facts and record of prior proceedings, which we reference only as necessary to explain our decision to affirm.

We review both the imposition of a leave-to-file sanction and the denial of a motion for reconsideration for abuse of discretion, see, e.g., (sanction); (reconsideration), which we will identify only when a court’s decision rests on an error of law or clearly erroneous factual finding, or cannot otherwise “be located within the range of permissible decisions,” (internal quotation marks omitted). That is not this case. The challenged sanction order did not take effect here until the district court denied Grezak’s motion for reconsideration. (requiring notice and opportunity to be heard before imposition of leave-to-file sanction).1 Thus, (1) the magistrate judge’s May 15, 2015 order, in addition to the March 24, 2015 order directing the plaintiff to “cease filing duplicative motions in this action,” S.A. 93, put Grezak on notice of the sanction, and (2) she was afforded a meaningful opportunity to be heard by the district court by virtue of her motion for reconsideration.

In denying reconsideration, moreover, the district court provided an ample factual basis for the leave-to-file sanction, noting the “stream of motions, requests, and diatribes” received by the court over the course of the litigation and even after settlement. Pl.’s App’x 37; (noting that among relevant factors are whether suits are “vexatious, harassing or duplicative” and whether litigant “has caused needless expense to other parties” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Its conclusion that the sanction crafted by the magistrate judge was sufficiently narrowly tailored was not outside the “range of permissible decisions.” (internal quotation marks omitted). Accordingly, we identify no abuse of discretion.2

We have reviewed Grezak’s remaining arguments and find them to be without merit. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

BT HOLDINGS, LLC, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VILLAGE OF CHESTER and Village of Chester Board of Trustees, Defendants-Appellees,

No. 16-707

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

November 4, 2016

For Plaintiff-Appellant: LARRY WOLINSKY (Kelly A. Pressler, on the brief), Jacobowitz and Gubits, LLP, Walden, NY.

For Defendants-Appellees: MARY E. BRADY MARZOLLA (Dennis E. A. Lynch, on the brief), Feerick Lynch MacCartney & Nugent, PLLC, South Nyack, NY.

PRESENT: ROBERT A. KATZMANN, Chief Judge, RICHARD C. WESLEY, SUSAN L. CARNEY, Circuit Judges.

SUMMARY ORDER

Plaintiff-Appellant BT Holdings, LLC (“BT Holdings”) appeals from the order and opinion of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Seibel, J.) entered on February 23, 2016, granting Defendants-Appellees Village of Chester (“Village of Chester”) and Village of Chester Board of Trustees’s (“Village Board”) motion to dismiss BT Holdings’s regulatory takings claim as unripe. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, procedural history, and issues on appeal.

“We review de novo a district court’s determination that it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction on ripeness grounds.” . To establish jurisdiction in this zoning dispute, BT Holdings has “the ‘high burden’ of proving that we can look to a final, definitive position from

Notes

1
Grezak does not here suggest that the magistrate judge exceeded her authority in imposing the challenged sanction and, thus, we have no reason to consider whether the district court was required to conduct de novo review (or, if so, whether effectively did so). Compare (suggesting that leave-to-file sanction is a form of injunctive relief); 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A) (excluding injunctive relief from pretrial matters that can be decided by magistrate judge subject to abuse-of-discretion review by district court), with (noting for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1), immediately appealable orders are orders which “give or aid in giving some or all of the substantive relief sought by a complaint . . . and [do not include] restraints or directions in orders concerning the conduct of the parties or their counsel, unrelated to the substantive issues in the action, while awaiting trial”); (same); 9 J. Moore, Federal Practice ¶ 110.20(1), at 233 (2d ed. 1973) (same).
2
Grezak’s brief might be read to suggest that she is also appealing the district court’s denial of reconsideration with respect to a second order, which involved, inter alia, the denial of sanctions sought by Grezak. Because that order is not mentioned in Grezak’s statement of issues and no argument is ever developed, we deem any challenges to that court decision waived. .
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