Rebecca TAYLOR, deceased, by and through Holly WAZYLUK, her personal representative, Karl Hunter, and Heiwa Salovitz, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The HOUSING AUTHORITY OF the CITY OF NEW HAVEN, Jimmy Miller, individually, Karen Dubois-Walton, individually and as Executive Director of the Housing Authority, David Alvarado, Ilona Leffingwell, Louise Persall, Robert Solomon, and Jason Turner, as officials and board members of the Housing Authority, Defendants-Appellees.
Docket No. 10-1144-cv.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Argued: April 11, 2011. Decided: May 4, 2011.
641 F.3d 152
* The Clerk of the Court is directed to revise the official caption to conform to the above.
In sum, the district court‘s analysis with respect to defendants’ affirmative defense based on lack of personal jurisdiction was a substantial and unjustified deviation from well-known and easily understood principles of New York law. The jurisdictional analysis performed by the court below appears to be based on one federal judge‘s view of how the law of New York ought to be constructed, rather than on how it is clearly delineated by statute and in the decisions of the state and federal courts.
By virtue of their default prior to trial, defendants waived their defense based on lack of personal jurisdiction. See Transaero, Inc. v. La Fuerza Aerea Boliviana, 162 F.3d 724, 729 (2d Cir.1998). Therefore, I join the majority‘s well-written opinion. But an affirmance here is not an endorsement of the jurisdictional analysis conducted below. One‘s agreement or disagreement with the policies that animate liability rules for firearms retailers cannot bear on jurisdictional analysis. The district court was bound to apply New York‘s long-arm statute, as clearly interpreted by the New York Court of Appeals. The court below did not do so in this case.
Jennifer Childress Vickery, Law Office of Jennifer Vickery, New Haven, CT, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Donn A. Swift, Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante, New Haven, CT, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before: KEARSE, MINER, and CHIN, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Plaintiffs-appellants, Rebecca Taylor, Karl Hunter, and Heiwa Salovitz (“plaintiffs“), commenced this action, alleging that defendants-appellees, the Housing Authority of the City of New Haven (“HANH“) and a group of HANH officials (“defendants“), discriminated against them in administering New Haven‘s Housing Choice Voucher (“Section 8“) program, in violation of plaintiffs’ rights under the Fair Housing Act,
On appeal, plaintiffs challenge the district court‘s (1) conclusion that
This Court has not addressed the private enforceability of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD“) regulations at issue here or the private enforceability of agency regulations generally since the Supreme Court‘s decision in Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275, 121 S.Ct. 1511, 149 L.Ed.2d 517 (2001). The Sandoval Court held that a regulation may be privately enforced if it “invoke[s] a private right of action that Congress through statutory text created.” Id. at 291, 121 S.Ct. 1511. In other words, a right of action “can extend no further than” the personal right conferred by the plain language of the statute. Taylor II, 267 F.R.D. at 42-43; see Gonzaga Univ. v. Doe, 536 U.S. 273, 283, 122 S.Ct. 2268, 153 L.Ed.2d 309 (2002); Sandoval, 532 U.S. at 291, 121 S.Ct. 1511 (“Agencies may play
We adopt the district court‘s carefully considered and thorough discussion of these issues. See Taylor II, 267 F.R.D. at 40-47, 52-54; see also Three Rivers Ctr. for Indep. Living, Inc. v. Hous. Auth. of Pittsburgh, 382 F.3d 412, 418-32 (3d Cir.2004) (reaching analogous conclusions with respect to HUD regulations at
We have considered plaintiffs’ remaining arguments and conclude that they are without merit, for the reasons articulated in Taylor II. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.