17-c-2 Pursuing a Remedy in Court

• Library: A Jailhouse Lawyer's Manual (2020 Edition)

17-C-2. Pursuing a Remedy in Court

(a) Choosing a Court

Where you file suit depends on the circumstances of your case, whom you want to sue, and what kind of relief you are seeking. Generally, the Court of Claims hears suits against the state, including people acting as representatives of the state, and the New York State Supreme Court hears suits against people acting as individuals. If you want to sue individuals for violating your federal constitutional rights, you would sue in federal court.

(i) Filing in the Court of Claims

If you wish to sue the State of New York (if, for example, you are a prisoner in a state prison and you believe the state's employees have harmed you), you must sue in the New York Court of Claims. ⁷⁵ In fact, the State of New York, and certain public authorities, are the only defendants you can name in a suit before the Court of Claims.⁷⁶ If a state guard or other employee has harmed you in the course of his employment, you may sue the state for damages in the Court of Claims.⁷⁷ As long as the employee was acting in his official capacity, you may not sue him personally.⁷⁸ If the employee's actions (or lack of action) are discretionary, which means they have a choice to act, they cannot even if they have bad intentions.⁷⁹ If, however, an employee does something to you that is clearly outside the scope of his employment (for example, a criminal act unrelated to any part of the employee's duty), you may then sue that individual in the New York Supreme Court (New York's general trial court) or in federal court under Section 1983. ⁸⁰ Remember that in federal prisons, officials are employed by the federal government rather than the state; you cannot bring a suit against a state for the actions of federal employees. ⁸¹

Though there are some exceptions that will be discussed below, the Court of Claims can generally only award money damages. It cannot prohibit the prison from using punishment that violates your constitutional rights, or fix unconstitutional conditions in the prison. You must address these concerns in either a Section 1983 proceeding or an Article 78 claim. ⁸²

You also cannot bring suit in the Court of Claims to attack your sentence or any decision made by prison or parole officials regarding your status. Such complaints must be made under New York Civil Practice Law Article 78 (proceedings against body or officer) or Article 70 (state habeas corpus), or New York Criminal Procedure Law Article 440 (post-judgment motions). ⁸³ You may, however, attack your conviction under the Court of Claims Act § 8-b, which allows a suit for damages if the prosecutor used improper means to secure your conviction. ⁸⁴ But, to win this suit, you must prove by clear and convincing evidence that you have served all or any part of your sentence resulting from your felony or misdemeanor conviction(s), ⁸⁵ that you have been pardoned of the crime, ⁸⁶ or that the judgment of conviction against you has been reversed or vacated and the document that accuses you has been dismissed.⁸⁷ You must also prove that you did not commit the charged acts or that your acts did not constitute a felony or misdemeanor, ⁸⁸ and that you did not cause your conviction by your own conduct.⁸⁹

(ii) Filing in the New York State Supreme Court You can sue an individual state employee (for example, a prison employee) in the New York Supreme Court (the trial court) only if that employee (1) owes you a duty as an individual, and (2) was not acting in an official capacity in the exercise of governmental functions. If the employee does not owe you a duty as an individual or was acting in his official capacity when he injured you, you will have to sue the state in the Court of Claims. ⁹⁰ You cannot sue the State of New York for damages in the New York Supreme Court; as discussed above, those suits must be brought in the Court of Claims. However, if you are suing the state in order to receive something other than money damages, such as injunctive relief (a court order requiring the state to take or refrain from taking some particular action), you may sue in the New York Supreme Court.

(iii) Filing in Federal Court

If you want to sue an individual state employee for violating your federal constitutional rights, federal court is an appropriate place to file suit. In federal court, you may receive damages and injunctive relief. For a full discussion of how to file a claim in federal court against a state employee for the violation of your federal rights, see Chapter 16 of the JLM, "Using 42 U.S.C. §1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1331 to Obtain Relief from Violations of Federal Law."

(b) Pursuing Your Case in the Court of Claims

(i) Types of Relief

If you prove that you were the victim of a tort, whether intentional or negligent, the court will order the tortfeasor to compensate you for the loss you suffered, most likely by paying a sum of money. Such a court-ordered payment is called "damages." ⁹¹ A court may award you three kinds of damages: compensatory, punitive, and nominal.⁹²

"Compensatory damages," the most common form of damages, attempt to match the amount of your loss. For example, the court might order payments that are enough to replace your personal items that were destroyed (such as a watch), or to pay you the money you spent on medical bills after an injury.⁹³ The court can also order payments to compensate you for your pain and suffering, ⁹⁴ which can include the time after the injury during which you continue to suffer

"Punitive damages" are court-ordered payments that add to the amount that would repay you for the loss or injury suffered. These extra damages are generally awarded when the tort was accompanied by violence, force, hatred, fraud, or vicious and evil conduct on the part of the wrongdoer. ⁹⁵ Punitive damages are intended to punish the wrongdoer, rather than to compensate the injured party. ⁹⁶ It is important to note that the Court of Claims will not order the state to award you punitive damages. ⁹⁷

Nominal damages are very small amounts of money awarded by courts in order to acknowledge that a right has been violated, even if there is no big loss or injury to be compensated for.⁹⁸ The Court may also order nominal damages if it does find a real injury, but the evidence does not show what amount would compensate for that injury.

Aside from these money awards, the Court of Claims may force people or organizations to perform or stop performing specific acts. This is called an injunction.⁹⁹ The Court of Claims can only issue an injunction if an injunction is allowed by law or if it is part of a judgment to pay money awards.¹⁰⁰ Otherwise, if you are seeking an injunction, you must bring your suit in the New York Supreme Court or in federal court. This means that you cannot bring a suit in the Court of Claims asking for general changes to the conditions in your prison because the Court of Claims cannot order the state to correct those conditions. ¹⁰¹

(ii) Settlements in the Court of Claims

There is no limit to the amount of damages the Court of Claims may award. However, the court must approve the amount. ¹⁰² It is also possible to settle your claim against the state out of court. When the state offers you a settlement, it is not necessarily agreeing that it did something wrong, but is offering to pay you some amount of money instead of going to trial. When you reach a settlement with the state, you give up your right to ask the court for more damages. By contrast, if you go to trial and are given damages that you think are too low, you may then appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York requesting more damages.

(iii) Filing Time Limits

If you want to file a claim because a state employee's negligent or intentional act physically injured your body, you have ninety days from the time of the injury or loss ¹⁰³ in which to either

(1) file your claim, or

(2) serve a Notice of Intention to File a Claim with the Attorney General.¹⁰⁴ To "serve" a legal document means to deliver it to the party you are suing. If you do not do either of these things, you may not be allowed to file at all. ¹⁰⁵ Whether you are filing a claim or serving a Notice of Intention, the document must be received within the ninety-day deadline. Part D(1)(c) below explains how to make sure your document has been received within the deadline. These time limits exist even if you are proceeding with other administrative remedies required by your institution.

You must file a Notice of Intention to alert the state of your claim so it has a chance to respond to your complaint or prepare for its defense. See Appendix A-1 of this Chapter for a sample "Notice of Intention" form. If you are asking the court for permission to file a late claim, you need to tell the court why your late filing has not prevented the state from getting its defense ready.

Filing a Notice of Intention is not the same as beginning a lawsuit; it only preserves your right to file a lawsuit against the State in the future. Once you serve a Notice of Intention to File a Claim with the Attorney General, you have two years to file a claim for a negligent or unintentional tort, and one year to file a claim for an intentional tort. ¹⁰⁶ These time limits start counting at the moment your claim "accrues" (when the...