Sound Aircraft Services v. Town of East Hampton, 192 F. 3d 329 - Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit 1999

Defendants-appellants the Town of East Hampton (the Town ), the Town Board of the Town of East Hampton (the Town Board ) and Thomas Knobel, Nancy McCaffrey and Leonard Bernard, individually and as members of the Town Board (the Town Board members or members ) appeal from a portion of an order entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Platt, J.) in an action brought against them and others by plaintiffs-appellees Sound Aircraft Services, Inc. ( Sound Aircraft ), Shoreline Aviation, Inc. ( Shoreline ), and JIB, Inc. d/b/a Action Airlines ( Action ) (collectively, Sound ). The action arises out of the award of a long-term hangar lease at the Town of East Hampton Airport (the Airport ). The portion of the order appealed from rejects the defense of qualified immunity raised in a motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state claims. The Town Board members contend that the district court improperly considered the members\u27 intent as relevant to their qualified immunity defense. Sound argues that the Town Board members\u27 conduct violated clearly established rights of Sound to equal protection of the laws and to the benefit of the protection of an anti-discrimination provision of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982, 49 U.S.C. § 47107(a). For the reasons that follow, we vacate the order and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion