Gagliardi v. Village of Pawling, 18 F. 3d 188 - Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit 1994

Plaintiffs-appellants Vincent and Sally Gagliardi appeal from a judgment entered on May 27, 1993 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Brieant, J.) dismissing their complaint for failure to state claims under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1985 & 1986. The Gagliardis allege in the complaint that the Village of Pawling, the Pawling Village Zoning Board of Appeals ( ZBA ) and its individual members, the Pawling Village Planning Board ( Planning Board ), the Pawling Village Board of Trustees ( Board of Trustees ) and Village Building Inspector Bluford Jackson (collectively, the Municipal Defendants ) made improper zoning decisions affecting industrially zoned property owned by the Lumelite Corporation adjacent to the Gagliardis\u27 residentially zoned property. They also allege that the Municipal Defendants failed to enforce the zoning laws as to the Lumelite property, all in a series of purposeful, retaliatory and conspiratorial actions designed to deprive them of their constitutional rights to substantive and procedural due process, equal protection and free speech. The district court dismissed the complaint, finding that the Gagliardis did not have a property right in the enforcement of the zoning laws against others and that they failed to establish any viable equal protection or free speech claims. The Gagliardis contend on appeal that the district court erred in dismissing the complaint. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court\u27s dismissal of the due process and equal protection claims and reverse the dismissal of the free speech claim