Claims against City of Rochester dismissed

In Ersin Yaman v. Louis S. D'Angelo, et al., the plaintiff challenged the constitutionality of Chapter 96 of the City of Rochester Municipal Code, which requires a person dealing in secondhand jewelry to obtain a license.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York disagreed with the plaintiff that the statute was unconstitutional and thus dismissed the plaintiff's claim. The court also found there was insufficient evidence that police officers of the City of Rochester violated the plaintiff's constitutional rights with regard to his secondhand jewelry business.

Case Background

The instant dispute stemmed from a business known as the Ace of Diamonds that the plaintiff, Ersin Yaman, operated in the City of Rochester. The business involved Yaman paying cash for secondhand jewelry, and then selling it to a refinery, where it would be melted down.

Yaman alleged City of Rochester police officers violated his constitutional rights by failing to approve his application for a license for the Ace of Diamonds. According to the city's municipal code, a license must be obtained and renewed annually by any person dealing in secondhand jewelry, gold or silver. Yaman, however, had failed to renew his license for the Ace of Diamonds, which had expired in December 1997.

When Yaman applied for a license in May 1998, the police told him that no action would be taken on his application, due to his outstanding municipal code violations bureau judgments. Some of those violations included his failure to record the personal information of persons from whom he purchased jewelry, engaging in secondhand sales without a license for more than 10 months, and conducting secondhand transactions in 1998 and failing to report those transactions to the police department as required.

However, Yaman contended that his application for a license was unfairly denied in retaliation for an incident in May 1996 where the police were allegedly upset at him for allowing an employee to leave his car parked in a short-term parking space.

In addition to denying his license for the Ace of Diamonds store, Yaman alleged the police harassed him with regard to another store he owned known as Hatice Jewelers, which sold new jewelry. Yaman claimed the police allegedly told wholesale suppliers that he was engaged in illegal activities, which caused the wholesale suppliers to stop dealing with him.

Court Proceedings

Challenging the denial of his license by the Rochester Police Dept., Yaman filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in June 2001. The City of Rochester removed the action to federal court.

Yaman alleged that the city and its police officers violated his constitutional rights under the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments by depriving him of the ability to run a business and thus earn a living all without justification, probable cause, order of a court, and without being afforded an opportunity for a hearing.

Yaman further claimed Chapter 96 of the city's municipal code was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and that it violated his constitutional rights since it gave the police department the power to deny a secondhand dealer's license without giving the applicant the right of appeal and/or a hearing in case of denial.

The city denied Yaman's claims and filed a motion for summary judgment.

The court initially granted the city's motion in part by dismissing the procedural due process claims based on its finding that there was no due process violation since the city provided adequate hearing procedures.

However, the court found Yaman's section 1983 claim against both the police officers and the city could go forward to the extent that Yaman alleged that the city wrongfully denied him the right to earn a living by selling new jewelry, an activity for which he apparently did not need a permit.

'Right To Earn Living' Claim

The court first ruled that there was no merit to Yaman's claim that the police interfered with his right to earn a living.

[T]he court finds that defendants are entitled to summary judgment on plaintiff's right to earn a living claim, wrote Judge Charles J. Siragusa. In this regard, the court finds that plaintiff had no property right in earning a living as a secondhand dealer, since he did not have a license.

While Yaman contended that he also sold new jewelry to people who would ask him to find them a particular item at the secondhand store, the facts of the case showed that his own business associate denied that the Ace of Diamonds sold new jewelry. Moreover, there was no evidence that the police knew that Yaman was doing any retail business at the Ace of Diamonds.

Rather, the record indicates that the police were merely attempting to prevent plaintiff from unlawfully dealing in secondhand goods without a license, as he had repeatedly done in the past, noted Judge Siragusa.

Chapter 96, City Code

The court also rejected Yaman's claim that Chapter 96 of the city's municipal code was unconstitutionally vague or overbroad.

Rochester Municipal Code Section 96 specifically provides that the chief of police may deny a license or deny the renewal of a license to any applicant who is not of good moral character, who is not a fit and proper person to hold a license issued under this chapter or who makes a material misrepresentation on the license application.

[T]he court finds that the statute was not unconstitutionally vague as applied, concluded Judge Siragusa, referring to Merco Properties, Inc. v. Guggenheimer, 395 FSupp 1322, 1330 (SDNY 1975). It was clearly not unreasonable for defendants to deny plaintiff a secondhand dealer's license, since he had, over a period of years, repeatedly violated the requirements of the statute, by failing to forward transaction cards to the police chief as required, and by continuing to operate during periods when his license was expired.

Court's Ruling

The court granted the City of Rochester's motion for summary judgment and the case was dismissed.

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