| Maldonado v City of New York |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 01958 [60 AD3d 822] |
| March 17, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| Matilda Maldonado et al., Appellants, v City of New Yorket al., Respondents. |
—[*1] Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York, N.Y. (Larry A. Sonnenshein andDeborah A. Brenner of counsel), for respondents.
In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for deprivation of civil rights under theFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and 42 USC § 1983, falseimprisonment, assault, and battery, the plaintiffs appeal, as limited by their brief, from so muchof an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Kerrigan, J.), dated May 25, 2007, as deniedtheir motion for summary judgment and granted those branches of the defendants' cross motionwhich were for summary judgment dismissing the causes of action alleging deprivation of civilrights, false imprisonment, assault, and battery.
Ordered that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
The Supreme Court properly dismissed the causes of action to recover damages fordeprivation of civil rights and false imprisonment. Under the circumstances of this case, theconduct of the defendants was supported by probable cause, as the police officers had areasonable belief that an offense was being committed in the home at issue (see People vMaldonado, 86 NY2d 631, 635 [1995]; People v Brown, 274 AD2d 941, 942 [2000];People v Kelly, 261 AD2d 133 [1999]).
Further, as the officers' entry into the home was lawful, any initial detention of the plaintiffswas privileged, and the plaintiffs did not submit any evidence that they were detained beyond theofficers' initial lawful entry. Under these circumstances, the Supreme Court properly dismissedthe plaintiffs' claims to recover damages for false imprisonment (see Lee v City of New [*2]York, 272 AD2d 586 [2000]; see also Broughton v State ofNew York, 37 NY2d 451, 456 [1975], cert denied 423 US 929 [1975]).
Under the circumstances of this case, the Supreme Court also properly dismissed the causeof action sounding in assault in light of the burglary that appeared to be in progress (see Baezv City of Amsterdam, 245 AD2d 705, 707 [1997]) and the cause of action to recoverdamages for battery absent the requisite element of intent (see Cotter v Summit Sec. Servs., Inc., 14 AD3d 475, 476 [2005]).
The plaintiffs contend that their "cause of action [to recover damages] for intentionalinfliction of emotional distress against the individual defendants should not have beendismissed." However, the defendants never cross-moved to dismiss the plaintiffs' claims torecover damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress insofar as asserted against theindividual defendants, and those claims were not dismissed by the Supreme Court.
The plaintiffs' remaining contentions are either without merit or rendered academic.Prudenti, P.J., Mastro, Fisher and Dillon, JJ., concur. [See 2007 NY Slip Op 31418(U).]