Augustin J. San Filippo v. United States Trust Company of New York

Background

Augustin San Filippo, an individual, sued a bank and two of its officers under the federal civil-rights law for malicious prosecution. He says the officers conspired with a New York County assistant district attorney to present false testimony to a grand jury investigating alleged loan fraud. A grand jury indicted him, but a later trial jury acquitted him. The officers asked the trial court for a protective order, dismissal, and summary judgment partly because they claimed absolute immunity for their grand jury testimony and related off-the-record discussions with the prosecutor; the district court denied those motions and the Second Circuit reviewed the denials.

Reasoning

The Second Circuit held the officers had absolute immunity for their actual grand jury testimony but not for any off-the-record conspiracy with the prosecutor that led to the testimony. That court also concluded the plaintiff’s conspiracy allegations were “completely unsubstantiated” and therefore legally insufficient. Because the conspiracy ruling was not clearly appealable on its own, the court said it could decide that issue under a pendent-appellate-jurisdiction doctrine to avoid wasting judicial resources.

Real world impact

The Supreme Court denied review, leaving the Second Circuit’s handling of immunity and the sufficiency of the conspiracy allegations in place for now. That means the lower-court outcome stands in this case and will guide how similar claims are treated in that circuit unless the Court later agrees to hear the issues. This order is not a final Supreme Court ruling on the larger legal questions and could be revisited in a future case.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice White dissented from the denial and would have granted review to clarify when pretrial orders are appealable and whether officers receive absolute immunity for off-the-stand contacts with prosecutors.