This post was authored by Amy Lavine, Esq.

Ateres Bais Yaakov Academy of Rockland (“ABY”), an Orthodox Jewish school, entered into a contract in 2018 to purchase certain real property from Grace Church. Although the property had been used as a school for several decades, the pending sale to ABY was met with opposition from certain local officials and community organizations. Town Supervisor George Hoehmann, for example, stated that the town would “strongly enforce” its building and zoning regulations on the property, and residents who were opposed to ABY created a local chapter of Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhoods (“CUPON”) in order to prevent the sale from going forward. After its building permit application was denied, ABY appealed to the zoning board of appeals, and delays in the process ultimately resulted in ABY losing its financing. The contract to purchase the property was subsequently cancelled when ABY failed to close on the property by the required date. ABY then brought this case against the town, Supervisor Hoehmann, and CUPON alleging claims under RLUIPA, violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, violations of freedom of worship and assembly under the New York Constitution, as well as a conspiracy claim and a claim for tortious interference with a contract. The District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the complaint on jurisdictional grounds, finding that ABY’s claims were not yet ripe because it hadn’t received a final decision from the zoning board, and also finding that its tortious interference claim was not traceable to the town defendants because the town couldn’t be held responsible for independent decisions made by Grace Church and ABY’s potential financing partners. ABY then brought the instant appeal.

On appeal, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s decision. The court found that the zoning board’s refusal to entertain ABY’s application amounted to a decision that was sufficiently final for ripeness purposes. As the court explained: “Here, ABY plausibly alleges that it submitted a meaningful application for a variance to the ZBA after its Building Permit Application was denied…. Following that denial, the ZBA declined to respond to at least five letters urging it to schedule a hearing…. Finally, on July 9, 2019, Town counsel wrote to ABY that the ZBA “will not entertain any appeal by [ABY] with respect to the [property].” This letter made the ZBA’s position pellucid: it had reached a decision to dismiss ABY’s appeal without revisiting the Building Inspector’s decision, and it intended the decision to be final. At this point, there was nothing more ABY could have done.” These events were sufficient to constitute at least to de facto finality, the court concluded, and that was all that was required to demonstrate ripeness for ABY’s religious discrimination and civil rights claims.

The court next held that ABY plausibly alleged a causal connection between the defendants’ conduct and the loss of its contract to purchase the Grace Church property. As the court explained: “We have been clear that the causal-connection element of Article III standing, which is the requirement that the plaintiff’s injury be fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant and not the result of the independent action of some third party not before the court, does not create an onerous standard. It requires no more than de facto causality, a standard that is, of course, lower than for proximate causation. ABY passes this test. It plausibly alleges that the Town Defendants took steps to frustrate its planned acquisition of the Grace Church property—steps that predictably prevented ABY from securing the regulatory approvals necessary to acquire the property, cut off ABY’s access to public and private financing, and led to Grace Church’s termination of the contract…. We therefore conclude that the Amended Complaint plausibly alleged a causal connection between the Town Defendants’ actions and injuries that resulted from ABY’s lost contract.”

Following the Second Circuit’s determination in this case, the Town of Clarkstown agreed to pay $200,000 to Ateres Bais Yaakov Academy. The settlement also requires town officials to attend a religious liberty land use training, including the members of the town board, the zoning board of appeals, and the planning board. See Clarkstown Pays Yeshiva $200,000 To Settle Grace Baptist Church RLUIPA Case, Rockland County Business Journal, 4/4/24.

Ateres Bais Yaakov Acad. of Rockland v. Town of Clarkstown, 88 F.4th 344 (2d Cir 12/8/23)