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Yagman Loses Federal Appeal Over $1,000 Parking Ticket
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed the dismissal of a civil rights action by one-time prominent attorney Stephen Yagman who claimed constitutional deprivations by virtue of a $1,000 parking fine he received for occupying a space for handicapped motorists without displaying the required placard and a $3.50 service fee in connection with an administrative appeal.
Yagman sued members of the Beverly Hills City Council and the city’s Parking and Traffic Commission and others based on a July 8, 2021 citation he received, and paid under protest. Not revealed in his amended complaint was that the $1,000 payment was returned after it was determined that he does possess a disabled placard but had not displayed it.
District Court Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. of the Central District of California, in dismissing the action with prejudice on Nov. 22, found Yagman’s pleading of constitutional violations to be defective, and observed in a footnote that the plaintiff “fails to explain how he can ‘in good faith allege additional facts that would plausibly state a claim’ in light of the refund.”
Yagman claimed the defendants violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive fines, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) based on extortion and obstruction of justice, and were participants in a conspiracy. He sought $1,003.50 for the supposed RICO violations, trebled, compensatory damages of $1,003.50 for the other violations, and “not less than $1,000,000.00 per defendant” as punitive damages.
The Ninth Circuit said, in a memorandum opinion yesterday:
“The district court properly dismissed Yagman’s action because Yagman failed to allege facts sufficient to state a plausible claim….
The district court did not abuse its discretion by denying further leave to amend because amendment would have been futile.” The case is Yagman v. Wunderlich, 21-56277. Yagman was convicted in 2007 in the District Court for the Central District of California on 17 counts of money laundering and one count each of attempting to evade federal income taxes and bankruptcy fraud, and was disbarred in California based on that conviction. Although he has regained his State Bar license, the Ninth Circuit on June 17, in a 2-1 opinion, denied a lifting of that court’s reciprocal disbarment on the ground that Yagman remains disbarred in New York.
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