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9852. ANGELO RUOTOLO, plf-ap, v. MUSSMAN & NORTHEY def-res — ANGELO RUOTOLO, APPELLANT PRO SE. Traub Lieberman Straus & Shrewsberry, LLP, Hawthorne (Hillary J. Raimondi of counsel), for res — Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Saliann Scarpulla, J.), entered April 5, 2012, which granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

In this legal malpractice action, plaintiff, a retired New York City police officer, retained defendants to represent him in a lawsuit against the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the City of New York. The complaint in that lawsuit alleged retaliation in violation of the First Amendment based on plaintiff’s writing of a report, written pursuant to his duties as a safety officer, that identified certain possible environmental hazards at his police precinct. The complaint was dismissed because, while the case was pending, the United States Supreme Court held, in Garcetti v. Ceballos (547 US 410 [2006]), that a government employee cannot claim First Amendment violations against his employer based on speech made “pursuant to” the employee’s official duties (id. at 421).

 
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