In Savadjian v. Caride, U.S. District Judge Wolfson reaffirmed what should be the familiar doctrine that a civil rights suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 can’t be used as a back door to obtain judicial review in the federal courts of a quasi-judicial administrative proceeding under state law.

The case arose from a proceeding by the Department of Banking and Insurance to revoke Savadjian’s insurance producer license. As provided by the New Jersey Administrative Procedure Act, Savadjian received a contested case hearing before an administrative law judge. In a motion in limine, the ALJ excluded recordings of telephone calls by Savadjian for lack of authentication. Pursuant to the Uniform Administrative Procedure Rules, N.J.A.C. 1:1-14.10(a), DOBI obtained interlocutory review of this evidentiary ruling by Commissioner Caride. In a 59-page ruling, the commissioner reversed the ALJ and remanded for hearing on the merits. Savadjian sought leave to appeal to the Appellate Division, which was denied. Rather than exhaust his administrative remedies and appeal any final ruling against him, Savadjian then sought to short circuit the process by filing a § 1983 complaint against the commissioner in her individual capacity, alleging that her ruling was beyond the scope of her authority and had denied her due process.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]