Wrongful prosecution claim deadlines
John Alan Sakon v. John Johnson
In brief
- Where it stands
- Petition Pending
Awaiting an order on the petition
- What it’s about
- John Alan Sakon asks the Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit’s decision upholding dismissal of his claims as too late.
- What's at stake
- The Second Circuit's dismissal remains in place while Sakon's request for Supreme Court review is pending.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
He argues that the courts misapplied rules for when his claim over an allegedly wrongful prosecution could be filed and bankruptcy protections, and that an officer’s warrant application did not give enough grounds for a larceny charge; his petition is pending.
Sakon challenges when the deadline began for his claim over an allegedly wrongful prosecution, how Connecticut law and bankruptcy protections affect that deadline, and whether an officer had enough evidence to justify a larceny warrant.
Question presented
1. Whether the rule that a Fourth Amendment malicious-prosecution claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 accrues on the date a nolle prosequi is entered, as the 2 nd Circuit Court's decision in Spak v. Phillips, 857 F.3d 458 (2d Cir. 2017), was applied by the panel below, survives Thompson v. Clark, 596 U.S. 36 (2022), which held that such a claim accrues only when the underlying criminal proceeding has been disposed of in a manner that “ cannot be revived. ”? 2. Whether, under Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938), a federal court may apply a claim-accrual rule for the state-law tort underlying a § 1983 malicious-prosecution claim that conflicts with the accrual rule the State itself has enacted, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-577f, and confirmed through its appellate courts, Lopes v. Farmer, 286 Conn. 384 (2008), and Washington v. Ivancic, 113 Conn. App. 131 (2009). 3. Whether the court of appeals committed reversible error by affirming dismissal of Petitioner's claims as time-barred without addressing the tolling provision of 11 U.S.C. § 108(a), where Petitioner's claims were property of a bankruptcy estate, subject to an automatic stay, and were not abandoned back to him until the bankruptcy court's order of August 1, 2021 — a dispositive, squarely presented question of federal statutory law that the panel's summary order does not address. 4. Whether an officer's arrest warrant application can establish probable cause for larceny as a matter of law where the application accounts only for the income a property manager received from the property, with no accounting for the correlative business expenses the officer knew the manager was responsible for paying, and where an accounting of those expenses was independently available in the municipal Assessment records but the officer failed to review it.
What happens next
The Court must decide whether to hear the case. No oral argument or decision window is set before the Court grants review.
Documents
Docket activity
Case data updated: title
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
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Brief added: Petition
Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.