Lawrence & Wilson v. Chancery Ct. of TN, Corlew, McCoy, Bratcher, Bonnyman, Chancery Ct. of the Sixteenth Jud. Dist. & Chancery of the Twentieth Jud. Dist.
| Decision Date | 04 August 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-6019,98-6019 |
| Parties | (6th Cir. 1999) Joyce R. Lawrence and Caroline Wilson, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Chancery Court of Tennessee; Robert E. Corlew, III, Chancellor; Carol McCoy, Chancellor; John A.W. Bratcher, Clerk and Master; Claudia A. Bonnyman, Clerk and Master; ; and Chancery Court of the Twentieth Judicial District, Defendants-Appellees. UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT Submitted: |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville, No. 98-00130--Thomas A. Higgins, District Judge.
Richard J. Braun, RICHARD J. BRAUN & ASSOCIATES, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellants.
Heather C. Ross, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, CIVIL RIGHTS & CLAIMS DIVISION, Nashville, Tennessee, for Defendants-Appellees
David Randall Mantooth, LEITNER, WILLIAMS, DOOLEY & NAPOLITAN, PLLC, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellees.
Paul D. Krivacka, METROPOLITAN LEGAL DEPARTMENT, Nashville, Tennessee, for Defendant-Appellee.
Before: SILER and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; GRAHAM, District Judge.*
At issue in this case is whether 28 U.S.C. 1446(d), which instructs state courts to "proceed no further" once a case is removed to federal court, nonetheless permits a state to subsequently bill plaintiffs for accrued court costs pursuant to cost bonds they signed when their lawsuits were originally filed in the state court. The plaintiffs, against whom the state of Tennessee assessed and billed court costs when their civil lawsuits were removed to federal court, allege that Tennessee's action in billing them for costs violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They further allege that because this practice treats them differently from plaintiffs whose cases are not removed, it violates their rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. We AFFIRM, although on different grounds than those set forth by the district court.
Joyce R. Lawrence filed suit against her former employer in the Chancery Court of Tennessee for the Sixteenth Judicial District on July 23, 1996. She signed a cost bond in lieu of paying a full deposit for court costs at the time of filing. The defendant removed the case to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee based upon federal question jurisdiction. On August 20, 1997, Robert Corlew, a chancellor for the Sixteenth Judicial District, issued an order dismissing the case at the plaintiff's cost on the basis that the lawsuit had been removed to federal court. After the chancellor denied Lawrence's state-court motion to amend or rescind that order, Lawrence filed a motion in federal court to reopen the federal case. The district court denied her motion, but issued an order stating that the chancery court was without authority to issue the order for costs. Despite the district court's order, John Bratcher, the clerk of the chancery court, subsequently sent Lawrence's counsel a bill for $91.50 in court costs.
Caroline Wilson filed a complaint against her former employer in the Chancery Court of Tennessee for the Twentieth Judicial District on September 5, 1997. She also signed a bond for costs. On October 1 of that year, the defendant removed the case to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee based upon federal question jurisdiction. On October 6, 1997, Carol McCoy, a chancellor for the Twentieth Judicial District, issued an order dismissing Wilson's case because it had been removed to federal court, and assessed costs against Wilson. Wilson filed a motion in the chancery court to vacate the order of dismissal and the assessment of costs, and tendered a proposed order. The proposed order was never signed. On January 27, 1998, counsel for Wilson received a bill from Claudia Bonnyman, clerk of the chancery court, for $68.50 in court costs.
On February 12, 1998, Lawrence and Wilson filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983. Section 1983 prohibits a state from depriving any person of a protected constitutional right under color of state law. An amended complaint was filed on March 17, 1998. The amended complaint names Corlew, McCoy, Bratcher, Bonnyman, and both state judicial districts as defendants. It reads, in pertinent part, as follows:
20. Defendants have a policy and practice of assessing and collecting costs from plaintiffs in actions that have been previously removed to federal court.
21. Defendants' assessment of costs against the plaintiffs and Defendants' attempts to collect such costs constitute violations of 28 U.S.C. 1446.
22. Defendants' assessment of costs against plaintiffs constitutes a violation of plaintiffs' right to equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution because in assessing such costs in removed cases, defendants treat prevailing plaintiffs in actions that were removed from state court differently than prevailing plaintiffs whose actions were not removed from state court.
24. Defendants' assessment of costs against plaintiffs denied plaintiffs their right to due process because defendant Chancellors were clearly without jurisdiction and authority to assess such costs against plaintiffs.
The defendants filed motions to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which the district court granted in an order entered on June 24, 1998. The district court held that (1) Lawrence and Wilson had failed to state a claim under 28 U.S.C. 1446 because that statute does not authorize a private right of action, (2) they had failed to state a claim under the Due Process Clause because Tennessee's post-deprivation remedies are adequate to address their grievances, and (3) they had failed to state a claim under the Equal Protection Clause because there was no discriminatory classification contained within Tennessee's court cost statute. Lawrence and Wilson timely filed their notice of appeal. They do not appeal the order of dismissal insofar as it relates to claims of a private right of action based on 28 U.S.C. 1446.
This is a classic case of a district court's reaching the right result for the wrong reasons. The essence of the district court's reasoning is that (a) 28 U.S.C. 1446(d) bars the chancery court from ordering plaintiffs in removed cases to pay accrued court costs, (b) there was no need to consider the state's pre-deprivation remedies because the chancery court's actions were not authorized under federal law, and (c) the equal protection claim fails because the state's court cost statute does not explicitly distinguish between plaintiffs whose cases are removed and those that are not. We disagree with all three rulings, but nonetheless affirm the district court's dismissal of Lawrence's and Wilson's claims for the reasons set forth below.
When considering a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the district court must accept all of the allegations in the complaint as true, and construe the complaint liberally in favor of the plaintiff. See Miller v. Currie, 50 F.3d 373, 377 (6th Cir. 1995). "A complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief." Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 55-56 (1957). We review the district court's decision to grant a motion to dismiss de novo. See Weiner v. Klais & Co., 108 F.3d 86, 88 (6th Cir. 1997).
Upon such review, we may affirm the district court's decision on any ground supported by the record, even if it is different from the grounds relied on by the district court. See Advocacy Org. for Patients and Providers v. Auto Club Ins. Ass'n, 176 F.3d 315, 328 (6th Cir. 1999) ().
Lawrence and Wilson allege that they have received bills for the costs assessed against them, but they apparently took no action to challenge the billings under applicable Tennessee law. The procedure for contesting such bills is set out as follows:
If the taxation of costs is excessive, by charging the costs of witnesses who were not examined, or by charging costs to an improper party, or taxing costs contrary to law, or the taxation is otherwise erroneous, the party aggrieved may move the court for a retaxation, setting forth the particulars in which the clerk has erred.
Tenn. Code Ann. ("T.C.A.") 20-12-108 (emphasis added).
Even though persons who have been deprived of property under color of state law need not exhaust state administrative remedies before bringing a 1983 claim, see Patsy v. Board of Regents of the State of Florida, 457 U.S. 496, 502 (1982), the presence of Tennessee's pre-deprivation remedy calls into question whether Lawrence and Wilson have suffered a deprivation at all. The record before us is inadequate to determine whether plaintiffs have actually been forced to pay the court costs, or whether they have simply been billed. We need not resolve this uncertainty, however, because we conclude that the plaintiffs failed to state...
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