Davani v. Virginia Dept. of Transp.

• Decision Date: 17 January 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-1432.,05-1432.
• Citation: 434 F.3d 712
• Parties: Mozafar H. DAVANI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION; Steven E. Welch; William V. Johnson, Jr., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

434 F.3d 712

Mozafar H. DAVANI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION; Steven E. Welch; William V. Johnson, Jr., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 05-1432.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: December 1, 2005.

Decided: January 17, 2006.

ARGUED: Michael Wayne Beasley, Falls Church, Virginia, for Appellant. Ronald Nicholas Regnery, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Judith Williams Jagdmann, Attorney General of Virginia, Maureen Riley Matsen, Deputy Attorney General, Edward M. Macon, Senior Assistant Attorney General/Chief, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellees.

Before NIEMEYER, WILLIAMS, and SHEDD, Circuit Judges.

Reversed and remanded with instructions by published opinion. Judge WILLIAMS wrote the opinion, in which Judge NIEMEYER and Judge SHEDD joined.

OPINION

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:

Mozafar Davani was employed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (Department) where he was supervised by Steven Welch and William Johnson. Over the course of several years, Davani received three disciplinary warnings for failure to follow Welch and Johnson's instructions. After receiving the third warning, Davani was terminated. He grieved the third warning and his termination with the Department, but a hearing officer upheld the termination. Davani appealed to the Virginia circuit court, which dismissed the appeal.

Davani subsequently filed suit in federal district court alleging that the Department, Welch, and Johnson (collectively Appellees): discriminated against him on the basis of his race (Middle Eastern), national origin (Iran), and religion (Muslim); retaliated against him for filing prior Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints; and violated state law by conspiring to injure his reputation. Appellees moved to dismiss, arguing that the district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over Davani's suit under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine and, in the alternative, that the suit was precluded by res judicata and collateral estoppel. The district court granted the motion, concluding that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. The district court therefore did not address Appellees' preclusion arguments.

Before appellate briefing was due, the Supreme Court decided Exxon Mobile Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 125 S.Ct. 1517, 161 L.Ed.2d 454 (2005), which significantly altered this circuit's interpretation of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Under our prior cases, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine had been interpreted broadly to provide that the loser in a state-court adjudication was barred from bringing suit in federal court alleging the same claim or a claim that could have been brought in the state proceedings. Exxon teaches, however, that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine applies only when the loser in state court files suit in federal district court seeking redress for an injury allegedly caused by the state court's decision itself. Because Davani's suit does not challenge the state court's decision, and it instead seeks redress for an injury allegedly caused by Appellees, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine does not apply, and the district court's dismissal of Davani's complaint was in error.¹

For the reasons discussed herein, we reverse the district court's dismissal under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine and remand for the district court to allow the parties to supplement the record so that it may give full consideration to Appellees' preclusion arguments.

I.

The Department employed Davani as a Right-of-Way and Utilities Project Administrator. He was directly supervised by Johnson, and Welch was in the line of supervision over Davani. Davani alleges that starting in the year 2000, Johnson began to treat him differently from other employees because of his race and national origin, culminating in Johnson denying him a promotion. On December 18, 2000, Davani filed an internal grievance with the Department, and on March 16, 2001, he filed a formal EEO complaint with the Virginia Department of Human Resources Management (DHRM) alleging that Johnson's failure to promote him was discriminatory. Davani and the Department, acting through Welch, arrived at a settlement whereby Davani received, inter alia, a promotion to the position of Insurance and Property Management Practitioner.

Welch later claimed that Davani discussed the settlement with Department employees in violation of Welch's instructions, and on May 15, 2001, he gave Davani a Group II Written Notice for discussing the terms of the settlement.² Davani alleges that he did not impermissibly discuss the settlement, and that this Written Notice was discriminatory and given in retaliation for his success on his prior EEO complaint. Davani grieved the Written Notice with the Department, but for reasons that are unclear from Davani's complaint, the Department took no action on the grievance. Davani contends that after May 15, 2001, Johnson continued to treat him differently from others based on his national origin and race, and that after September 11, 2001, Johnson's mistreatment escalated to the point of giving him bad work evaluations, making degrading comments to him, and even threatening violence against him. On November 14, 2001 and February 11, 2002, Davani filed, respectively, a second and third EEO complaint with the DHRM, complaining of discrimination and retaliation. For reasons that are not clear from Davani's complaint, the DHRM did not take action on these EEO complaints.

On February 22, 2002, Welch gave Davani a second Group II Written Notice for failing to follow Johnson's instructions by, inter alia, failing to submit a required accident report. Davani alleges that he followed the correct post-accident procedures and that the second Written Notice was also discriminatory and retaliatory. Although the Department could have terminated Davani at that time based on the second Group II Written Notice, it only suspended him for thirty days. On April 3, 2002, after his suspension, Davani filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), "provid[ing] detailed allegations of the full range of unlawful discriminatory (based on race and national origin) and retaliation (based on protected EEO activities)." (J.A. at 37.) The EEOC subsequently made a "no violation" finding on Davani's charge and issued a right-to-sue letter to him. (J.A. at 137.)

On or about April 7, 2003, Welch gave Davani a third Group II Written Notice for failing to follow Johnson's instructions, this time for Davani's purported failure to investigate certain issues relevant to the utilities present at a project site. On April 22, 2003, the Department terminated Davani because of the three Group II Written Notices.

Davani challenged his termination by filing a grievance with the Department, arguing that the third Group II Written Notice was unjustified on the facts and that it was retaliatory. The Department refused to reinstate him, and he requested a hearing before a hearing officer in the Department of Employment Dispute Resolution. On August 4, 2003, the hearing officer held an evidentiary hearing on the grievance. Although the record is unclear on this point, it appears that Davani attempted to challenge his first two Written Notices, but the hearing officer limited the issue before him to the propriety of the third Written Notice. On August 13, 2003, the hearing officer issued a written decision reducing Davani's third Group II Written Notice to a Group I notice because Davani did not fail to follow his supervisor's instructions but simply did a poor job. Despite this fact, the ALJ nevertheless rejected Davani's challenge to his termination because he still had two Group II Notices, which were sufficient to sustain Davani's termination. The hearing officer also stated: "[Davani] contends the [Department's] disciplinary action raises from [sic] improper retaliation against him. No credible evidence was presented suggesting the [Department] disciplined [him] for any impermissible reason." (J.A. at 95.)

Davani filed an appeal in the circuit court of Fairfax County. On October 10, 2003, that court dismissed the appeal, holding that the hearing officer's ruling was not "contradictory to law" pursuant to Va.Code Ann. § 2.2-3006 (Bender 2005). (J.A. at 98.) Davani did not further appeal the circuit court's decision.

On November 18, 2004, Davani filed a civil action in the district court alleging six causes of action: (1) against the Department for discrimination on the basis of race, national origin and religion in violation of federal law; (2) against the Department for retaliation in violation of federal law; (3) against Welch for retaliation in violation of federal law; (4) against Johnson for retaliation in violation of federal law; (5) against Appellees for conspiracy to retaliate in violation of federal law, and (6) against Welch and Johnson for conspiracy to injure his reputation and professional standing in violation of Virginia law.

On January 14, 2005, Appellees filed a motion to dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1), arguing that the district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction by virtue of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, and under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), arguing that Davani's complaint failed to state a claim on which relief could be granted by virtue of res judicata and collateral estoppel preclusion doctrines. The district court granted the Rule 12(b)(1) motion, concluding that it lacked jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, and it therefore did not address Appellees' Rule 12(b)(6) res judicata and collateral estoppel arguments.

Davani appeals, arguing that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine does not extend to his claims. We review de novo the district court's grant of Appellees' motion to dismiss. See Veney v. Wyche, 293 F.3d 726, 730 (4th Cir.2002).

II.

Davani argues that Exxon makes...