Adams v. California Dept. of Health Services

• Decision Date: 07 May 2007
• Docket Number: No. 04-56880.,04-56880.
• Citation: 487 F.3d 684
• Parties: Avril ADAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. State of CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES, a public entity; Donnata Moreland; Oaktree Investigations, a business entity and consumer reporting agency; Laurence A. Corbin, individually as an investigator for Oak Tree Investigations; Patricia Echard; Paulette Baker; Patrick Kennelly, individually and as a supervisor; Lavonne Coen, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

487 F.3d 684

Avril ADAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. State of CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES, a public entity; Donnata Moreland; Oaktree Investigations, a business entity and consumer reporting agency; Laurence A. Corbin, individually as an investigator for Oak Tree Investigations; Patricia Echard; Paulette Baker; Patrick Kennelly, individually and as a supervisor; Lavonne Coen, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 04-56880.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Submitted December 5, 2006.^*

Filed May 7, 2007.

B. Kwaku Duren, Los Angeles, California, for the appellant.

Martin H. Milas, Deputy Attorney General, Los Angeles, California, for the appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; Gary A. Feess, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-04-07313-GAF.

Before: HARRY PREGERSON, DAVID R. THOMPSON, and RICHARD C. TALLMAN, Circuit Judges.

ORDER WITHDRAWING OPINION AND OPINION

THOMPSON, Senior Circuit Judge.

ORDER

The plaintiff-appellant's petition for panel rehearing is GRANTED. The opinion filed here on February 13, 2007, and published at 2007 WL 446582 is WITHDRAWN.

A new opinion, replacing the withdrawn opinion, is filed with this Order.

The parties are not precluded from filing further petitions for panel and en banc rehearing.

OPINION

Appellant Avril Adams appeals the district court's dismissal with prejudice of her complaint against Appellees the California Department of Health Services ("CDHS"); CDHS employees Donnata Moreland, La Vonne Coen, Patricia Echard, Paulette Baker, and Patrick Kennelly; and Oaktree Investigations and its employee, Laurence Corbin. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm the district court's dismissal of Adams's complaint.

I. BACKGROUND

In January 2001, Adams applied for a food and drug inspector ("FDI") position with CDHS. Food and drug inspectors are peace officers and carry firearms; investigate violations; make arrests; and travel to food storage, processing facilities, and farms. Adams was offered the position she sought, but her actual hiring was conditioned upon her successful completion of a background investigation, including medical and psychological evaluations.

Adams passed the psychological evaluation, but Dr. Stephen G. Weyers notified her that he had recommended restrictions on her ability to perform activities that required maximal exertion and balance. CDHS then advised Adams it was unable to accommodate her medical restrictions, and it withdrew the conditional job offer. Thereafter, Adams took a new treadmill stress test, and Dr. Weyers medically approved her without limitation for the food and drug investigator position.

CDHS then withdrew its medical disqualification of Adams and notified her it would resume her selection process. Adams objected to further investigation. Thereafter, on March 14, 2003, CDHS sent Adams a letter notifying her that it had rescinded its conditional offer of employment. Four days later, on March 18, 2003, the State Personnel Board ("SPB") ruled on Adams's appeal of Dr. Weyers's decision to disqualify her for medical reasons. Because Dr. Weyers had subsequently approved her, the SPB granted Adams's appeal and advised her she would be appointed to the FDI position within 120 days unless she was unsuccessful in the balance of the selection process.

According to Adams, CDHS then engaged Oaktree Investigations to interview CDHS employees about Adams's behavior during the selection process. Laurence Corbin of Oaktree Investigations interviewed CDHS employees Echard, Kennelly, Moreland, Coen, and Baker on March 27, 2003, and memorialized the results of the interviews in a report dated April 2, 2003.

On April 1, 2003, Adams filed a petition for rehearing with the SPB, arguing that she should be appointed to the FDI position immediately because the selection process ended when she was deemed medically qualified. CDHS filed a response to Adams's petition on May 13, 2003, stating that it withdrew Adams's conditional offer of employment the second time because, during the completion of the investigation process, questions arose regarding Adams's suitability as a peace officer. The response detailed Adams's behavior during the selection process, which behavior included challenging a CDHS employee to a race during the SPB hearing; making numerous phone calls; and sending emails and letters to CDHS employees in which Adams's tone was "rude," "discourteous," "abrupt," "angry," and "challenging in a demeaning way." The response concluded that Adams did not possess the interpersonal skills, sound judgment, or the ability to follow directions necessary for being an effective peace officer. The SPB denied Adams's petition for rehearing on June 17, 2003.

Adams filed a complaint in state court on November 10, 2003, naming CDHS, Coen, Moreland, and Dr. Weyers as defendants. Adams asserted claims for (1) retaliation in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983; (2) violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213, and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, Cal. Gov't Code §§ 12900-12996; (3) denial of due process and civil rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985; (4) breach of contract; (5) breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing; (6) negligence; and (7) declaratory relief. Adams sought damages and a declaration from the court that CDHS's withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment was unlawful.

Adams's complaint also detailed the facts behind the reopening of the background investigation to support her claims for negligence, violations of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985, breach of contract, and declaratory relief. In her complaint, Adams did not allege separate claims under the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA"), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681-1681x., or state privacy law, although she alleged that the act of resuming the background investigation was prejudicial, illegal, unreasonable, discriminatory, retaliatory, and arguably illegal in violation of the FCRA and due process.

Adams's action was removed to federal court on December 8, 2003. Adams v. Cal. Dep't of Health Servs., No. CV-03-8920 (C.D. Cal. filed Dec. 8, 2003). The district court issued a scheduling order setting March 26, 2004, as the deadline for filing motions to amend the complaint or add additional parties.

On July 1, 2004, well past the March 26, 2004 deadline set in the scheduling order, Adams filed a motion for leave to amend her complaint. Adams wanted to add as defendants Oaktree Investigations and Oaktree investigator Corbin, as well as CDHS employees Echard, Baker, and Kennelly. In her proposed amended complaint she alleged four additional claims: (1) violation of the FCRA; (2) violation of the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act ("ICRA"), Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1786-1786.60; (3) infringement of her civil and constitutional rights in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985; and (4) declaratory relief.

Finding that Adams failed to demonstrate good cause for the undue delay in seeking leave to amend, and that granting her motion to amend would prejudice the defendants already named in her complaint, the district court denied Adams's motion as untimely. The action then proceeded to trial, and a jury found in favor of the defendants. Adams appealed the denial of her motion for leave to amend, among other issues, to our court. In a memorandum disposition, we affirmed the district court's decisions and the judgment in that first case. Adams v. State of Cal. Dep't of Health Servs., 220 Fed.Appx. 590 (9th Cir. 2007).

On September 2, 2004, after the district court denied her motion for leave to amend in the first case, Adams filed the complaint in this present case. In her complaint in this case, Adams set forth the four additional claims she had sought to add by her previously denied motion for leave to amend her complaint in the first case. In the present case, the district court determined that Adams's newly filed complaint was duplicative of the complaint she had previously filed in the other case, and the court dismissed the new complaint with prejudice. This appeal followed.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

District courts retain broad discretion to control their dockets and "[i]n the exercise of that power they may impose sanctions including, where appropriate, default or dismissal." Thompson v. Hous. Auth. of City of Los Angeles, 782 F.2d 829, 831 (9th Cir.1986) (per curiam); see also Link v. Wabash R.R., 370 U.S. 626, 629-30, 82 S.Ct. 1386, 8 L.Ed.2d 734 (1962). We review for abuse of discretion the district court's dismissal with prejudice of Adams's complaint. After weighing the equities of the case, the district court may exercise its discretion to dismiss a duplicative later-filed action, to stay that action pending resolution of the previously filed action, to enjoin the parties from proceeding with it, or to consolidate both actions. See Curtis v. Citibank, N.A., 226 F.3d 133, 138-39 (2d Cir.2000); Walton v. Eaton Corp., 563 F.2d 66, 70-71 (3d Cir.1977) (en banc), cited with approval in Russ v. Standard Ins. Co., 120 F.3d 988, 990 (9th Cir. 1997).

III. DISCUSSION

Adams filed her present complaint in an attempt to avoid the consequences of her own delay and to circumvent the district court's denial of her untimely motion for leave to amend her first complaint. However, as the Tenth Circuit stated in Hartsel Springs Ranch of Colorado, Inc. v. Bluegreen Corp., "the fact that plaintiff was denied leave to amend does not give h[er] the right to file a second lawsuit based on the same facts." 296 F.3d 982, 989 (10th Cir.2002) (internal quotation marks omitted). Plaintiffs generally have "no right to maintain two separate actions involving the same subject matter at the same time in the same court and against the same defendant." Walton, 563 F.2d at 70; see also Curtis, 226 F.3d at 138-39; Serlin v. Arthur Andersen & Co., ...