Buck v. Thomas M. Cooley Law Sch.

• Decision Date: 17 March 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09-1508.,09-1508.
• Citation: 597 F.3d 812
• Parties: Nahzy BUCK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. THOMAS M. COOLEY LAW SCHOOL, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

597 F.3d 812

Nahzy BUCK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. THOMAS M. COOLEY LAW SCHOOL, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 09-1508.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: Jan. 14, 2010.

Decided and Filed: March 17, 2010.

ARGUED: Nicholas Roumel, Nick Roumel & Associates, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Appellant. Megan K. Cavanagh Garan Lucow Miller, P.C., Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Nicholas Roumel, Nick Roumel & Associates, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Appellant. Megan K Cavanagh, Garan Lucow Miller, P.C., Detroit, Michigan, Michael P. McCasey, Garan Lucow Miller, P.C., Grand Rapids Michigan, for Appellee.

Before: KENNEDY, COLE, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff appeals from the district court's dismissal of her lawsuit against her former law school as barred by res judicata and a lack of causation. She previously litigated earlier acts of discrimination against her law school in Michigan state courts, and had secured a preliminary injunction allowing her to attend classes. She was then dismissed from the law school on academic grounds. Because plaintiff should have supplemented her complaint in state court with claims that arose during the pendency of that suit, she is precluded by res judicata from raising these claims now. Therefore, we AFFIRM.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Defendant Thomas M. Cooley Law School admitted plaintiff Nahzy Buck as a student in December 1999, to begin classes in May 2000. Almost immediately, plaintiff began to struggle with her coursework. Although she sought assistance from university officials and the school's Academic Resource Center, plaintiffs grades were poor and she was placed on academic probation. She then was evaluated by a psychologist, Dr. Ostien, who concluded that the plaintiff has a learning disorder in cognitive processing speed and a generalized anxiety disorder. Dr. Ostien recommended that plaintiff receive extended time for taking exams and that she only carry two courses per semester. Defendant acquiesced to the first condition, but did not allow plaintiff to drop a course to reduce her course load to two. After her third term, following two terms of academic probation, plaintiff had a GPA of 1.43. She was then expelled from law school on June 6, 2001.

On April 12, 2002, plaintiff filed a lawsuit in Michigan state court. She alleged that defendant refused to offer her assistance or provide her with accommodations for her disability, and misled plaintiff as to her ability to obtain accommodations. She alleged that defendant had breached a fiduciary duty it owed to her, violated the Michigan Consumer Protection Act and the Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, and deprived her of Due Process under the federal and Michigan constitutions.

On April 15, 2002, the state trial court entered an ex parte temporary restraining order that defendant was "RESTRAINED AND ENJOINED FROM excluding and prohibiting in any manner Plaintiffs registration for, attendance at and participation in such classes as are offered by Defendant Thomas M. Cooley Law School to its other, similarly situated law student |sic|." The order notes that il is "granted without notice to prevent further interruption and delay in Plaintiffs legal education." After a hearing, the court converted the restraining order into a preliminary injunction with substantially similar mandatory language. Defendant did not appeal either the restraining order or the preliminary injunction, and plaintiff attended classes until December 2005.

On November 4, 2004, the state court granted summary disposition on several counts, but denied summary disposition on plaintiffs claim of discrimination under the Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act. Defendant appealed the partial denial of summary disposition to the Michigan Court of Appeals. In March 2005 while the state appeal was pending, plaintiff obtained leave from the state trial court to file a supplemental complaint with allegations of misconduct that had occurred since 2002. However, the state trial court allowed supplementation ofevents only through the end of April 2002. The plaintiff had sought to also add allegations that defendant's faculty and staff had treated her poorly by, among other things, accusing her of cheating on a homework assignment, denying her request to be in the same study group as her husband, giving her poor grades, and being abrupt with her. The trial court denied this request because it concluded that such facts, if true, could not provide the basis for plaintiffs retaliation claim. The state trial court then agreed to stay proceedings during the appeal. Plaintiff filed her supplemental complaint on April 27, 2005.

While this state litigation was ongoing, plaintiff matriculated under the terms of the injunctive order, hopeful of a January 22, 2006 graduation date. Plaintiff alleges that defendant undertook preparations for plaintiffs graduation in the fall of 2005, fitting plaintiff for a commencement cap, verifying her name for her diploma, and taking her senior portrait. Notwithstanding this, plaintiff also alleges that she experienced a hostile environment throughout her studies, including in her final term, and this hostility caused her additional anxiety, which in turn interfered with her class performance. She claims the defendant initially denied her registration when she presented it with the injunctive order on April 22, 2002, and expressed hostility towards her registration for classes; defendant's representative refused to settle with her during mediation; Registrar Sherida Wysocki refused to talk to plaintiff on multiple occasions, including on July 7, 2005; Dean of Enrollment and Student Services Paul Zelenski told plaintiff in May 2000 that she "can never practice law here in the U.S. of A., " and on October 14, 2005 told the registrar in plaintiffs presence that plaintiff "is not going to graduate this term!"; Charles Cercone, Associate Dean of Students, told one of plaintiffs professors in June 2004 not to change plaintiffs grade in her course; her academic advisor from 2003 to 2005 refused to provide her advice, causing her to have to obtain a new advisor; she was forced to complete two exams on December 13, 2003, which with her extra time required her to spend 11 straight hours on the exams; her Administrative Law exam from the summer of 2005 contained a notation that she was given 5.5 hours to complete the test; and in September 2005 she was advised to drop her appeal of her Administrative Law grade or risk it be deemed frivolous.

Before the fall semester of 2005, which plaintiff had hoped to be her last, her grades ranked her tenth from the bottom of her class. That semester, she received an "F" in her Business Organizations class, as well as poor grades in her other classes that term, Secured Transactions and her retake of Federal Administrative Law. Registrar Wysocki advised plaintiff to file an expedited appeal of these grades if she hoped to graduate. Plaintiff attempted to obtain her exams for the appeal, but the original multiple-choice score sheet had been lost. Nevertheless, on January 11, 2006, plaintiff filed an expedited appeal for all three of her courses. Her appeal was denied on January 18 for failing to comply with a format requirement. This caused her grade point average in required courses to remain below 2.0, the minimum GPA required to graduate. She requested that she be allowed to void her Business Organization's grade under defendant's policy that allows students to void two grades during their matriculation. This request was denied because even if she voided the Business Organization's grade, her GPA in required courses would be 1.98, still below the minimum. She also was left two credits shy of the ninety credits required to graduate. As a result, defendant did not allow her to graduate in January 2006, and she was dismissed from the law school in March 2006.

On June 20, 2006, the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's denial of summary disposition, and remanded with instructions to grant defendant summary disposition on all claims. Buck v. Thomas M. Cooley Law School, 272 Mich.App. 93, 725 N.W.2d 485 (2006). The state appellate court noted that although defendant had not appealed the injunctive orders, the court believed that injunctive relief was not appropriate in this case because plaintiff had an adequate remedy at law and because the restraining order altered, rather than preserved, the status quo. Id. at 98 n. 4, 725 N.W.2d at 488 n. 5. The Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal on November 29, 2006. Buck v. Thomas M. Cooley Law School, All Mich. 943, 723 N.W.2d 858 (2006) (table). On remand, plaintiff brought a renewed motion for injunctive relief, citing her dismissal from the law school.¹ On January 24, 2007, the state circuit court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment in full and dismissed plaintiffs claims with prejudice.

Plaintiff filed this federal action on December 10, 2007, alleging violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), violation of the Michigan Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, and breach of various implied contracts. Defendant moved to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), arguing that the lawsuit was barred by the preclusive effect of the prior state court litigation. Alternatively, defendant argued that the harm alleged was not causally related to any wrongful conduct because the Michigan Court of Appeals concluded that plaintiff should not have been granted injunctive relief, and without this relief she would not have been a student at the law school during the years of which she complains. Moreover, defendant argued that the plaintiffs claims for breach of contract in count six failed to state a claim. In a written opinion, the district court accepted each of defendant's arguments, and dismissed plaintiffs complaint. Plaintiff...