Coggeshall v. Mass. Bd. Of Registration Of Psychologists
| Decision Date | 17 May 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 09-1111.,09-1111. |
| Citation | 604 F.3d 658 |
| Parties | Joseph COGGESHALL and L. Lynn LeSueur, Plaintiffs, Appellants,v.MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF REGISTRATION OF PSYCHOLOGISTS et al., Defendants, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
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Robert S. Wolfe, with whom Robert Wolfe Associates, P.C. was on brief, for appellants.
Amy Spector, Assistant Attorney General, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with whom Martha Coakley, Attorney General, was on brief, for appellees.
Before LIPEZ, Circuit Judge, SOUTER,* Associate Justice, and SELYA, Circuit Judge.
This appeal compels us to weave a decisional tapestry from several doctrinal strands that help define the margins of federal-court jurisdiction, including Eleventh Amendment immunity, abstention, and standing. The appellants (a psychologist and a third party) challenge a state administrative proceeding that resulted in the imposition of professional discipline against the psychologist. The district court determined that it could not grant relief on any of the myriad claims presented and, accordingly, dismissed the action. After careful consideration, we affirm.
Dr. L. Lynn LeSueur is a psychologist licensed to practice in Massachusetts. When a seven-year-old boy who was enrolled in an elementary school in Norfolk, Massachusetts, began to experience behavioral problems, the school retained Dr. LeSueur to evaluate him. Dr. LeSueur examined the child and interviewed several people at the school. She then prepared and submitted a written report. 1
Some family background helps to explain the etiology of this litigation. The child whom Dr. LeSueur had examined came from a broken home. When his parents divorced, the court awarded custody to his mother and granted his father visitation rights. The parents' post-divorce relationship was incendiary. Dr. LeSueur's report added fuel to the fire: upon reviewing it, the boy's mother lodged a complaint against Dr. LeSueur with the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Psychologists (the Board).
The Board is the licensing and regulatory authority for psychologists in Massachusetts. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 112, §§ 118-129B. After receiving the complaint, it held a formal adjudicatory hearing. See id. ch. 30A, §§ 10-11. In due course, it circulated a tentative decision, to which Dr. LeSueur objected.
The Board considered this objection and issued its final decision on September 16, 2005. In substance, the Board determined that Dr. LeSueur had exceeded the scope of her competence in compiling the report (which contained, among other things, recommendations pertaining to custody arrangements and to a restraining order that the boy's mother had obtained against his father). In reaching this conclusion, the Board found that Dr. LeSueur's actions violated several provisions of the American Psychological Association's code of conduct-a code previously adopted by the Board. See 251 Mass.Code Regs. 1.10; see also Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 112, § 128. As a sanction, the Board placed Dr. LeSueur on probation for a period of two years.
Dismayed by the Board's ukase, Dr. LeSueur petitioned for judicial review in the state superior court. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 30A, § 14. Her petition alleged a salmagundi of federal constitutional and state-law grounds for setting aside the Board's order. It also sought a declaration that certain regulations on which the Board had relied were unconstitutionally vague. 2
Dr. LeSueur moved for judgment on the pleadings. After considering Dr. LeSueur's legal and constitutional arguments and her charge of evidentiary insufficiency, the superior court denied the motion for judgment on the pleadings and, on July 11, 2006, dismissed the petition for judicial review. Dr. LeSueur appealed, but the Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld the judgment. LeSueur v. Bd. of Regist. of Psychologists, 74 Mass.App.Ct. 1114, 906 N.E.2d 1031 (2009) (table). Dr. LeSueur did not seek further appellate review before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC). See Mass. R.App. P. 27.1 ().
During the pendency of the state-court proceedings, Dr. LeSueur and Coggeshall repaired to the federal district court and, on August 23, 2008, instituted an action, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against the Board and its members.3 The federal complaint asserted claims that paralleled those asserted in the state courts, including multiple challenges to the constitutionality of the Board's actions and the regulations. Like the state-court petition, the federal complaint sought both declaratory relief and vacation of the sanction imposed by the Board.
Despite these similarities, this federal-court action differed from the earlier state-court proceedings in two noteworthy respects. First, the federal action encompassed a more diverse group of parties. In the federal court, Coggeshall appeared as a party for the first time, and the members of the Board were named as additional defendants. Second, the federal-court action sought a wider panoply of relief, including money damages and an injunction barring the Board from enforcing the challenged regulations.
The named defendants moved to dismiss the federal suit. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1), (b)(6). The district court obliged. With respect to Dr. LeSueur's claims for nonmonetary relief, the court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction because those claims sought vacation of a state-court decision involving functionally identical claims. Coggeshall v. Mass. Bd. of Regist. of Psychologists, No. 08-CV-11491, 2008 WL 5412290, at *2-3 (D.Mass. Dec. 23, 2008). In support, the court cited the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. See D.C. Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 482, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983); Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 416, 44 S.Ct. 149, 68 L.Ed. 362 (1923). As an alternate basis for dismissal, the court held that even if it had jurisdiction, it would be constrained to abstain. Coggeshall, 2008 WL 5412290, at *3 (citing Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 40-41, 91 S.Ct. 746 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971)). At the same time, the court dismissed Coggeshall's nonmonetary claims for a perceived lack of standing to sue. Id. Finally, the court dismissed the claims for money damages on immunity grounds. Id. at *3 n. 3. This timely appeal ensued.
Before grappling with the appellants' asseverational array, we pause to delineate our analytic framework. First, we segregate the appellants' monetary claims from their nonmonetary claims. We then address the two sets of claims in that order.
Our standard of review is uncontroversial. Although the district court's rulings implicate different subsections of Rule 12(b), we review all of those rulings de novo. See McCloskey v. Mueller, 446 F.3d 262, 266 (1st Cir.2006). In undertaking this review, we are not wedded to the district court's rationale, but, rather, may affirm a particular order on any independent ground made manifest by the record. Id.
We start with the appellants' claims for money damages. These claims are preferred against both the Board and its members. The Board itself, as an arm of the state government, enjoys Eleventh Amendment immunity from suits for money damages brought in federal court, absent consent, waiver, or the like. See Alden v. Maine, 527 U.S. 706, 756-57, 119 S.Ct. 2240, 144 L.Ed.2d 636 (1999); Vaquería Tres Monjitas, Inc. v. Irizarry, 587 F.3d 464, 477 (1st Cir.2009); see also U.S. Const. amend. XI. Massachusetts has neither consented to be sued for damages in a federal court in the circumstances of this case nor waived its Eleventh Amendment immunity here. Consequently, that immunity demands the dismissal of the damages claims against the Board. 4
With respect to the damages claims against the members of the Board, there is a threshold ambiguity: the appellants sued the members of the Board without specifying whether those defendants were named in their official or individual capacities. As we explain below, we need not resolve this ambiguity.
To the extent that the members of the Board are sued in their official capacities, they stand in the shoes of the state and enjoy the same immunity as does the Board. See, e.g., Rosie D. ex rel. John D. v. Swift, 310 F.3d 230, 234 (1st Cir.2002). Thus, any claims against the members of the Board in their official capacities must be dismissed.
To the extent that the appellants' claims for money damages are brought against the members of the Board individually, the key question involves the applicability of the doctrine of quasi-judicial immunity. In general, that doctrine provides absolute immunity for public officials, including agency officials, who perform quasi-judicial functions. Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 508, 512-13, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978). The rationale for the immunity is that the due performance of an adjudicative role “require[s] a full exemption from liability.” Id. at 508, 98 S.Ct. 2894; see also Destek Group, Inc. v. N.H. Pub. Utils. Comm'n, 318 F.3d 32, 40-41 (1st Cir.2003).
We do not write on a pristine page. This court addressed a virtually identical issue in an earlier case. See Bettencourt v. Bd. of Regist. in Med., 904 F.2d 772 (1st Cir.1990). There, we held that the members of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine were entitled to quasi-judicial immunity for their actions taken as adjudicators in disciplinary proceedings. Id. at 784. In reaching this result, we performed a functional analysis. See id. at 782-83; see also Butz, 438 U.S. at 508, 512-13, 98 S.Ct. 2894.
In Bettencourt, this analysis led us to conclude that the board members were “functionally comparable” to judges because their roles involved weighing evidence, making factual findings, reaching legal determinations, choosing sanctions, and expounding reasons for their decisions. 904 F.2d at...
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