Fellowship of Christ Church v. Thorburn
| Decision Date | 21 May 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-1623,83-1623 |
| Parties | The FELLOWSHIP OF CHRIST CHURCH, a Michigan Ecclesiastical corporation: Robert C. Young and Patricia R. Young, his wife; Jane C. Jones; Merrilee M. Young; James J. MacKenzie and Robin J. MacKenzie, his wife; Herbert Bursch; John A. Young and Kay Young, his wife; Glori B. Ingram; Peter Joel Young; Sarah S. Young; Joyce E. King; Linda K. Hoeks; Kathleen Anderson Young; Paul N. King; Newell E. King; Christopher L. Young and Georgia C. Young, his wife; Jeffrey A. Clark and Ann E. Clark, his wife; Ellen Susan King; Anita M. King; James E. King; Glenn King; Ida Pool; Madeline Mathison; Millard Eldred and Nina Eldred, his wife, Plaintiffs- Appellants, v. James S. THORBURN; Joseph L. Hardig, Jr.; Robert Bogrette and Judith Bogrette, his wife; William Cuppy and Tracie Cuppy, his wife; Olaf Helland and Emerin Helland, his wife; John T. Hughes and Bernice Hughes, his wife; Kenneth Staugaard and Elizabeth Staugaard, his wife; Charles Cohoon and Carol Cohoon, his wife; Leo Burton; Heartpeace Hills Homeowners Association, a Michigan non-profit corporation, and John A. Cook, jointly and severally, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Timothy P. Young, Lansing, Mich., Jonathan E. Maire, Williamston, Mich., for plaintiffs-appellants.
John A. Cook (argued), William H. Horton, Birmingham, Mich., for defendants-appellees.
Kenneth Wilson, Hardig, Goetz, Heath, Merritt, Reebe, Birmingham, Mich., for Hardig.
K.M. Zorn (argued), Carol J. Dufraine, Detroit, Mich., Leo Farhat, Lansing, Mich., for Thorburn.
Before MARTIN and JONES, Circuit Judges, and CELEBREZZE, Senior Circuit Judge.
Appellants challenge the district court's holding that res judicata bars relitigation under Sec. 1983 of their claim, which has been finally determined in state court. The appellants contend that res judicata does not bar their claim primarily because they never received an evidentiary hearing in state court, and secondarily because not all of the federal plaintiffs participated in and are bound by the state litigation. We find these contentions to be without merit, and affirm the district court.
This dispute first arose before Judge James S. Thorburn, a defendant in the present suit, in his Oakland County, Michigan, Circuit Court. In March, 1977 Robert and Judith Bogrette, William and Tracie Cuppy, Olaf and Emerin Helland, John T. and Bernice Hughes, Kenneth and Elizabeth Staugaard (state court plaintiffs and federal defendants) filed suit against Robert C. and Patricia R. Young, Jane C. Jones, and the Fellowship of Christ (state court defendants and federal plaintiffs). Subsequently, federal defendants Charles and Carol Cahoon, and Leo Burton also became state court plaintiffs.
The state court lawsuit was essentially a property dispute in which the state court plaintiffs claimed that they had entered into a joint venture with the state court defendants through which the Fellowship of Christ would develop a subdivision known as "Heartpeace Hills." The parties agreed that guidelines adopted by the Fellowship of Christ's Advisory Board would govern lot owners' maintenance of residential structures and property, and that lot owners would have use of the subdivision's common properly. In 1969, the state court plaintiffs withdrew from membership in the Fellowship of Christ following a dispute with the state court defendants. In June, 1975 the Fellowship of Christ decided to sell the property and relocate; this decision precipitated the circuit court action.
Judge Thorburn supervised a bench trial on the merits and issued an opinion on May 16, 1978. The circuit court found that Robert and Patricia Young intentionally provoked the state court plaintiffs' departure from the Fellowship of Christ in order to gain control of the Fellowship themselves. The circuit court also found that the Youngs had operated the Fellowship for their sole benefit and had misapplied Fellowship assets. The circuit court dissolved the Fellowship of Christ as a corporate body and appointed Robert L. Hardig as receiver to supervise dissolution of the Fellowship and to execute the original development plan. The state court defendants then appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, before which they fully briefed and argued the questions of whether the circuit court had jurisdiction to dissolve the Fellowship of Christ and whether its action violated their constitutional rights. In an unpublished per curiam, the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court. The state appellate court discussed only a statute of frauds issue and dismissed the parties' remaining issues as without merit.
The Michigan Court of Appeals denied the state court defendants' request for reconsideration. The Michigan Supreme Court denied their petition for leave to appeal and subsequent motion for reconsideration; the Michigan Attorney General supported reconsideration with a brief that challenged the circuit court's jurisdiction under state law to dissolve the Fellowship of Christ. The state court defendants then filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, which the Court denied. 454 U.S. 821, 102 S.Ct. 105, 70 L.Ed.2d 93 (1981). When proceedings were initiated to implement the circuit court's judgment, the federal plaintiffs initiated the present civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Members of and contributors to the Fellowship of Christ have joined the state court defendants as federal plaintiffs. Judge Thorburn, the state court plaintiffs, Hardig, John A. Cook, trial counsel for the state court plaintiffs, and the Heartpeace Hills Homeowner Association, to which the disputed property has been conveyed, are defendants in the federal action.
The federal plaintiffs now complain that the circuit court dissolved the Fellowship of Christ without providing them with notice that its existence was in jeopardy and without providing an opportunity for an evidentiary hearing concerning the Fellowship's legitimacy. The district court found that on the record before it the state court defendants did not have an opportunity to defend against dissolution of the Fellowship of Christ prior to entry of the circuit court's judgment. The district court also found, however, that the state court defendants had an adequate opportunity to raise this issue following entry of the circuit court's judgment. The federal plaintiffs acknowledge that the state court defendants could have, but did not, move for a new trial following the circuit court's dissolution of the Fellowship of Christ. Mich.Gen.Ct.R. 527.1.
As a general matter, the doctrine of res judicata forecloses relitigation of matters that were determined, or should have been raised, in a prior suit in which a court entered a final judgment on the merits. See Migra v. Warren City School Dist, 465 U.S. 75, 104 S.Ct. 892, 894 n. 1, 79 L.Ed.2d 56 (1984). Section 1983 suits that raise claims related to prior state court judgments, however, are not precluded without qualification.
In McDonald v. City of West Branch, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 1799, 80 L.Ed.2d 302 (1984), the Court noted that " '[t]he very purpose of Sec. 1983 was to interpose the federal courts between the States and the people, as guardians of the peoples' federal rights.' " Id. at 104 S.Ct. 1803 (citing Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U.S. 225, 242, 92 S.Ct. 2151, 2162, 32 L.Ed.2d 705 (1972)). Justice Marshall has written, on behalf of a unanimous Court, that a prior state court judgment would not preclude the federal courts from acting " 'where the state courts were unable or unwilling to protect federal rights.' " Haring v. Prosise, 462 U.S. 306, 103 S.Ct. 2368, 2373, 76 L.Ed.2d 595 (1983) (citing Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980)). In Haring, the Court also recognized that giving "preclusive effect to a state-court judgment may be inappropriate when the Sec. 1983 claimant has not 'freely and without reservation submit[ted] his federal claims for decision by the state courts.' " Id. 103 S.Ct. at 2373 n. 7 (brackets in original) (citing Montana v. United States, 440 U.S. 147, 163, 99 S.Ct. 970, 978, 59 L.Ed.2d 210 (1979)). Cf. Wood v. Orange County 715 F.2d 1543, 1547 (11th Cir.1983).
Several of the federal plaintiffs' allegations warrant consideration in light of McDonald and Haring. The federal plaintiffs complain that Judge Thorburn's opinion contained highly inflammatory statements regarding the Fellowship of Christ that, they suggest, reveal that any motion seeking reconsideration in his court would have been futile. They also allege, quite credibly, that the legitimacy of the Fellowship was never raised in the circuit court by the plaintiffs, by the defendants, or by the court itself.
The state court defendants did not respond to Judge Thorburn's order dissolving the Fellowship of Christ by filing a Sec. 1983 suit. Had they done so, it is unlikely that res judicata would...
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