Doe v. McKesson

• Citation: 945 F.3d 818
• Decision Date: 16 December 2019
• Docket Number: No. 17-30864,17-30864
• Parties: Officer John DOE, Police Officer, Plaintiff - Appellant v. DeRay MCKESSON; Black Lives Matter ; Black Lives Matter Network, Incorporated, Defendants - Appellees
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

945 F.3d 818

Officer John DOE, Police Officer, Plaintiff - Appellant

v.DeRay MCKESSON; Black Lives Matter ; Black Lives Matter Network, Incorporated, Defendants - Appellees

No. 17-30864

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

FILED December 16, 2019

Donna Unkel Grodner, Esq., Grodner & Associates, A.P.L.C., Baton Rouge, LA, for Plaintiff - Appellant.

William P. Gibbens, Esq., Ian Lewis Atkinson, Esq., Attorney, Schonekas, Evans, McGoey & McEachin, L.L.C., New Orleans, LA, David Thomas Goldberg, Donahue, Goldberg & Weaver, L.L.P., Brooklyn, NY, for Defendant - Appellee DERAY MCKESSON.

Christine Marie Calogero, Barrasso, Usdin, Kupperman, Freeman & Sarver, L.L.C., New Orleans, LA, for Defendant - Appellee BLACK LIVES MATTER NETWORK, INCORPORATED.

Before JOLLY, ELROD, and WILLETT, Circuit Judges.

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

We WITHDRAW the court’s prior opinion of August 8, 2019, and substitute the following opinion.

During a public protest against police misconduct in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, an unidentified individual hit Officer John Doe with a heavy object, causing him serious physical injuries. Following this incident, Officer Doe brought suit against "Black Lives Matter," the group associated with the protest, and DeRay Mckesson, one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter and the organizer of the protest. Officer Doe later sought to amend his complaint to add Black Lives Matter Network, Inc. and #BlackLivesMatter as defendants. The district court dismissed Officer Doe’s claims on the pleadings under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and denied his motion to amend his complaint as futile. Because we conclude that the district court erred in dismissing the case against Mckesson on the basis of the pleadings, we REMAND for further proceedings relative to Mckesson. We further hold that the district court properly dismissed the claims against Black Lives Matter. We thus REVERSE in part, AFFIRM in part, and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

On July 9, 2016, a protest illegally blocked a public highway in front of the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters.¹ This demonstration was one in a string of protests across the country, often associated with Black Lives Matter, concerning police practices. The Baton Rouge Police Department prepared by organizing a front line of officers in riot gear. These officers were ordered to stand in front of other officers prepared to make arrests. Officer Doe was one of the officers ordered to make arrests. DeRay Mckesson, associated with Black Lives Matter, was the prime leader and an organizer of the protest.

In the presence of Mckesson, some protesters began throwing objects at the police officers. Specifically, protestors began to throw full water bottles, which had been stolen from a nearby convenience store. The dismissed complaint further alleges that Mckesson did nothing to prevent the violence or to calm the crowd, and, indeed, alleges that Mckesson "incited the violence on behalf of [Black Lives Matter]." The complaint specifically alleges that Mckesson led the protestors to block the public highway. The police officers began making arrests of those blocking the highway and participating in the violence.

At some point, an unidentified individual picked up a piece of concrete or a similar rock-like object and threw it at the officers making arrests. The object struck Officer Doe’s face. Officer Doe was knocked to the ground and incapacitated. Officer Doe’s injuries included loss of teeth, a jaw injury

, a brain injury, a head injury, lost wages, "and other compensable losses."

Following the Baton Rouge protest, Officer Doe brought suit, naming Mckesson and Black Lives Matter as defendants. According to his complaint, the defendants are liable on theories of negligence, respondeat superior, and civil conspiracy. Mckesson subsequently filed two motions: (1) a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, asserting that Officer Doe failed to state a plausible claim for relief against Mckesson; and (2) a Rule 9(a)(2) motion, asserting that Black Lives Matter is not an entity with the capacity to be sued.

Officer Doe responded by filing a motion to amend. He sought leave to amend his complaint to add factual allegations to his complaint and Black Lives Matter Network, Inc. and #BlackLivesMatter as defendants.

II.

The district court granted both of Mckesson’s motions, treating the Rule 9(a)(2) motion as a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, and denied Officer Doe’s motion for leave to amend, concluding that his proposed amendment would be futile. With respect to Officer Doe’s claims against #BlackLivesMatter, the district court took judicial notice that it is a "hashtag" and therefore an "expression" that lacks the capacity to be sued. With respect to Officer Doe’s claims against Black Lives Matter Network, Inc., the district court held that Officer Doe’s allegations were insufficient to state a plausible claim for relief against this entity. Emphasizing the fact that Officer Doe attempted to add a social movement and a "hashtag" as defendants, the district court dismissed his case with prejudice. Officer Doe timely appealed.

III.

When considering a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), we will not affirm dismissal of a claim unless the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim that would entitle him to relief. Alexander v. Verizon Wireless Servs., L.L.C. , 875 F.3d 243, 249 (5th Cir. 2017). "We take all factual allegations as true and construe the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Id. (citing Kelly v. Nichamoff , 868 F.3d 371, 374 (5th Cir. 2017) ). To survive, a complaint must consist of more than "labels and conclusions" or "naked assertions devoid of further factual enhancement." Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted)). Instead, "the plaintiff must plead enough facts to nudge the claims across the line from conceivable to plausible." Hinojosa v. Livingston , 807 F.3d 657, 684 (5th Cir. 2015) (internal quotation marks, brackets, and ellipses omitted) (quoting Iqbal , 556 U.S. at 680, 129 S.Ct. 1937 ).²

A district court’s denial of a motion to amend is generally reviewed for abuse of discretion. Thomas v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. , 832 F.3d 586, 590 (5th Cir. 2016). However, where the district court’s denial of leave to amend was based solely on futility, we instead apply a de novo standard of review identical in practice to the Rule 12(b)(6) standard. Id . When a party seeks leave from the court to amend and justice requires it, the district court should freely give it. Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2).

IV.

We start with whether we have jurisdiction to hear this case, raising sua sponte its potential absence. Neither the district court nor any party addressed this issue in prior proceedings or on appeal. Officer Doe sued Mckesson and Black Lives Matter.³ The complaint alleges that Black Lives Matter is a national unincorporated association, Doe v. Mckesson , 272 F. Supp. 3d 841, 849 (M.D. La. 2017), which, for diversity purposes, is a citizen of every state where a member is a citizen, Getty Oil Corp. v. Ins. Co. of N. Am. , 841 F.2d 1254, 1258 (5th Cir. 1988). Officer Doe, as the party invoking federal jurisdiction, bore the burden of establishing jurisdiction. Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am. , 511 U.S. 375, 377, 114 S.Ct. 1673, 128 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994). But the complaint fails to allege with sufficiency the membership of Black Lives Matter.⁴ Such failure to establish diversity jurisdiction normally warrants remand—if there was some reason to believe that jurisdiction exists, i.e., some reason to believe both that Black Lives Matter’s citizenship could be demonstrated with a supplemented record and that it is diverse from the plaintiff—or dismissal of the case. See MidCap Media Fin., LLC v. Pathway Data, Inc. , 929 F.3d 310, 316 (5th Cir. 2019).

Yet we need not resort to either here. Even assuming arguendo that Black Lives Matter were nondiverse and thus that the parties were nondiverse at the time of filing this lawsuit, such "lack of [diversity] jurisdiction can be cured when the non-diverse party is dismissed in federal court." 16 Front Street, L.L.C. v. Miss. Silicon, L.L.C. , 886 F.3d 549, 556 (5th Cir. 2018). This "method of curing a jurisdictional defect ha[s] long been an exception to the time-of-filing rule." Grupo Dataflux v. Atlas Glob. Grp., L.P. , 541 U.S. 567, 572, 124 S.Ct. 1920, 158 L.Ed.2d 866 (2004) ; see, e.g. , Caterpillar, Inc. v. Lewis , 519 U.S. 61, 73, 117 S.Ct. 467, 136 L.Ed.2d 437 (1996) (holding that "diversity became complete" when a nondiverse party settled and was dismissed from the case and that therefore "[t]he jurisdictional defect was cured") (emphasis removed); McGlothin v. State Farm Mut. Ins. Co. , 925 F.3d 741, 744 (5th Cir. 2019) (holding that the dismissal of nondiverse defendants for failure of service of process "created complete diversity; and, therefore, the district court had jurisdiction") (citations omitted).

Here, the district court took judicial notice that Black Lives Matter was a social movement and therefore a non-juridical entity lacking the capacity to be sued. Doe , 272 F. Supp. 3d at 850 ; see infra Part V.C. The court subsequently dismissed Black Lives Matter as a defendant. Doe , 272 F. Supp. 3d at 850. If complete diversity did not exist before, this dismissal created the complete diversity (since Officer Doe and Mckesson are citizens of different states) necessary for jurisdiction in this case. For that reason, we have jurisdiction to hear this case.⁵

V.

A.

We next address Officer Doe’s claims against DeRay Mckesson. The district court did not reach the merits of Officer Doe’s underlying state tort claims, but instead found that Officer Doe failed to plead facts that took Mckesson’s conduct outside of...