Abbott v. Michigan

• Decision Date: 22 January 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-1434.,06-1434.
• Citation: 474 F.3d 324
• Parties: Thomas ABBOTT; Larry Arthur Ormsby; Antonio Mendoza; Edsol J. Stanley, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. State of MICHIGAN; Michigan Department of Treasury; Michigan Department of Corrections, Defendants, Jennifer Granholm, Governor; Robert Kleine, Treasurer; Patricia Caruso, Director, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

474 F.3d 324

Thomas ABBOTT; Larry Arthur Ormsby; Antonio Mendoza; Edsol J. Stanley, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. State of MICHIGAN; Michigan Department of Treasury; Michigan Department of Corrections, Defendants Jennifer Granholm, Governor; Robert Kleine, Treasurer; Patricia Caruso, Director, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 06-1434.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: December 8, 2006.

Decided and Filed: January 22, 2007.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED:

Timothy S. Barkovic, St. Clair Shores, Michigan, for Appellants. Suann D. Cochran, State of Michigan, Department of Attorney General, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellees.

ON BRIEF:

Timothy S. Barkovic, St. Clair Shores, Michigan, for Appellants. Suann D. Cochran, Juandisha M. Harris, State of Michigan, Department of Attorney.

Before SILER, MOORE, and GILMAN, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs-Appellants Thomas Abbott ("Abbott"), Larry Arthur Ormsby ("Ormsby"), Antonio Mendoza ("Mendoza"), and Edsol J. Stanley ("Stanley") appeal from the district court's judgment dismissing their claims. The plaintiffs filed a putative class action alleging that Defendants State of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Treasury, and the Michigan Department of Corrections,¹ together with Defendants-Appellees Governor Jennifer Granholm, Treasurer Jay B. Rising,² and Department of Corrections Director Patricia L. Caruso, converted their pension benefits in violation of the Due Process Clause, ERISA, and state law. The district court concluded that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine and res judicata required dismissal of the plaintiffs' claims. For those same reasons, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

Abbott, Mendoza, Ormsby, and Stanley are inmates at Michigan correctional facilities. Pursuant to the State Correctional Facility Reimbursement Act ("SCFRA"), MICH. COMP. LAWS § 800.401-406, the state sought reimbursement for the costs of incarceration from each plaintiff's assets, including pension benefits. SCFRA sets forth the following procedures by which the state may seek reimbursement for the costs of incarceration:

(1). . . . The attorney general may file a complaint in the circuit court for the county from which a prisoner was sentenced, stating that the person is or has been a prisoner in a state correctional facility, that there is good cause to believe that the prisoner has assets, and praying that the assets be used to reimburse the state for the expenses incurred or to be incurred, or both, by the state for the cost of care of the person as a prisoner.

(2) Upon the filing of the complaint under subsection (1), the court shall issue an order to show cause why the prayer of the complainant should not be granted. The complaint and order shall be served upon the prisoner personally or, if the prisoner is confined in a state correctional facility, by registered mail addressed to the prisoner in care of the chief administrator of the state correctional facility where the prisoner is housed, at least 30 days before the date of hearing on the complaint and order.

At the time of the hearing on the complaint and order, if it appears that the prisoner has any assets which ought to be subjected to the claim of the state under this act, the court shall issue an order requiring any person, corporation, or other legal entity possessed or having custody of those assets to appropriate and apply the assets or a portion thereof toward reimbursing the state as provided for under this act.

MICH. COMP. LAWS § 800.404.

On March 10, 1997, the Clinton County Circuit Court entered an order against Abbott stating, in part:

Defendant Thomas K. Abbott shall immediately direct General Motors Corporation, it's [sic] subsidiary or designee, to cause any pension payments due Defendant Thomas K. Abbott to be made payable to "Thomas K. Abbott, # * * *" at: PRISON ADDRESS, or Thomas K. Abbott's then current prison address. If Defendant should refuse to so direct, this order shall be treated as the direction of the defendant to General Motors that the pension payments shall be made as directed above. Payments shall be made in this manner until Defendant Thomas K. Abbott is released from the physical custody of the Department of Corrections, or until further order of this Court.

Joint Appendix ("J.A.") at 54. The order required the warden "in the continuing capacity as receiver" to deposit pension checks into Abbott's prison account, with 33% of the funds disbursed to the State of Michigan and the remainder to Abbott's family. J.A. at 54-55.

Abbott appealed the Circuit Court's order, arguing that the SCFRA order was an assignment of his pension payments in violation of provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. The Michigan Court of Appeals concluded that the SCFRA order violated the anti-alienation provisions of ERISA, State Treasurer v. Abbott, 249 Mich.App. 107, 640 N.W.2d 888 (Mich.Ct.App.2001), but the Michigan Supreme Court granted leave to appeal and held that the SCFRA order did not violate ERISA, State Treasurer v. Abbott, 468 Mich. 143, 660 N.W.2d 714 (Mich.2003).³ Abbott filed a petition for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, which was denied. Abbott v. Rising, 540 U.S. 1112, 124 S.Ct. 1038, 157 L.Ed.2d 901 (2004).

The Oakland County Circuit Court entered similar orders against Mendoza on December 17, 1997, granting 60% of any pension payments to the state, and against Stanley on June 30, 2004, granting 90% to the state. The Ogemaw County Circuit Court entered an order against Ormsby on August 13, 2002, granting 90% of his assets and the funds then in his prison account to the state but making no specific mention of pension payments.

On July 15, 2005, Abbott, Ormsby, Mendoza, and Stanley filed a complaint in federal district court alleging that the SCFRA orders violated the Due Process Clause, ERISA, and state law and seeking to establish a class action on behalf of "all other prisoners, past and present, who have had any pension benefits diverted in violation of ERISA." J.A. at 10 (Compl. at 5). On October 7, 2005, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment arguing, inter alia, that the district court did not have jurisdiction over the plaintiffs' claims because of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine and that the claims were barred by res judicata. The district court granted the motion on those two grounds on January 31, 2006.⁴ The plaintiffs timely appealed.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Jurisdiction

1. Standard of Review

"A Rule 12(b)(1) motion can either attack the claim of jurisdiction on its face, in which case all allegations of the plaintiff must be considered as true, or it can attack the factual basis for jurisdiction, in which case the trial court must weigh the evidence and the plaintiff bears the burden of proving that jurisdiction exists." DLX, Inc. v. Kentucky, 381 F.3d 511, 516 (6th Cir.2004), cert. denied, 544 U.S. 961, 125 S.Ct. 1733, 161 L.Ed.2d 603 (2005). Because the district court made essentially no factual findings in deciding that it lacked jurisdiction, the defendants' motion on this issue is properly treated as an attack on the claim of jurisdiction on its face. Id. Accordingly, we review the district court's decision de novo. Id.

2. Rooker-Feldman

The Supreme Court is vested with exclusive jurisdiction over appeals from final state-court judgments. Lance v. Dennis, 546 U.S. 459, 126 S.Ct. 1198, 1200, 163 L.Ed.2d 1059 (2006). Thus, "[t]he Rooker-Feldmandoctrine prevents the lower federal courts from exercising jurisdiction over cases brought by `state-court losers' challenging `state-court judgments rendered before the district court proceedings commenced.'" Id. at 1199 (quoting Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 284, 125 S.Ct. 1517, 161 L.Ed.2d 454 (2005)). The doctrine applies "only when a plaintiff complains of injury from the state court judgment itself." Coles v. Granville, 448 F.3d 853, 858 (6th Cir.2006). "If the source of the injury is the state court decision, then the Rooker-Feldman doctrine would prevent the district court from asserting jurisdiction. If there is some other source of injury, such as a third party's actions, then the plaintiff asserts an independent claim." McCormick v. Braverman, 451 F.3d 382, 393 (6th Cir. 2006). Additionally, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine "does not prohibit federal district courts from exercising jurisdiction where the plaintiff's claim is merely a general challenge to the constitutionality of the state law applied in the state action, rather than a challenge to the law's application in a particular state case." Hood v. Keller, 341 F.3d 593, 597 (6th Cir.2003).

The plaintiffs have complained of specific injuries that they have suffered, but have also requested, among other relief, that the district court "permanently enjoin the Defendants from enforcing of [sic] the SCFRA as it applies to ERISA-qualified pension benefits." J.A. at 22 (Compl. at 17). Broadly construed, the plaintiffs' complaint could be read as bringing a general challenge that SCFRA violates ERISA and the Supremacy Clause. The Rooker-Feldman doctrine does not deprive the federal courts of this general challenge to SCFRA. Hood, 341 F.3d at 597.

Regarding whether plaintiffs' claims of specific injuries that they have suffered implicate the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, we have found the Second Circuit's guidance particularly instructive:

Suppose a state court, based purely on state law, terminates a father's parental rights and orders the state to take custody of his son. If the father sues in federal court for the return of his son on grounds that the state judgment violates his federal substantive due-process rights as a parent, he is complaining of an injury caused by the state judgment and seeking its reversal. This he may not do, regardless of whether he raised any constitutional...