Baccus v. Parrish, 94-10017

• Decision Date: 27 February 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-10017,94-10017
• Citation: 45 F.3d 958
• Parties: Roy BACCUS, Individually and as Guardian of Larry Baccus, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Linda H. PARRISH, et al., Defendants-Appellees, John Lelsz, By and Through his Parents and Guardians, Mr. and Mrs. John Lelsz, and Advocacy, Inc., Intervening-Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 958

45 F.3d 958

Roy BACCUS, Individually and as Guardian of Larry Baccus, et

al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Linda H. PARRISH, et al., Defendants-Appellees, John Lelsz, By and Through his Parents and Guardians, Mr. and Mrs. John Lelsz, and Advocacy, Inc.,

Intervening-Defendants-Appellees.

No. 94-10017.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Feb. 27, 1995.

R. Coke Mills, R. John Cullar, Mills, Millar, Matkin & Cullar, Waco, TX, for appellants.

Nancy A. Trease, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dan Morales, Atty. Gen., Austin, TX, for Parrish.

Garth Anthony Corbett, Advocacy, Inc., Austin, TX, for Advocacy, Inc.

David Ferleger, Philadelphia, PA, for Lelsz plaintiff class.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, GOLDBERG and DUHE, Circuit Judges.

GOLDBERG, Circuit Judge: ^*

The appellants challenged the creation of a task force empowered to make recommendations to the governor of Texas on the closing of certain schools for the mentally retarded. The appellants originally brought this challenge in Texas state court and the appellees removed the case to the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The appellants filed a motion to remand which was subsequently denied by the district court. The district court then declared the case moot and granted the appellees' motion for summary judgment. The appellants now appeal the district court's denial of the motion to remand and the grant of summary judgment. We affirm.

I

This case arises out of a twenty-year-old class action that was settled in 1991. The settlement in Lelsz v. Kavanagh, Civil Action No. 3-85-2462-H, was made contingent on the closure of certain state schools for the mentally retarded and on the condition that Texas would create community facilities for the mentally retarded. In response to the settlement agreement, the Texas Legislature passed H.B. 7, creating the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation State Facility Review Task Force ("Task Force"). The Task Force was charged with making recommendations to the governor regarding the closure of two state schools. Final passage of the legislation creating the Task Force was itself contingent on the district court's acceptance of the settlement agreement. The district court accepted the settlement agreement on December 30, 1991, thereby finalizing the judgment. Lelsz v. Kavanagh, 783 F.Supp. 286 (N.D.Tex.1991), dismissed, 983 F.2d 1061 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 287, 126 L.Ed.2d 236 (1993).

Roy Baccus, individually and as a guardian of his son, Larry Baccus, a resident of Mexia State School, filed suit in Texas state court for declaratory and injunctive relief against the Task Force. Baccus alleged that one of the Task Force members had been appointed after the statutory deadline for choosing Task Force members, and that the legislation creating the Task Force violated the "one-subject rule" of the Texas Constitution.

Shortly after the suit was filed by Baccus, the Task Force recommended that the Mexia and Travis State Schools be closed. The governor acted on the Task Force's recommendation to close the Travis school, but did not close the Mexia school. The Task Force then recommended closing the Fort Worth State School, which the governor agreed to do. Baccus then amended his complaint to add plaintiffs Diane Lois Ward, a resident of the Fort Worth school, and Steven Terral Higgins, a resident of the Travis school. Higgins was transferred to the Austin State School as a result of the closure of the Travis school.

The appellees removed the case to federal court and the case was moved to the Western District of Texas, Waco Division. The case was then transferred to Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, due to then-Chief Judge Barefoot Sanders' experience with the Lelsz litigation. The appellants filed a motion to remand the case to state court on the basis that their cause of action did not arise under the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States. The district court denied the motion to remand, finding that the plaintiffs' claim was "in essence a collateral attack on the Settlement Agreement" in Lelsz.

The district court permitted the Lelsz class and Advocacy, Inc., an intervenor in Lelsz, to intervene, after which all parties moved for summary judgment. Prior to ruling on the summary judgment motions, the district court ordered the appellees to file affidavits indicating the appellants' current locations and for both sides to submit a brief on standing to sue.

In response to the district court's order, the appellees submitted an affidavit from Rick Campbell, an Associate Commissioner for Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services. In his affidavit, Campbell set forth that the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation did not plan to move Larry Baccus or Steven Terral Higgins, who were residents of the Mexia and Austin State Schools. Diane Lois Ward, who was then a resident of the Fort Worth school, would eventually be moved. Campbell also stated that all state schools for the mentally retarded operated by the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation met federal regulations governing intermediate care facilities for persons with mental retardation.

In September 1993, the district court issued a decision holding that the case was moot and granting summary judgment in favor of the appellees. The district court found that Texas was entitled to unilaterally close these schools for the reasons particularized, and that the appellants did not allege any particularized injury traceable to the conduct of the appellees.

II

On appeal, the appellants assert that the district court erred in denying their motion to remand and in granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants. Each issue will be taken in turn.

A. Was There a Basis for Federal Jurisdiction?

The appellants contend that the case was improperly removed to federal court because their cause of action is grounded exclusively in state law. The general removal statute provides:

Except as otherwise expressly provided by Act of Congress, any civil action brought in a State court of which the district courts of the United States have original jurisdiction, may be removed by the defendant or the defendants, to the district court of the United States for the district and division embracing the place where such action is pending.

28 U.S.C. Sec. 1441(a) (1994). The district court refused to remand the appellants' case because it deemed their cause of action to be a collateral attack on the Lelsz settlement agreement. We review de novo the district court's denial of the motion to remand. Diaz v. McAllen State Bank, 975 F.2d 1145, 1147 (5th Cir.1992); F.D.I.C. v. Loyd, 955 F.2d 316, 319 (5th Cir.1992).

Federal jurisdiction is proper where a claim brought in state court seeks to attack or undermine an order of a federal district court. Villarreal v. Brown Express, Inc., 529 F.2d 1219, 1221 (5th Cir.1976); Deauville Assoc. v. Lojoy Corporation, 181 F.2d 5 (5th Cir.1950). Further, the finding of federal jurisdiction is not limited to direct attacks on a district court order, but may also be found where a claim seeks to set aside a provision of a settlement agreement in a federal case. Eyak Native Village v. Exxon Corp., 25 F.3d 773, 778-79 (9th Cir.1994).

The appellants assert that their claim is exclusively state related, in that it is controlled by whether the Texas Legislation at issue is violative of the Texas Constitution. While the appellants' cause of action nominally arises under the laws and Constitution of Texas, courts will typically look beyond the face of a complaint to determine whether removal is proper. Villarreal, 529 F.2d at 1221; 14 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 3734 at 543 (1985) (citing Nunn v. Feltinton, 294 F.2d 450 (5th Cir.1961)).

The appellants originally brought their suit to prevent the Task Force from meeting. In their brief, the appellants concede that their suit, if successful, would have affected the Lelsz settlement agreement. Therefore, their suit is properly characterized as a collateral attack on the settlement agreement in Lelsz. Furthermore, the unique nature of the settlement agreement in Lelsz heightens its conflict with the appellants' suit. The Lelsz settlement was contingent upon the passage of certain remedial measures by the Texas legislature. The Texas Legislature acted in accordance with the Lelsz settlement agreement in creating the Task Force, and made final enactment of the Task Force contingent on the district court's acceptance of the settlement agreement. The district court accepted the settlement agreement, and thereby made the resolution of a protracted dispute dependent upon the activities of the Task Force. Were the appellants to succeed with their claims, the entire basis for the settlement in...