Cheek v. Iron Cnty.
| Decision Date | 14 June 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. 20160787-CA,20160787-CA |
| Citation | 427 P.3d 522 |
| Parties | Haylee CHEEK, Appellant, v. IRON COUNTY, Iron County Attorney, and Cedar City, Appellees. |
| Court | Utah Court of Appeals |
Tyler B. Ayres and Daniel Baczynski, Draper, Attorneys for Appellant
Jesse C. Trentadue and Noah M. Hoagland, Salt Lake City, Attorneys for Appellees Iron County and Iron County Attorney
Robert C. Keller and Timothy J. Bywater, Salt Lake City, Attorneys for Appellee Cedar City
Opinion
¶1 After her civil rights claims were dismissed in federal court, Haylee Cheek filed a complaint in state district court alleging that she had been treated with unnecessary rigor, in contravention of the Utah Constitution. As she had in her federal suit, she named as defendants Iron County; the Iron County Attorney, Scott Garrett; and Cedar City (collectively, the Defendants). Upon a motion from each of the Defendants, the state district court dismissed Cheek’s claims without reaching any conclusions regarding their substantive merit. Cheek appeals. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
¶2 On May 28, 2010, Cheek filed a complaint in Utah’s federal district court alleging that, during her arrest and subsequent detention, the Defendants had violated her civil rights.2 The complaint contained seven causes of action arising under section 1983 of the United States Code and three arising under the "unnecessary rigor" provision of the Utah Constitution.3 In support of her state-law claims, Cheek alleged that the named defendants had violated her constitutional rights by setting excessive bail, by compelling her to provide blood and urine samples pursuant to an illegal warrant, and by failing to protect her from a sexual assault during her incarceration.
¶3 In the initial complaint, Cheek listed Garrett as a defendant in both his official and individual capacities. But Cheek later amended the complaint to include Garrett only in his official capacity. Garrett then filed a motion to dismiss. The federal court granted the motion on November 18, 2014, reasoning that the complaint stated that the individual defendants were sued only in their official capacity. The court explained:
An official-capacity suit is another way of pleading an action against an entity of which an officer is an agent. What’s more, a person sued in his official capacity has no stake, as an individual, in the outcome of [the] litigation. Accordingly, the claims against all individual defendants ... are dismissed.
The court specified in its order that Garrett’s dismissal was "with prejudice."
¶4 Following Garrett’s dismissal, Cedar City and Iron County moved, respectively, for summary judgment and judgment on the pleadings. Rather than opposing these motions, Cheek conceded that her "claims under federal law may be procedurally, legally and/or factually insufficient" and agreed that they should be dismissed with prejudice. In light of this concession, the federal court dismissed Cheek’s suit, noting that she had the option to refile her state-law claims in a state court of general jurisdiction.
¶5 In May 2015, Cheek commenced this action in Utah’s Fifth District Court against the Defendants and several Cedar City and Iron County departments and employees. In her complaint, she reasserted two of her three unnecessary rigor claims, this time narrowing the scope of her suit to the allegations that the Defendants had illegally compelled her to provide a urine sample and that they had failed to prevent her sexual assault. After filing her complaint, Cheek attempted to effect service on the Defendants, with, as it turns out, only mixed success.
¶6 In October 2015, the Defendants filed motions to dismiss. Cedar City argued that Cheek’s claims against it should be dismissed on jurisdictional grounds because she had failed to file a notice of claim prior to commencing her action, in accordance with the Governmental Immunity Act of Utah. Garrett, for his part, argued that Cheek’s claims against him were barred by the doctrine of res judicata. Finally, Iron County argued that the state district court had not effectively exerted jurisdiction over the county because Cheek did not serve the summons and complaint on the County Clerk, as required by rule 4 of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. Instead, she had served the County Recorder.4
¶7 The state district court granted Cedar City’s motion in November 2015, and it granted Garrett’s and Iron County’s motions several months later in a bifurcated order. In its first "partial" order, entered in July 2016, the court dismissed all Iron County departments, as they are not separate legal entities and cannot be sued. The court also dismissed all employees named in the suit, with the exception of Garrett, explaining that Cheek had voluntarily relinquished her claims against them during the hearing on Iron County’s motion. The court then entered its second order in August 2016, wherein it dismissed Cheek’s claims against Garrett with prejudice and her claims against Iron County without prejudice. On appeal, Cheek concedes that all of her claims were time-barred by the time the court ruled on Iron County’s motion, meaning that, if it stands, the court’s second order effectively put an end to her suit. Cheek now appeals the district court’s orders.
¶8 Cheek presents three issues for our review. In her opening brief, Cheek ascribes error to the state district court’s conclusion that it lacked jurisdiction over the subject matter of her suit against Cedar City. The court’s decision should be reversed, she argues, because it rested on the incorrect premise that her unnecessary rigor claims were subject to the notice-of-claim provisions of Utah’s Governmental Immunity Act. Rather than contesting this point, Cedar City concedes that a plaintiff’s right to assert an unnecessary rigor claim is not subject to the Governmental Immunity Act and argues that we should affirm on mootness grounds instead.
¶9 Accordingly, the first issue presented for our review becomes this: To successfully assert an unnecessary rigor claim against a governmental employer, must a plaintiff name, as a party to the action, the individual employee whose conduct gave rise to the claim? If so, Cedar City argues, then the district court’s errant jurisdictional determination is mooted by the district court’s July 2016 order, in which it dismissed all of Cheek’s claims against Cedar City and Iron County employees with prejudice. Whether a plaintiff has successfully stated a prima facie claim for relief is a question of law, which we review for correctness. Handy v. Union Pac. R.R. , 841 P.2d 1210, 1215 (Utah Ct. App. 1992).
¶10 The second issue for our review is whether the state district court erred in concluding that Cheek’s claims against Garrett were barred by the doctrine of res judicata. "Whether a claim is barred by res judicata is a question of law that we review for correctness." Gillmor v. Family Link, LLC , 2012 UT 38, ¶ 9, 284 P.3d 622.
¶11 The third issue is whether the court erroneously concluded that it did not have personal jurisdiction over Iron County given Cheek’s failure to serve the County Clerk. "Whether the district court had personal jurisdiction is a question of law, which we review for correctness."
Bel Courtyard Invs. v. Wolfe , 2013 UT App 217, ¶ 9, 310 P.3d 747. And "[t]o the extent this issue requires us to interpret rules of civil procedure, it presents a question of law," which we also "review for correctness." Harris v. IES Assocs., Inc. , 2003 UT App 112, ¶ 25, 69 P.3d 297 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
¶12 We begin by addressing Cedar City’s mootness argument. As we briefly explained above, Cedar City concedes that the district court erred in determining that it did not have jurisdiction over Cheek’s unnecessary rigor claims against it. Nevertheless, the City contends that the jurisdictional issue was mooted by the court’s July 2016 order. In that order, which Cheek has not challenged on appeal, the court dismissed with prejudice Cheek’s claims against every Cedar City employee named as a defendant in the complaint. Cedar City contends that this is fatal to Cheek’s suit against it because an unnecessary rigor claimant proceeding against a governmental employer must, in order to survive a motion to dismiss, name as a defendant the particular employee who subjected her to unnecessary rigor. Because we see no basis for this purported requirement in the law, we reject Cedar City’s mootness argument and reverse the district court’s decision dismissing the City from the action.
¶13 As an initial matter, we note that we will decline to reach the issue of whether the district court had jurisdiction over the subject matter of a suit if we determine that the issue has become moot on appeal. In general, "subject matter jurisdiction goes to the heart of a court’s authority to hear a case," and as such, "it is not subject to waiver and may be raised at any time." In re adoption of Baby E.Z. , 2011 UT 38, ¶ 25, 266 P.3d 702. But "[w]e refrain from adjudicating issues when the underlying case is moot," Burkett v. Schwendiman , 773 P.2d 42, 44 (Utah 1989), including issues of jurisdiction, Towner v. Ridgway , 2012 UT App 35, ¶ 5, 272 P.3d 765. Thus, we have echoed our Supreme Court in stating that "where any determination an appellate court might make regarding a lower court’s jurisdiction will not affect the rights of the parties in relation to any issues other than those ... already declared moot, the issue of jurisdiction is also moot." Id. (omission in original) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
¶14 Cedar City has not persuaded us that Cheek is required to name a City employee as a party in order to proceed with her suit. The City maintains that our Supreme Court’...
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