Cosgriff v. Cnty. of Winnebago, 17-1396

• Decision Date: 01 December 2017
• Docket Number: No. 17-1396,17-1396
• Citation: 876 F.3d 912
• Parties: Kelly J. COSGRIFF and Anita Cosgriff, Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. COUNTY OF WINNEBAGO, et al., Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

876 F.3d 912

Kelly J. COSGRIFF and Anita Cosgriff, Plaintiffs–Appellants,

v.COUNTY OF WINNEBAGO, et al., Defendants–Appellees.

No. 17-1396

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued September 27, 2017

Decided December 1, 2017

James Jacob Lessmeister, Jimmy Samad, Attorneys, Lessmeister & Associates, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs–Appellants.

William Don Emmert, Attorney, Office of the State's Attorney of Winnebago County, Rockford, IL, for Defendant–Appellee Winnebago County, Illinois.

William Bradley Oberts, Attorney, Tribler Orpett & Meyer, P.C., Chicago, IL, for Defendant–Appellee Charlotte A. Leclercq.

Stacy Kay Shelly, Troy A. Lundquist, Attorneys, Langhenry, Gillen, Lundquist & Johnson LLC, Rockford, IL, for Defendants–Appellees Patricia J. Zintak, Joann Hawes.

William M. Goff, Attorney, Mateer Goff & Associates, Rockford, IL, for Defendant–Appellee Kurlinkus Law, LLC.

Joel Matthew Leroy Huotari, Attorney, Williams & McCarthy, Rockford, IL, for Defendant–Appellee David J. Kurlinkus.

Before Wood, Chief Judge, and Flaum and Kanne, Circuit Judges.

Kanne, Circuit Judge.

A dog bit a Roscoe Township employee on Kelly and Anita Cosgriff's property. After the employee and the township sued the Cosgriffs, the Cosgriffs started a petition campaign encouraging taxpayers to notify the township that its employees should not trespass on private property.

The Cosgriffs' next property assessment set by the township was significantly higher than their last. The Cosgriffs challenged the increased assessment through a hearing before the Winnebago County Board of Review, the Illinois county in which Roscoe Township is located. The Board ruled in favor of the Cosgriffs and substantially reduced the new assessment.

The Cosgriffs then sued Winnebago County and numerous individual defendants in federal district court. The Cosgriffs principally allege that the defendants acted unconstitutionally when they increased the Cosgriffs' property assessment because the Cosgriffs spoke out against township employees trespassing on private property.

The district court dismissed the Cosgriffs' § 1983 claims, reasoning that comity principles barred federal courts from hearing these federal claims. The court also relinquished supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state-law claims. The Cosgriffs appealed the dismissal of their federal claims. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

We draw the facts from the complaint and presume them to be true for this appeal. See Bible v. United Student Aid Funds, Inc. , 799 F.3d 633, 639 (7th Cir. 2015).

Kelly and Anita Cosgriff reside in South Beloit, Illinois, which is part of Roscoe Township in Winnebago County. In 2013, they installed a $50,000 pool at their home. When two township employees came to the home in April 2014 to reassess its property value after the addition of the pool, one of the Cosgriffs' dogs bit one of the employees. That employee and Roscoe Township sued the Cosgriffs, so the Cosgriffs posted a "No Trespass" sign on their property. They also started a petition drive on the website "change.org" that encouraged other Roscoe Township taxpayers to notify the Roscoe Township Assessor and its employees not to trespass on their own property.

Kelly Cosgriff contacted the Winnebago County Supervisor of Assessments, Thomas Walsh, several times to learn about the property assessment process. Thereafter, Walsh sought the advice of Assistant State's Attorney David Kurlinkus. The Cosgriffs allege that the two men then implemented a strategy to impede the Cosgriffs. In part, Kurlinkus "ghost wrote" a letter in July 2014 from Walsh to Kelly Cosgriff, stating that Kelly needed to direct his inquiries to the Roscoe Township Assessor instead.

Then, on August 7th, 2014, Walsh issued a "PTAX–228 Notice of Property Assessment" to the Cosgriffs for their home. This new assessment reflected a valuation that was 47.14% higher than the previous year, an increase in fair market value from $357,000 to $525,000 even though the Cosgriffs added only a $50,000 pool. It was the highest increase in Roscoe Township in 2014, a year when 99.17% of properties saw their assessed values reduced from the previous year.

On August 8th, Kelly Cosgriff emailed Walsh complaining about this assessment. Walsh forwarded the message to David Kurlinkus, who then forwarded it to his son (Josef Kurlinkus, the Roscoe Township Attorney) with the one-word message, "Boom."

The Cosgriffs filed a property tax assessment complaint with the Winnebago County Board of Review supported by a $345,000 appraisal of their property. The Board of Review set a hearing on their complaint for February 20, 2015. That day, before the hearing began, Josef Kurlinkus—the township's attorney—moved to bar the Cosgriffs from presenting their appraisal, citing a rule that prevents taxpayers from presenting evidence when they have excluded a tax assessor from the property. The Cosgriffs had invited Roscoe Township to inspect the property, giving it a 30–day window to do so. The township did not take the Cosgriffs up on that offer.

In a closed-door deliberation on Josef's motion, Assistant State's Attorney David Kurlinkus argued in favor of granting the motion to bar the admission of the Cosgriffs' appraisal. The motion to bar was granted. David Kurlinkus later recused himself after being questioned about his participation in the hearing.

The hearing on the complaint proceeded without the appraisal evidence, but when Roscoe Township Assessor Joann Hawes testified, she was unable to explain how she assessed the Cosgriffs' property at $525,000. At the conclusion of the hearing, Kelly Cosgriff told the township's attorney, Josef Kurlinkus, "You should have done the right thing," to which Josef replied, "You should not have put up the website or signs."

The Winnebago County Board of Review found the value of the Cosgriffs' property to be $409,000 and reduced the assessment accordingly. They did not appeal the matter further in the state system.

They did, however, bring a suit—now in this court on appeal—in federal district court against (1) Winnebago County; (2) various county and township officials, individually and in their official capacities; and (3) Kurlinkus Law Office, LLC (the law firm of Roscoe Township's attorney, Josef Kurlinkus).

The Cosgriffs proceeded on three federal-law claims as well as some state-law claims. The federal claims alleged that the defendants violated 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by (1) retaliating against the Cosgriffs for exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech (Count I), (2) conspiring to violate the Cosgriffs' Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process (Count II), and (3) violating the Cosgriffs' Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection of the law (Count III).

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the federal claims for failure to state a claim. The district court granted that motion. We review this decision de novo , accepting all well-pleaded allegations as true and drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the Cosgriffs. See Bible , 799 F.3d at 639. We agree that the Cosgriffs' federal claims should be dismissed.

II. ANALYSIS

Section 1983 prohibits unconstitutional actions by persons acting under the color of state law. Congress "cut a broad swath" when it enacted § 1983, and the statute appears by its terms to give a federal cause of action to state taxpayers. Fair Assessment in Real Estate Ass'n, Inc. v. McNary , 454 U.S. 100, 103–04, 102 S.Ct. 177, 70 L.Ed.2d 271 (1981). But the comity doctrine, which "counsels lower federal courts to resist engagement in certain cases falling within their jurisdiction," Levin v. Commerce Energy, Inc. , 560 U.S. 413, 421, 130 S.Ct. 2323, 176 L.Ed.2d 1131 (2010), has limited § 1983's scope.

And cases dealing with state tax systems fall within the comity doctrine's purview. Before Congress enacted § 1983, the Supreme Court "recognized the important and sensitive nature of state tax systems and the need for federal-court restraint when deciding cases that affect such systems." Fair Assessment, 454 U.S. at 102, 102 S.Ct. 177 (referring to Dows v. City of Chicago , 78 U.S. (11 Wall.) 108, 110, 20 L.Ed. 65 (1871) ). And then in 1937, Congress provided that "[t]he district courts shall not enjoin, suspend or restrain the assessment, levy or collection of any tax under State law where a plain, speedy and efficient remedy may be had" in state court. 28 U.S.C. § 1341. Together, Congress and the Court embedded "the fundamental principle of comity between federal courts and state governments that is essential to ‘Our Federalism,’ particularly in the area of state taxation." See Fair Assessment , 454 U.S at 103, 102 S.Ct. 177.

So, though § 1983 appears to give a federal cause of action to state taxpayers, the principles of comity nonetheless apply to bar a state taxpayer from bringing a § 1983 suit in federal court. See id. at 103–05, 102 S.Ct. 177. This is true even if the taxpayer is seeking to redress the allegedly unconstitutional administration of a state tax system. See id . at 105, 102 S.Ct. 177. Taxpayers alleging that their federal rights have been violated by state or local tax practices must seek relief through available state remedies if those remedies are "plain, adequate, and complete." Id. at 116, 102 S.Ct. 177.

We have consistently barred taxpayers from bringing § 1983 suits "challenging the validity or imposition of state and local taxes in federal courts unless the available state remedies for those injuries are not adequate, plain, and complete." Capra v. Cook Cty. Bd. of Review , 733 F.3d 705, 713 (7th Cir. 2013). In Werch v. City of Berlin , for example, we agreed...