Cousins v. Lockyer

• Citation: 568 F.3d 1063
• Decision Date: 15 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. 07-17216.,07-17216.
• Parties: William Henry COUSINS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Bill LOCKYER, (former) Attorney General of California, in his official capacity; Richard Rimmer, (former) Director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), in his individual capacity; Roseanne Campbell, (former) Warden of Mule Creek State Prison, in her individual capacity; and John/Jane Does 1 through x, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

568 F.3d 1063

William Henry COUSINS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Bill LOCKYER, (former) Attorney General of California, in his official capacity; Richard Rimmer, (former) Director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), in his individual capacity; Roseanne Campbell, (former) Warden of Mule Creek State Prison, in her individual capacity; and John/Jane Does 1 through x, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 07-17216.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted April 13, 2009.

Filed June 15, 2009.

Dennis Cunningham & William Gordon Kaupp, Law Offices of Dennis Cunningham, San Francisco, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.

Wilfred T. Fong, Office of the California Attorney General, Oakland, CA, for the defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Saundra B. Armstrong, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-07-01165-SBA.

Before: T.G. NELSON, ANDREW J. KLEINFELD, and MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judges.

MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judge:

William Henry Cousins (Cousins) appeals from the dismissal of his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint against several California state officials, in which he alleges that he was wrongfully imprisoned for an additional nineteen months after a California appellate court overturned the statute under which he was incarcerated. He argues that the officials breached their alleged duties to monitor whether his sentence was void under the invalidated statute and to take steps to effectuate his release. He also asserts that the district court erred in determining that the former Attorney General is entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity, and that the remaining defendants are entitled to qualified immunity.

We affirm the district court's judgment regarding Cousins' federal claims because they fall within the scope of the former Attorney General's duties as a criminal prosecutor, and because Cousins cannot show that any federal constitutional right that may have been violated by the remaining defendants was clearly established in law. However, we reverse and remand Cousins' state causes of action. His state false imprisonment claim is not subject to any state statutory immunity; his remaining state claims are all derivative of that claim; and none of his state claims is subject to the federal common law doctrine of qualified immunity.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Cousins, a former California prison inmate, filed this § 1983 action against several state officials, alleging that he was wrongfully incarcerated beyond the time he should have been released. The defendants are Bill Lockyer, the former state Attorney General (AG), Richard Rimmer, the former director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR director), and Roseanne Campbell, the former warden of Mule Creek State Prison (MCSP warden), all of whom are being sued in their individual capacities. Cousins also names various John/Jane Doe employees of the Attorney General's Office "who had the knowledge and/or responsibility to ensure [his] incarceration was ended by taking steps to cause [his] release."

Cousins was arrested in June 1999, in San Jose, California, and charged under California Penal Code § 290(g)(2) with failure to register with the police department within five days of entering the city. In October 1999, the Santa Clara District Attorney filed a two-count information against Cousins, alleging that (1) he failed to register as a sex offender with a felony conviction, as required by California Penal Code § 290(a)(1)(A); and (2) he failed to inform law enforcement of his new address, as required by California Penal Code § 290(f)(1).

In January 2000, a jury convicted Cousins on Count Two, and he received a sentence of twenty-five years to life in prison under California's "three strikes" law. His conviction was affirmed on appeal in November 2002, and a petition for rehearing by the California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, was denied later that month. The California Supreme Court denied Cousins' petition for review in February 2003.

In October 2003, the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, decided People v. North, 112 Cal.App.4th 621, 5 Cal.Rptr.3d 337 (2003), in which the court declared California Penal Code § 290(f)(1), the statute under which Cousins had been incarcerated, unconstitutionally vague. The state did not seek review of the North decision.

In January 2004, Cousins filed a writ of habeas corpus in the California Supreme Court, arguing that he was entitled to release because the statute under which he was imprisoned had been declared unconstitutional. More than a year later, the state responded to Cousins' petition, and argued that even though California Penal Code § 290(f)(1) had been declared unconstitutionally vague, it was still valid in his case. The California Supreme Court issued an order to show cause upon the CDCR director, and the Attorney General's Office subsequently agreed that Cousins' writ should issue. Cousins was released from prison in June 2005, approximately one year and seven months after the North court overturned California Penal Code § 290(f)(1).

In February 2007, Cousins filed a complaint in federal district court, alleging that his extended incarceration violated several state laws and his civil rights under § 1983. His complaint named as defendants the AG, the CDCR director, and the MCSP warden, as well as the State of California, the California Department of Corrections, and the California Department of Justice. Cousins amended his complaint in August 2007, dropping the state entities as defendants.

Cousins' first amended complaint alleges that the AG, the CDCR director, and the MCSP warden, in their individual capacities, breached specific duties owed to him. Cousins asserts that the AG "had a duty to inform the trial court in ... Cousin[s'] conviction and various officials in the CDCR including, but not limited to, the Director of the CDCR, as well as the Warden of Mule Creek." Cousins further alleges that the CDCR director and the MCSP warden had:

a duty to discover when statutes in the Penal Code are invalidated, ... a duty to discover who was incarcerated under the invalid statute, as well as a duty to determine the effect on all sentences affected by the change in law, ... [and] to inform the trial court that Plaintiff['s] sentence was no longer authorized by law.

Cousins states that in breaching these duties, the defendants violated his federal and state constitutional rights to due process, his federal and state constitutional rights to freedom from unreasonable seizure, and his federal constitutional right to freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. He also alleges state claims of negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, false arrest and imprisonment, and violation of the Bane Act.

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) in September 2007. In November 2007, the district court issued a written order granting the defendants' motion on the grounds that the AG is entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity, and that the remaining defendants are entitled to qualified immunity. Cousins timely appealed.

JURISDICTION AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review a district court's grant of a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), as well as questions of statutory interpretation, de novo. Silvas v. E*Trade Mortgage Corp., 514 F.3d 1001, 1003-04 (9th Cir.2008). "All allegations of material fact are taken as true and construed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party." Id. at 1003. Although "conclusory allegations of law and unwarranted inferences are insufficient" to avoid a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal, Fields v. Legacy Health Sys., 413 F.3d 943, 950 n. 5 (9th Cir.2005) (citation, quotation marks, and alteration omitted), "a complaint need not contain detailed factual allegations; rather, it must plead `enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face,'" Weber v. Dep't of Veterans Affairs, 521 F.3d 1061, 1065 (9th Cir.2008) (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)).

DISCUSSION

Cousins asserts that the district court erred in dismissing his first amended complaint based on its determinations that the AG is entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity, and that the remaining defendants are entitled to qualified immunity.

A. Federal Claims

1. Federal Prosecutorial Immunity for the AG

Cousins first argues that the district court erred in concluding that the AG is entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity from the federal claims on the ground that he was acting within the scope of his duties as a criminal prosecutor. A state prosecuting attorney enjoys absolute immunity from liability under § 1983 for his conduct in "pursuing a criminal prosecution" insofar as he acts within his role as an "advocate for the State" and his actions are "intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process." Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 410, 430-31, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976). However, "absolute immunity may not apply when a prosecutor is not acting as `an officer of the court,' but is instead engaged in ... investigative or administrative tasks." Van De Kamp v. Goldstein, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 855, 861, 172 L.Ed.2d 706 (2009) (quoting Imbler, 424 U.S. at 431 n. 33, 96 S.Ct. 984). In those instances, only qualified immunity is available. See Buckley v. Fitzsimmons, 509 U.S. 259, 273, 113 S.Ct. 2606, 125 L.Ed.2d 209 (1993). To determine whether an action is judicial, investigative, or administrative, we look at "`the nature of the function performed, not the identity of the actor who performed it.'" Kalina v. Fletcher, 522 U.S. 118, 127, 118 S.Ct. 502, 139 L.Ed.2d 471 (1997) (quoting ...