Czarniecki v. City of Chicago

• Decision Date: 21 January 2011
• Docket Number: Nos. 09–1485,09–3754.,09–2218,s. 09–1485
• Citation: 633 F.3d 545
• Parties: Wojciech CZARNIECKI, Plaintiff–Appellant,v.CITY OF CHICAGO, Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

633 F.3d 545

111 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 490

94 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,084

Wojciech CZARNIECKI, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.CITY OF CHICAGO, Defendant–Appellee.

Nos. 09–1485

09–2218

09–3754.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 14, 2010.Decided Jan. 21, 2011.

L. Steven Platt (argued), Attorney, Pedersen & Houpt, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff–Appellant.Christopher S. Norborg, Attorney, City of Chicago Law Department, Chicago, IL, Ruth F. Masters (argued), Attorney, Oak Park, IL, for Defendant–Appellee.Before BAUER, FLAUM, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.HAMILTON, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Wojciech Czarniecki was a probationary police officer of the Chicago Police Department from November 2006 until he was dismissed in February 2007. In two federal lawsuits, Czarniecki has alleged that he was improperly dismissed because of his Polish national origin. In September 2007, Czarniecki filed the first suit against the City of Chicago and the Assistant Deputy Superintendent of the Police Academy, Matthew Tobias, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging national origin discrimination in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court first granted summary judgment in favor of the City on the § 1983 claim. Shortly before a trial on the claim against Tobias, the court granted Czarniecki's motion to dismiss his claim against Tobias without prejudice under Rule 41(a).

In May 2009, Czarniecki filed the second lawsuit alleging that the City intentionally discriminated against him based on his national origin in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. The district court ruled that the Title VII lawsuit was barred by claim preclusion (res judicata) because it arose out of the same set of operative facts as the earlier § 1983 case in which there was a final resolution in favor of the City. We agree and affirm the district court's decision. We also dismiss as moot Czarniecki's two other related appeals.

I. Factual and Procedural BackgroundA. Czarniecki's National Origin Discrimination Claim Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983

In September 2007, Wojciech Czarniecki brought a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the City of Chicago and Tobias. The complaint alleged that Tobias terminated Czarniecki's employment based on national origin discrimination that violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. For purposes of this appeal, we will treat Czarniecki's allegations as true. Tobias allegedly called Czarniecki into his office to discuss Czarniecki's use of exam study guides, and then asked him a series of questions about where he was born (Poland), where his parents were born (Poland), and what language he spoke at home (Polish). Tobias then allegedly said to Czarniecki: “We don't need people like you.” When Czarniecki asked Tobias what his Polish heritage had to do with the exam study guides, Tobias told Czarniecki “you have no rights” and said that he could fire Czarniecki for “anything.” Shortly thereafter, Czarniecki was dismissed from the Police Academy.

Czarniecki asserted that he was dismissed on the basis of national origin discrimination and that Tobias's comments were direct evidence of that discrimination. The City of Chicago maintained that it terminated Czarniecki's at-will, probationary employment based on his lack of honesty concerning his test-taking and his failure to follow his supervisor's direct order not to discuss with other recruits an investigation of misuse of study guides for examinations. Czarniecki has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Czarniecki further alleged in the § 1983 case that his termination was part of an ongoing pattern of discrimination and anti-Polish bias at the Police Academy. Czarniecki alleged that his dismissal occurred a mere six days after the termination of another Polish recruit, Peter Palka, who was allegedly terminated by Tobias on the pretext of not having read the Police Academy's firearm manual. Tobias allegedly called Palka into his office, asked questions about his Polish heritage, and told Palka that they “didn't need people” like him in the Academy.¹ Czarniecki alleged in his complaint that his pretextual termination was part of a pattern in which Hispanic, non-white males at the Police Academy are favored over other ethnicities, races, and colors. He also alleged that Tobias had engaged in discriminatory treatment towards African–Americans, Asians, and women, and had been the subject of numerous federal discrimination lawsuits.

In September 2008, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the City on the § 1983 claim. At the same time, the district court denied summary judgment on the individual claim against Tobias, rejecting Tobias's defense of qualified immunity under § 1983. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Czarniecki, Tobias's remarks were direct evidence of national origin discrimination, which is clearly unlawful, and Czarniecki had thus offered evidence creating a genuine issue of material fact for trial.

Two months before the scheduled trial, however, Czarniecki moved to dismiss his claim against Tobias without prejudice under Rule 41(a)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Czarniecki asserts that he moved to dismiss because the district court had granted a motion that would have prevented him from being reinstated as a probationary officer and recovering back pay and punitive damages. In January 2009, the district judge granted Czarniecki's motion to dismiss under Rule 41(a)(2). Exercising her discretion to impose terms on a Rule 41(a)(2) dismissal, she also ordered that if the plaintiff wanted to refile the action, he would have to seek her permission to do so.

B. Czarniecki's National Origin Discrimination Claim Under Title VII

Czarniecki filed his second federal action in May 2009, alleging that the City intentionally discriminated against him in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., based on his national origin. Under the district court's supplemental jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a), Czarniecki also alleged state-law claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligent supervision.

In October 2009, the district court dismissed the Title VII claim and the supplemental state-law claims with prejudice under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The court ruled that the Title VII case was barred by claim preclusion, also known as res judicata, because it arose out of the same set of operative facts as the earlier § 1983 case. Czarniecki now appeals that decision.²

II. Analysis

We first review de novo the district court's decision to dismiss Czarniecki's Title VII claim on res judicata grounds. Tartt v. Northwest Community Hospital, 453 F.3d 817, 822 (7th Cir.2006). “The doctrine of [res judicata or] claim preclusion is premised on the idea that, when a claim has been fully litigated and come to judgment on the merits, finality trumps.” In re Ingersoll, Inc., 562 F.3d 856, 861 (7th Cir.2009). “Claim preclusion under federal law has three ingredients: a final decision in the first suit; a dispute arising from the same transaction (identified by its ‘operative facts'); and the same litigants (directly or through privity of interest).” United States ex rel. Lusby v. Rolls–Royce Corp., 570 F.3d 849, 851 (7th Cir.2009) (citations omitted); see also Ross ex. rel. Ross v. Board of Education of Township High School District 211, 486 F.3d 279, 283 (7th Cir.2007); Herrmann v. Cencom Cable Associates, Inc., 999 F.2d 223, 224 (7th Cir.1993).³

We agree with the district court that all of these ingredients are present in this case. First, the parties do not dispute that there was a final judgment in Czarniecki's § 1983 lawsuit against the City of Chicago. While the district court dismissed Czarniecki's complaint without prejudice under Rule 41(a), the district court had already found in favor of the City on a summary judgment motion on September 24, 2008. While generally a dismissal without prejudice is not considered final because the plaintiff may refile his case, see Mostly Memories, Inc. v. For Your Ease Only, Inc., 526 F.3d 1093, 1097 (7th Cir.2008), dismissal without prejudice sometimes can support a finding of claim preclusion. See, e.g., Parvati Corp. v. City of Oak Forest, 630 F.3d 512, 516–18, 2010 WL 5185835, at *4 n. 8 (7th Cir. Dec. 23, 2010); Muhammad v. Oliver, 547 F.3d 874, 876 (7th Cir.2008) (“when a suit is abandoned after an adverse ruling against the plaintiff, the judgment ending the suit, whether or not it is with prejudice, will generally bar bringing a new suit that arises from the same facts as the old one”). As the appellees indicate, we have repeatedly found that even if a court dismisses claims “without prejudice,” we assess “finality” by whether the district court “has finished with the case.” See Mostly Memories, Inc., 526 F.3d at 1097, citing Hill v. Potter, 352 F.3d 1142, 1144 (7th Cir.2003). There is no question that the district court's grant of summary judgment to the City has given rise to a final judgment in favor of the City. Even Czarniecki acknowledges that it was a final decision: “There was a decision on the merits on the § 1983 action against the City, albeit a wrong decision which is why it is being appealed.” As the district court concluded, the fact that Czarniecki does not dispute that there was a final judgment amounts to an abandonment of that argument. See Steen v. Myers, 486 F.3d 1017, 1020 (7th Cir.2007) (absence of discussion amounts to abandonment of claims).

Second, the old and new cases involved the same parties. In both the § 1983 case and the Title VII case, Czarniecki sued the City of Chicago. The fact that the second lawsuit does not include Tobias as a defendant does not affect the analysis.

Third, the dispute at the core of the ...