DiBattista v. State

• Citation: 808 A.2d 1081
• Decision Date: 08 November 2002
• Docket Number: No. 2001-100-Appeal.,2001-100-Appeal.
• Parties: Vincent DiBATTISTA et al. v. STATE of Rhode Island et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Rhode Island

808 A.2d 1081

Vincent DiBATTISTA et al. v. STATE of Rhode Island et al.

No. 2001-100-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

November 8, 2002.

Present: WILLIAMS, C.J., LEDERBERG, FLANDERS, and GOLDBERG, JJ.

Christopher M. Rawson, Karen A. Pelczarski, Providence, for plaintiff.

Jametta O. Alston, Aaron L. Weisman, Providence, for defendant.

OPINION

FLANDERS, Justice.

Relying primarily on claim-preclusion principles, the Superior Court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants, the State of Rhode Island and various officials of the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). In doing so, it dismissed the claims of two former foster-care parents, the plaintiffs Vincent and Robin DiBattista (plaintiffs or DiBattistas). Previously, they had challenged DCYF's revocation of their foster-care license, but the Family Court rejected their administrative appeal and dismissed their claims. Thereafter, the plaintiffs filed a second lawsuit against these same defendants in Superior Court. But that court also dismissed their claims — initially on the pleadings, see DiBattista v. State of Rhode Island, Department of Children, Youth and Families, 717 A.2d 640 (R.I.1998)

(mem.) — and then, on remand from this Court, by granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants. On both occasions, the court ruled that the doctrine of res judicata precluded the plaintiffs from pursuing claims that they raised or could have raised in the first lawsuit. The trial court also granted summary judgment and dismissed their other claims. They now appeal from thatjudgment. Because we agree that res judicata barred the plaintiffs from relitigating the propriety of DCYF's revocation of their foster-care license and because their other claims failed as a matter of law or lacked the requisite evidentiary support, we affirm and deny the appeal.

Facts and Travel

In December 1994, the DiBattistas were DCYF-licensed foster parents, caring for four foster children placed within their home. After plaintiffs refused to reenroll their foster son in a DCYF-recommended program, they allegedly denied a visiting DCYF counselor access to their home. After this denial, a DCYF social worker visited plaintiffs. The social worker again strongly recommended that the DiBattistas enroll their foster son in a particular DCYF-recommended program. When plaintiffs again refused to do so, the social worker asked them to sign a request form to have the child transferred to another foster home. But plaintiffs demurred. Before leaving plaintiffs' home, however, the social worker met privately with two of the DiBattistas' foster children. The next day plaintiffs reported the social worker to DCYF counseling authorities, alleging emotional abuse committed against their foster daughter during the private meeting.¹ They also requested that DCYF assign a different social worker to their case. Simultaneously, DCYF called a meeting with plaintiffs to discuss their rejection of DCYF's recommendations and their alleged denial of home access to the DCYF program worker.

The plaintiffs attended the specially called meeting at the DCYF office on January 9, 1995. When confronted with the fact that DCYF was considering whether to revoke their foster-care license, plaintiffs became angry and orally abusive. The following day, DCYF notified the DiBattistas via telephone and in writing that it had revoked their foster-care license. That same afternoon, the police escorted all four of plaintiffs' foster-care children from school and DCYF placed them in new foster homes.

After DCYF revoked their foster-care license, plaintiffs received an administrative hearing, after which the hearing officer issued a written opinion upholding DCYF's decision to revoke the DiBattistas' foster-care license. Thereafter, plaintiffs appealed the decision to the Family Court under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), G.L. 1956 § 42-35-15, and in accordance with G.L. 1956 § 8-10-3(e). After a hearing, but without the benefit of the actual record from the previous administrative proceedings, the Family Court dismissed the administrative appeal. Instead of seeking appellate review of the Family Court's dismissal decree,² plaintiffs filed a separate pro se lawsuit in Superior Court, entitled "Complaint for Civil Rights Violations." There, they contended that DCYF revoked their foster-care license unlawfully and that, in so doing, various DCYF officials defamed them, breached the pertinent foster-care contract between plaintiffs and DCYF, and engaged in a variety of other alleged misconduct in connection with revoking their license. Ultimately, they asked the court to reinstate their foster-care license so that they could serve again as foster parents.

Initially, the Superior Court dismissed plaintiffs' complaint and granted judgment in favor of DCYF on the pleadings. On appeal to this Court, however, we reversed "in light of the patchy record and pleadings presented for [the court's] consideration." DiBattista, 717 A.2d at 642. We noted that the Superior Court record contained no evidence of any final Family Court decree or judgment, and observed that no transcripts or other documents appeared to embody that court's dismissal ruling. As a result, we remanded the case to the Superior Court for reconsideration of the dismissal, directing the court to treat DCYF's motion for judgment on the pleadings under Rule 12(c) of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure as a motion for summary judgment, and to allow both sides to present all materials pertinent to the motions. DiBattista, 717 A.2d at 642-43.

On remand, the Superior Court did so, and, after issuing a written opinion granting defendants' summary judgment motion, it entered judgment in favor of the DCYF defendants. Once again the court ruled that the doctrine of res judicata barred plaintiffs' attempt to relitigate claims arising from the license revocation. The court also dismissed plaintiffs' remaining claims because they failed to show the existence of a disputed issue of material fact.

Analysis

This Court reviews summary judgments de novo. See M & B Realty, Inc. v. Duval, 767 A.2d 60, 63 (R.I.2001)

(citing Marr Scaffolding Co. v. Fairground Forms, Inc., 682 A.2d 455, 457 (R.I.1996)). While engaging in such a review, "we are bound by the same rules and standards employed by the trial justice." Id. (citing Rotelli v. Catanzaro, 686 A.2d 91, 93 (R.I. 1996)). Accordingly, we will affirm a summary judgment "if, after reviewing the admissible evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, we conclude that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Woodland Manor III Associates v. Kenney, 713 A.2d 806, 810 (R.I.1998) (quoting Rotelli, 686 A.2d at 93).

I Res Judicata

The doctrine of res judicata, or claim preclusion, "renders a prior judgment by a court of competent jurisdiction in a civil action between the same parties conclusive as to any issues actually litigated in the prior action, or that could have been presented and litigated therein." DiBattista, 717 A.2d at 642 (citing ElGabri v. Lekas, 681 A.2d 271, 275 (R.I.1996)). Courts employ the doctrine of res judicata to maximize judicial efficiency by eliminating duplicative litigation, Perez v. Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency, 111 R.I. 327, 336, 302 A.2d 785, 791 (1973), ("[r]es judicata is a vehicle whose goal is the elimination of repetitive litigation"), because such lawsuits only serve to waste the courts' finite resources. Res judicata also operates to prevent "multiple and possibly inconsistent resolutions of the same lawsuit." Gaudreau v. Blasbalg, 618 A.2d 1272, 1275 (R.I.1993). As a result, a party defeated in one action may not maintain a later lawsuit based upon a ground that properly could have been asserted in the previous litigation. See ElGabri, 681 A.2d at 275

(citing Wholey v. Columbian National Life Insurance Co., 69 R.I. 254, 262, 32 A.2d 791, 795 (1943)). Moreover, this Court has adopted the "transactional" rule governing the preclusive effect of the doctrine of res judicata, as stated in the Restatement (Second) Judgments § 24. See ElGabri, 681 A.2d at 276. Under this rule, all claims arising from the same transaction or series of transactions which could have properly been raised in a previous litigation are barred from a later action. Id. Res judicata "serves as an `absolute bar to a second cause of action where there exists identity of parties, identity of issues, and finality of judgment in an earlier action.'" Garganta v. Mobile Village, Inc., 730 A.2d 1, 5 (R.I. 1999) (quoting ElGabri, 681 A.2d at 275).

In both its original and amended versions, plaintiffs' "civil rights" complaint questioned the propriety of DCYF's revocation of plaintiffs' foster-care license. The plaintiffs alleged that defendants violated their due-process rights both during the revocation itself and during the later administrative proceedings. This same dispute over the license revocation, however, formed the crux of their previous administrative appeal — one that ended when the Family Court decree dismissed these claims. Before ruling on their administrative appeal, the Family Court afforded plaintiffs another opportunity to be heard and to raise DCYF's alleged due-process violations. After hearing plaintiffs' arguments, the Family Court judge dismissed the appeal for plaintiffs' failure to satisfy the statutory requirements for a reviewing court to grant relief under the APA.³ Notably, this statute includes constitutional violations as grounds for reversing an administrative ruling. After dismissing plaintiffs' case, the Family Court justice then advised plaintiffs of their right to pursue appellate review of his decision to dismiss. Nevertheless, they failed to do so.

Pursuant to Rule 41(b)(3) of the Family Court Rules of Procedure for Domestic Relations, a Family Court dismissal order...