Doe on Behalf of Doe v. St. Joseph's Hosp. of Fort Wayne, 85-1211

CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)
Citation788 F.2d 411
Docket NumberNo. 85-1211,85-1211
Parties40 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 820, 39 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 35,995, 54 USLW 2522, 1986-1 Trade Cases 67,032 B. DOE, M.D., on Behalf of B. DOE and B. Doe's patients, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ST. JOSEPH'S HOSPITAL OF FORT WAYNE, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
Decision Date02 April 1986

Ivan E. Bodensteiner, Valparaiso, Ind., for plaintiff-appellant.

Patrick G. Michaels, Paul B. McNellis, Bonahoom Chapman, McNellis & Michaels, Ft. Wayne, Ind., for defendants-appellees.

Before CUDAHY and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges, and SWYGERT, Senior Circuit Judge.

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge.

The district court for the Northern District of Indiana dismissed appellant's amended complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The complaint arose from the defendant hospital's revocation of her physician's staff privileges. We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

I.

The appellant, B. Doe, is a physician, licensed to practice in Indiana. She is engaged in general practice in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She was born in Korea and is a citizen of the United States. The appellees are St. Joseph's Hospital, located in Fort Wayne, its corporate owner, its board of directors, its administrator, the President of its Medical Staff and the members of its Executive Committee of the Medical Staff (the "Executive Committee").

In August 1982 St. Joseph's granted Doe associate staff privileges. She began to admit and care for patients there. In a letter dated January 26, 1983, the administrator of the hospital notified her that her staff privileges were summarily suspended. The letter stated that the hospital's administrator and the President of the Medical Staff had reviewed a formal complaint against Doe filed by another physician. The complaint dealt with an incident that involved her entering the room of another doctor's patient, "and in a loud, abusive manner, castigating [the other physician] in a most demeaning, unethical manner." The patient was scheduled for serious surgery the next day. The letter continued: "In view of the fact that I spoke to you personally last week regarding previous incidents of unprofessional behavior within the Hospital, this latest episode is especially incomprehensible." The plaintiff was permitted to complete the care and treatment of patients currently in the hospital. The letter advised her, however, "to stay completely away from [the patient whose room she had entered] or any member of her family."

Doe requested a meeting of the Executive Committee to discuss her summary suspension. The Executive Committee notified the plaintiff by letter dated February 10, 1983, that it had "[u]nanimously upheld [her] summary suspension without modification." The letter further advised her that she would have to complete physical, psychological and psychiatric examinations and successfully complete a "certified Physician Re-Training Program" before reapplying for privileges in the future. None of these are required by the hospital by-laws, nor are they uniformly required of physicians seeking staff privileges at the hospital.

She then sought review of her suspension by the Board of Directors, perhaps as early as March 15, 1983. In May 1983 she was orally advised by counsel for the hospital that the suspension would not be revoked.

Doe filed a complaint on June 21, 1983, alleging claims under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000d, the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1, and state law. She amended her complaint on December 15, 1983, to add claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2(a)(1), and the Hill-Burton Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 300s-6. 1 The plaintiff seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, damages and attorney's fees.

The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on August 5, 1983, in which they argued that the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment did not apply because St. Joseph's is a private hospital. The district court did not rule on the motion. The defendants then filed a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on September 21, 1983. They argued that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the plaintiff had failed to exhaust her administrative remedies. 2 The district court never addressed this issue. On December 20, 1983, the defendants moved to dismiss the Amended Complaint for failure to serve the Amended Complaint on either the defendants or their attorneys. This motion also was never ruled on by the district court.

After a number of settlement conferences and extensive negotiations between the parties, the district court dismissed the action sua sponte. 3 None of the issues involved in the sua sponte dismissal had been raised by the defendants. The trial court did not notify either side that it was considering these issues, nor did either side file any briefs in the district court addressing these issues. 4

II.

The issues on appeal are the sufficiency of the complaint and the propriety of the district court's sua sponte dismissal, without notice to the parties and without affording them an opportunity to be heard. We must take the allegations in the complaint to be true and view them, along with the reasonable inferences to be drawn from them, in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. Ellsworth v. City of Racine, 774 F.2d 182, 184 (7th Cir.1985); Powe v. City of Chicago, 664 F.2d 639, 642 (7th Cir.1981). A complaint should be dismissed for failure to state a claim only if it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff is unable to prove any set of facts that would entitle the plaintiff to relief. Ellsworth, 774 F.2d at 184; Benson v. Cady, 761 F.2d 335, 338 (7th Cir.1985). A plaintiff need not set out in detail the facts upon which a claim is based, but must allege sufficient facts to outline the cause of action. Ellsworth, 774 F.2d at 184; Benson, 761 F.2d at 338.

Sua sponte dismissals for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted are permitted, so long as a sufficient basis for the court's action is apparent from the plaintiff's pleading. See Flora v. Home Federal Savings & Loan Association, 685 F.2d 209, 212 (7th Cir.1982); Tamari v. Bache & Co. (Lebanon) S.A.L., 565 F.2d 1194, 1198 (7th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 905, 98 S.Ct. 1450, 55 L.Ed.2d 495 (1978); see also Merrill Tenant Council v. United States Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), 638 F.2d 1086, 1094 (7th Cir.1981) (discussing Tamari, but not reaching the issue whether sua sponte dismissal without notice or an opportunity to be heard violates due process). The reason for this procedural approach is that the "proper administration of justice requires that a trial judge have substantial control over the proceedings before him." Flora, 685 F.2d at 212.

A judge acts not as a mere moderator, but as the governor of the trial for the purpose of assuring its proper conduct and of determining questions of law. Quercia v. United States, 289 U.S. 466, 469, 53 S.Ct. 698, 699, 77 L.Ed. 1321 (1933). The trial judge must meet situations as they arise and to do this must have broad power to cope with the complexities inherent in the adversary process. Geders v. United States, 425 U.S. 80, 87, 96 S.Ct. 1330, 1334, 47 L.Ed.2d 592 (1976).

Id. (quoting Caruth v. Pinkney, 683 F.2d 1044 (7th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1214, 103 S.Ct. 1212, 75 L.Ed.2d 451 (1983)).

Sua sponte dismissals without prior notice or an opportunity to be heard on the issues underlying the dismissal, however, "generally may be considered hazardous." Tamari, 565 F.2d at 1198. They may be criticized on several grounds. First, they conflict with traditional adversarial concepts of justice to the extent that they make the district court "a proponent rather than an independent entity." Tingler v. Marshall, 716 F.2d 1109, 1111 (6th Cir.1983); see Franklin v. Oregon, 662 F.2d 1337, 1342 (9th Cir.1981). Second, such dismissals may ultimately waste, rather than economize, judicial resources, by producing appeals and remands that might have been avoided. See Salibra v. Supreme Court of Ohio, 730 F.2d 1059, 1062 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 295, 83 L.Ed.2d 230 (1984); Tingler, 716 F.2d at 1111; Franklin, 662 F.2d at 1342; Lewis v. New York, 547 F.2d 4 (2d Cir.1976). Third, sua sponte dismissals may prejudice plaintiffs by depriving them of an opportunity to amend their complaints or to argue against the dismissal. 5 Tingler, 716 F.2d at 1111.

At least four circuits do not permit sua sponte dismissals without notice and an opportunity to be heard. See Morrison v. Tomano, 755 F.2d 515 (6th Cir.1985); Salibra, 730 F.2d 1059; Jefferson Fourteenth Associates v. Wometco de Puerto Rico, Inc., 695 F.2d 524 (11th Cir.1983); Franklin v. Oregon, 662 F.2d 1337 (9th Cir.1981); Pavilonis v. King, 626 F.2d 1075, 1078 & n. 6 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 829, 101 S.Ct. 96, 66 L.Ed.2d 34 (1980); Literature, Inc. v. Quinn, 482 F.2d 372 (1st Cir.1973); see also Tyler v. Mmes. Pasqua & Toloso, 748 F.2d 283 (5th Cir.1984) (disapproving sua sponte dismissal prior to answer and noting that issue of failure to state a claim must be raised by defendant); Leonhard v. United States, 633 F.2d 599, 609 n. 11 (2d Cir.1980) (sua sponte dismissal on statute of limitations grounds permitted when answer pleaded statute of limitations and prayed for judgment dismissing the complaint), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 908, 101 S.Ct. 1975, 68 L.Ed.2d 295 (1981).

We cannot find a Seventh Circuit case in which a sua sponte dismissal without any notice and opportunity to be heard has been upheld. In Flora we held that "because both parties had an opportunity to be heard on the legal issue in the case ... the court's response was not undermined by the fact that it was made sua sponte." Flora, 685 F.2d at 212. In Tamari the district...

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