Dohmen v. Iowa Dep't For the Blind

• Decision Date: 10 November 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09–1108.,09–1108.
• Citation: 794 N.W.2d 295
• Parties: Stephanie DOHMEN, Plaintiff–Appellant/Cross–Appellee,v.IOWA DEPARTMENT FOR THE BLIND, Defendant–Appellee/Cross–Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Court of Appeals

794 N.W.2d 295

Stephanie DOHMEN, Plaintiff–Appellant/Cross–Appellee,

v.IOWA DEPARTMENT FOR THE BLIND, Defendant–Appellee/Cross–Appellant.

No. 09–1108.

Court of Appeals of Iowa.

Nov. 10, 2010.

Roy M. Irish of Patterson Law Firm, L.L.P., Des Moines, for appellant.Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Jeffrey S. Thompson, and Scott M. Galenbeck, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee.Heard by SACKETT, C.J., POTTERFIELD and TABOR, JJ.SACKETT, C.J.

Plaintiff, Stephanie Dohmen, appeals from the jury verdict which found the defendant, the Iowa Department for the Blind, did not discriminate against her in violation of Iowa law, the Federal Rehabilitation Act, or the Americans with Disabilities Act. Dohmen asserts the court erred in refusing to give her requested instructions. The department cross-appeals claiming the court erred in denying its motion for summary judgment. It argues it was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law because Dohmen failed to seek administrative remedies before applying to the district court for judicial review and because it has sovereign immunity. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND AND PROCEEDINGS. Dohmen is legally blind and sought training through the Iowa Department for the Blind. She was admitted into the Orientation and Adjustment to Blindness program. She participated in training from June of 2000 until March of 2001 but withdrew due to health concerns. During her absence Dohmen acquired a service dog. She sought to resume training in Braille and computer skills in the program in June of 2002. The director of the department, Allen Harris, told Dohmen that she was welcome in the program but could not participate with her guide dog. He offered alternative options to Dohmen, including individual instruction in her home with her dog, individual instruction at the department's headquarters, rather than the orientation center with her dog, or participating in another orientation program out of state at the department's expense that permits service dogs. Dohmen did not accept these alternatives and wanted to participate in the program at the orientation center with other students and with her guide dog.

After filing a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and obtaining a right-to-sue letter, Dohmen filed a complaint in the federal district court. She later dismissed that complaint and filed the petition in an Iowa district court. Her petition alleged the department violated the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. §§ 794, 794a, the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131–12150, and the Iowa Civil Rights Act, Iowa Code §§ 216.9, 216C.11 (2003). The department moved for summary judgment. The motion was initially denied but later granted following a hearing on motions to reconsider. The district court determined the department was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law and the court did not have subject matter jurisdiction because Dohmen failed to exhaust her administrative remedies. Dohmen appealed and our court reversed and remanded the case in Dohmen v. Iowa Department for the Blind, No. 07–0211, 2008 WL 2513802 (Iowa Ct.App. June 25, 2008). We explained that the failure to exhaust administrative remedies does not deprive the court of subject matter jurisdiction, but defers the court's authority to consider a case until administrative remedies have been exhausted. We further explained a party can waive this limit on the court's authority by failing to raise the issue at the first opportunity. We concluded that the department had waived its challenge to the court's authority by not raising the issue until it filed its motion to reconsider. We reversed the court's ruling and remanded for further proceedings.

On October 14, 2008, the department filed a motion in the district court requesting it order Dohmen to recast her petition as a petition for judicial review. The district court granted the motion and Dohmen filed a new petition asserting the same violations as were claimed in the original petition on February 2, 2009. The department filed several motions to have the recast petition dismissed. It claimed, again, the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because Dohmen had failed to seek administrative relief first. It argued since the recast petition was labeled as a petition for judicial review, Dohmen was admitting that she should have sought administrative relief initially and did not. It also claimed the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the department had sovereign immunity as a state agency. The district court denied the motions.

Trial was held from February 9 to February 18, 2009. Dohmen made several objections to the instructions. She requested the jury be instructed that (1) the department was obligated to modify its policies so as to not segregate or isolate Dohmen from the other blind students receiving the same services at the same time, (2) the department was required to modify its policies to accommodate a service animal and allow the user of the animal to participate in regular programs, including the Braille and computer training with other students and with her service dog, and (3) that the department was required to modify its policies to ensure that Dohmen would not be separated from her service dog while receiving the services from the department. The court denied the requests stating,

I did not find in my research that they were supported either by case law or the facts of this case, and they will not be given. Either that, or in certain instances I thought they were too much of a comment on the evidence in this case. And they were rejected for that reason.

The jury returned a verdict after a very short time of deliberation, finding the department did not discriminate against Dohmen in violation of Iowa civil rights laws, the Federal Rehabilitation Act, or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Dohmen filed a motion for a new trial. She claimed, among other things, that the jury instructions did not accurately set forth the law. Following a hearing, the district court denied the motion finding the jury instruction errors claimed by Dohmen were “either not supported by the law or were not properly requested.”

Dohmen appeals asserting the district court erred in refusing to submit requested instructions. The department cross-appeals contending the court erred in denying its motion to dismiss on the grounds that Dohmen failed to exhaust administrative remedies and the department is shielded by sovereign immunity.

II. SCOPE OF REVIEW. Our review of the district court's ruling on a motion to dismiss is for correction of errors at law. Nixon v. State, 704 N.W.2d 643, 644 (Iowa 2005). The motion should only be granted if the petition “ ‘on its face shows no right of recovery under any state of facts.’ ” Rees v. City of Shenandoah, 682 N.W.2d 77, 79 (Iowa 2004) (quoting Trobaugh v. Sondag, 668 N.W.2d 577, 580 (Iowa 2003)).

We review a claim that the trial court should have given a requested instruction for an abuse of discretion. Summy v. City of Des Moines, 708 N.W.2d 333, 340 (Iowa 2006). A requested instruction must be given by the court if it “states a correct rule of law having application to the facts of the case and when the concept is not otherwise embodied in other instructions.” Id. We view the evidence in a light most favorable to the party requesting the instruction. Banks v. Beckwith, 762 N.W.2d 149, 151 (Iowa 2009). We will only reverse if the jury instruction error resulted in prejudice. Deboom v. Raining Rose, Inc., 772 N.W.2d 1, 5 (Iowa 2009). Prejudice occurs if the jury instructions contain a material misstatement of the law. Anderson v. Webster City Cmty. Sch. Dist., 620 N.W.2d 263, 265 (Iowa 2000). In determining whether prejudicial error misled the jury, we consider the instructions in their entirety. Id.; Iowa Comprehensive Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Fund Bd., 606 N.W.2d 376, 379 (Iowa 2000).

III. FAILURE TO SEEK ADMINISTRATIVE RELIEF. We first address the department's cross-appeal that contends the court erred in denying its motion to dismiss. It asserts the district court was without subject matter jurisdiction because Dohmen failed to seek relief through administrative proceedings first. The department raised this issue in its motion for summary judgment, which this court considered on appeal in Dohmen v. Iowa Department for the Blind, No. 07–0211, 2008 WL 2513802 (Iowa Ct.App. June 25, 2008). We held that the department waived the challenge because it was not made at the first opportunity. We will not reconsider the same challenge now as it is barred by the law of the case doctrine. See Bahl v. City of Asbury, 725 N.W.2d 317, 321 (Iowa 2006) (stating that under this doctrine, an appellate decision becomes controlling on both the trial court and any further appeals in the same case and the same issues cannot be reheard, reconsidered, or relitigated); United Fire & Cas. Co. v. Iowa Dist. Ct., 612 N.W.2d 101, 103 (Iowa 2000).

IV. SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY. The department has asserted throughout the proceedings that it is entitled to a dismissal because it has sovereign immunity as an arm of the state. The district court in the original proceeding denied the department's motion to dismiss on this ground, determining that the State was not protected from suit in state court under Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity and that sovereign immunity does not exempt a state from suit when a person alleges a violation of a valid federal law. When the department raised the issue during the proceedings on remand, the district court rejected the claim again, finding it was not timely raised and stating, “the court is not convinced that the State and/or federal governments intended to protect themselves or their agencies, especially one which worked for the protection of the blind, from suit for discrimination of any kind.” We find since the department has repeatedly raised the defense and...