Dotson v. Griesa

• Decision Date: 02 February 2005
• Docket Number: No. 01-6248.,01-6248.
• Citation: 398 F.3d 156
• Parties: Allen DOTSON Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The Honorable Thomas P. GRIESA, The Honorable Kevin T. Duffy, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Probation Office, Chris J. Stanton, Clifford P. Kirsch, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

398 F.3d 156

Allen DOTSON Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The Honorable Thomas P. GRIESA, The Honorable Kevin T. Duffy, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Probation Office, Chris J. Stanton, Clifford P. Kirsch, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 01-6248.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: May 20, 2003.

Decided: February 2, 2005.

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Allen Dotson, pro se, Bronx, New York, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Eric B. Fisher, Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Gideon A. Schor and Jeffrey Oestericher, Assistant United States Attorneys, on the brief) for James B. Comey, United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, New York, New York, for Defendants-Appellees.

Douglas F. Broder (Mark W. Bennett, of counsel), Nixon Peabody LLP, New York, New York, as amicus curiae.

Before: KEARSE, STRAUB and RAGGI, Circuit Judges.

RAGGI, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant Allen Dotson, formerly a United States probation officer in the Southern District of New York, sued District Judges Thomas P. Griesa and Kevin T. Duffy, the Southern District Probation Office, Chief Probation Officer Chris J. Stanton, and Southern District Executive Clifford P. Kirsch, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971), for alleged race discrimination and denial of due process in connection with his termination. He now appeals pro se from a judgment of dismissal entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Richard Conway Casey, Judge) on March 29, 2001. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6).

A liberal reading of Dotson's pro se appellate brief suggests that he raises the following challenges to the judgment of dismissal: (1) the district court should not have ruled on the dismissal motion without hearing oral argument, (2) the court erred in granting dismissal without affording Dotson discovery, (3) the court failed to recognize the merits of Dotson's discrimination and due process claims, (4) the court erred in ruling that Dotson could not sue the named defendants pursuant to § 1981, and (5) the court erred in ruling that Dotson's Bivens claim for money damages and his equitable action for reinstatement were precluded by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 ("CSRA"), Pub.L. No. 95-454, 92 Stat. 1111 et seq. (codified, as amended, in various sections of Title 5, United States Code (1982 ed. and Supp. IV)).

The first three points may be disposed of without discussion. First, a district court acts well within its discretion in deciding dispositive motions on the parties' written submissions without oral argument. See generally AD/SAT v. Associated Press, 181 F.3d 216, 226 (2d Cir.1999). Second, a plaintiff is not entitled to discovery if his pleadings are fatally and incurably defective as a matter of law. See, e.g., M.B. # 11072-054 v. Reish, 119 F.3d 230, 232 (2d Cir.1997) (per curiam); Flaherty v. Coughlin, 713 F.2d 10, 13 (2d Cir.1983). Third, contrary to Dotson's argument, the district court's ruling assumes the truth of all allegations pleaded in Dotson's complaint. In any event, where pleadings are legally defective, dismissal is warranted without regard to the factual merits of a plaintiff's underlying claim. See, e.g., Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 523 U.S. 83, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998).

Dotson's final two points are the focus of this opinion. For the reasons stated herein, we conclude that his § 1981 claim is legally defective because that statute applies only to persons acting under color of state, not federal, law. We further conclude that Dotson cannot maintain a Bivens action for money damages against the named individuals or sue for equitable reinstatement. On this issue, the court requested and has received a thoughtful amicus filing supporting Dotson's position. Amicus argues that (1) Dotson may sue defendants in federal court for depriving him of various procedural protections afforded by the CSRA in connection with his termination; and (2) in any event, the CSRA does not preclude Dotson from maintaining a Bivens action for money damages or from suing for equitable relief. We cannot agree. The CSRA represents Congress's comprehensive identification of the employment rights and remedies available to federal civil service personnel. Although Dotson is covered by various provisions of this Act, the statute excludes him, and most other employees of the judicial branch, from its administrative and judicial review procedures. Thus, he cannot sue for deprivation of CSRA procedures. Nor can he sue for damages under Bivens or for equitable relief. Precisely because the CSRA reflects a detailed and comprehensive system for dealing with federal employment concerns, federal courts will generally not attempt to supplement the relief afforded by that statute through other actions, including those implied under Bivens or derived from equity. See United States v. Fausto, 484 U.S. 439, 448-49, 108 S.Ct. 668, 98 L.Ed.2d 830 (1988) (rejecting federal employee's attempt to obtain relief not afforded by CSRA through Court of Claims action); see also Schweiker v. Chilicky, 487 U.S. 412, 421, 108 S.Ct. 2460, 101 L.Ed.2d 370 (1988) (holding that "[t]he absence of statutory relief for a constitutional violation" does not necessarily imply the availability of a Bivens action).

We proceed cautiously in reaching this conclusion, mindful that it may appear, at first glance, to exempt the judiciary from any judicial review of its own employment actions, even with respect to charges of discrimination. In fact, neither Congress's actions nor this court's ruling yields that result.¹ The structure and history of the CSRA certainly indicate that Congress's exclusion of most judicial branch employees from that statute's review procedures was not inadvertent but deliberate. Moreover, the exclusion has been maintained through various amendment cycles. Nevertheless, Congress's choice appears to have been informed in no small part by the existence of the judiciary's own administrative review procedures for employment disputes, which, in many respects, mirror those afforded in the CSRA. Notably, the judiciary's administrative procedures with respect to claims of discrimination in employment have always included review by a judicial officer. See infra at 172-77. In short, in withholding CSRA review rights from judicial branch employees, Congress has acted with an awareness that the judiciary has itself provided for its employees what can only be afforded private employees or employees of other branches of government through legislation: a measure of judicial review for claims of employment discrimination. We conclude that these circumstances qualify as "special factors," precluding Dotson from invoking Bivens to sue for money damages or from seeking equitable relief. Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. at 396-97, 91 S.Ct. 1999; accord Schweiker v. Chilicky, 487 U.S. at 421-22, 108 S.Ct. 2460. Accordingly, the district court's judgment of dismissal is affirmed.

Background

Allen Dotson is an African-American male who was employed by the Southern District Probation Department for approximately ten years when he and a fellow officer were terminated for purportedly misrepresenting their on-duty whereabouts and activities on November 21, 1997. According to his complaint, Dotson was initially notified of his termination in a December 8, 1997 letter from Chief Probation Officer Stanton, which was also signed by Judge Duffy, then Chairman of the Probation and Criminal Law Committee of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Dotson protested the termination and sought reinstatement. Pursuant to an administrative plan then in effect in the Southern District of New York for review of employment disputes involving probation officers, then Chief Judge Griesa referred Dotson's protest to District Executive Kirsch for a hearing.² At the hearing, which was conducted on February 19, 1998, Dotson was represented by counsel, but he complains that Kirsch refused to allow his attorney to call witnesses who could have verified Dotson's presence in the field on November 21, 1997. He further asserts that Kirsch ignored documentary evidence similarly proving his whereabouts.

On April 21, 1998, Kirsch submitted a written report to Judge Griesa, recommending that Dotson's termination be upheld and that his request for reinstatement be denied. On the same date, Judge Griesa approved Kirsch's report. On July 2 1998, Dotson requested reconsideration, for the first time suggesting that he wished to show that race discrimination influenced employment decisions in the Southern District Probation Office. Judge Griesa denied reconsideration in an order filed October 14, 1998, stating, "I have given this request the most careful consideration. I conclude that the prior proceedings in our Court have been thorough and fair and that the termination of Allen Dotson ... was justified on the basis of the evidence and was an action which was necessary in the interests of the proper conduct of the Probation Department."

On December 1, 1999, Dotson filed the instant action. In his complaint, he states that he engaged in no cover-up of his whereabouts on November 21, 1997, and that he is guilty, at most, of a minor error in his field report, a result of his superiors requiring him to prepare his field report without his notes. Dotson submits that his termination evidences race discrimination by each named defendant because white probation officers who submitted false field reports were not dismissed. Further, in cases where white probation officers were terminated, Dotson asserts that they were afforded process that was denied him, specifically, a hearing...