Dresser v. Ohio Hempery Inc.
| Decision Date | 13 June 2011 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION NO: 98-2425 |
| Parties | CHRISTOPHER DRESSER v. THE OHIO HEMPERY, INC., ET AL. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana |
In this products liability case, defendants Oakmont Investment Company, Inc., American Employers' Insurance Company, and Commercial Union Insurance Company have moved for judgment on the pleadings.1 Because the Court is collaterally estopped from reconsidering the question of whether the plaintiff's positive drug test was caused by drinking the defendants' hemp oil product without knowing that it contained THC rather than by using marijuana, the Court GRANTS defendants' motion.
Plaintiff was a United States Coast Guard-licensed vessel engineer. Before taking a Coast Guard drug test, he allegedly ingested "Hemp Liquid Gold," a product manufactured and distributed by defendant Oakmont Investment, and other similar products. Plaintiff contends that he believed that the products were healthful and free of any ingredients that produce any of the risks associated with marijuana use. Plaintiff later tested positive for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. As a result of the positive test result, the Coast Guard charged plaintiff with use of a dangerous drug and sought to have his license revoked. A Coast Guard Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") held hearings on the charges against Dresser in April and June of 1998. On August 17, 1998, plaintiff sued defendants in this Court as manufacturers, markets, distributers, and sellers of certain hemp oil products, the consumption of which caused a "false positive" on the drug test. Plaintiff seeks damages for loss of earnings, job-related benefits, and emotional distress.
In a written opinion dated February 4, 1999, ALJ Boggs ordered plaintiff's license revoked. Dresser appealed that decision to the Commandant of the Coast Guard. The Court stayed this matter on February 28, 2000 while the Coast Guardproceedings against Dresser were ongoing.2 The Court reasoned that if the administrative proceedings resulted in a finding that plaintiff used marijuana, he could be collaterally estopped from arguing otherwise in this case. The Commandant affirmed the ALJ's decision in June of 2002, but the National Transportation Safety Board ("NTSB") reversed the Coast Guard's decision in June of 2003 due to the appearance of a conflict of interest on the part of ALJ Boggs.3 Dresser then moved to reopen this case because there was no longer an administrative opinion to form the basis of a collateral estoppel argument.
The Court reopened this case on July 2, 2003 but reissued the stay on March 8, 2004.4 Plaintiff argued, in opposition to the stay, that he would not be able to fully and fairly litigate his hemp oil defense before the ALJ. The relevant Coast Guard regulation states: "If an individual fails a chemical test for dangerous drugs under this part, the individual will be presumed to be a user of dangerous drugs." 46 C.F.R. § 16.201(b). Dresser argued that he would not be able to rebut thispresumption due to a policy memorandum issued to all Coast Guard ALJs by Chief Coast Guard ALJ Ingolia indicating that "accidental or inadvertent ingestion of a food product containing THC will only serve as a valid defense to a charge of use of dangerous drug if the Respondent produces reliable and credible evidence."5
The Court ruled that this policy memorandum, even if it has binding legal effect, does not foreclose Dresser's defense that he ingested the hemp oil product without knowing that it contained THC.6 The same issue arises in both this case and the administrative proceeding: whether Dresser inadvertently consumed THC by ingesting defendant's hemp oil product. If Dresser tested positive because he used marijuana or because he ingested hemp oil knowing that it contained THC, then his license was properly revoked and he cannot sustain this products liability case. The Court further ruled that the legal standard that Dresser must meet in the administrative proceeding to rebut the presumption that he used a dangerous drug is identical to the "preponderance of the evidence" standard he has to meet in this case. Thus, the Court stayed these proceedings in the interest of judicialeconomy. The Fifth Circuit dismissed Dresser's attempt to appeal the stay.7
In the meantime, the Coast Guard revocation proceeding had been reassigned to ALJ Brudzinski. On December 7, 2004, Brudzinski held a hearing in which both sides presented additional witness testimony. Then, on June 14, 2005, ALJ Brudzinski revoked Dresser's Coast Guard license and merchant mariner's document.8 Brudzinski held that Dresser failed to rebut the presumption that he knowingly ingested THC because, among other reasons, Dresser did not support his testimony that he used hemp oil with credible evidence. Dresser appealed that decision to the Commandant of the Coast Guard, who affirmed ALJ Brudzinski's decision.9
Dresser also filed a separate suit against various Coast Guard ALJs, their clerks and administrative staff, and the Commandant and his legal staff for declaratory and injunctive relief, writs of mandamus, and Bivens actions. Dresser maintained that ALJ Brudzinski's decision was unconstitutional because of (1) ex parte communications among ALJ Brudzinski,Chief ALJ Ingolia, and other named defendants, and (2) an institutionalized ALJ policy to rule in favor of the Coast Guard regarding hemp seed oil defenses to positive toxicology tests. In that action, Judge Berrigan ruled that she could not hear Dresser's claims under the Administrative Procedures Act because there was no "final agency action" at that time, as the Commandant had not yet decided Dresser's appeal of ALJ Brudzinski's decision.10 The Fifth Circuit affirmed that ruling.11 The Fifth Circuit also ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear plaintiff's Bivens claims because those claims were "inescapably intertwined" with a review of the ALJ's decision.12
After the Commandant ruled against Dresser, he filed suit again, urging the same APA and Bivens claims. Judge Berrigan held again that she lacked jurisdiction over Dresser's APA claims, despite the Commandant's decision in the interim, because Dresser failed to appeal the decision of the Commandant first to the NTSB and then to the Court of Appeals as required under 49U.S.C. §§ 1133 and 1153.13 The court also held that Dresser's Bivens claims remained inescapably intertwined with a review of the ALJ's decision, which could not occur without following the appeals process mandated by statute. Dresser appealed that decision to the Fifth Circuit.
Dresser then moved that this civil case be reopened and that the stay be lifted, but the Court denied that motion on September 13, 2010.14 The Court noted that Dresser's appeal of Judge Berrigan's decision denying his APA and Bivens claims was still pending before the Fifth Circuit. If Dresser had won that appeal, he would be able to challenge the Coast Guard's administrative proceedings directly. The Court ruled that such an action, if allowed to proceed, would be a more appropriate vehicle for challenging the fairness of the administrative proceedings than this collateral action.
On December 22, 2010, the Fifth Circuit affirmed Judge Berrigan's second opinion and held that Dresser's failure to appeal the Commandant's decision to the NTSB precluded his APAand Bivens claims.15 This Court then granted Dresser's unopposed motion to lift the stay in this case.16 Defendants now move for judgment on the pleadings on collateral estoppel grounds.
Defendants move for judgment on the pleadings under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c). Both plaintiff and defendants, however, present evidence outside the pleadings, including an affidavit by a former Coast Guard ALJ and a report by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security. Both parties have had a reasonable opportunity to present any material that is pertinent to the motion. Therefore, in accordance with Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(d), the Court will treat defendants' motion as one for summary judgment under Fed. R. Civ. P. 56.
Summary judgment is appropriate when "the pleadings, the discovery and disclosure materials on file, and any affidavits show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(2); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23 (1986); Little v. Liquid Air Corp., 37 F.3d 1069, 1075(5th Cir. 1994). When assessing whether a dispute as to any material fact exists, the Court considers "all of the evidence in the record but refrains from making credibility determinations or weighing the evidence." Delta & Pine Land Co. v. Nationwide Agribusiness Ins. Co. , 530 F.3d 395, 398 (5th Cir. 2008). All reasonable inferences are drawn in favor of the nonmoving party, but "unsupported allegations or affidavits setting forth 'ultimate or conclusory facts and conclusions of law' are insufficient to either support or defeat a motion for summary judgment." Galindo v. Precision Am. Corp. , 754 F.2d 1212, 1216 (5th Cir. 1985); Little, 37 F.3d at 1075.
If the dispositive issue is one on which the moving party will bear the burden of proof at trial, the moving party "must come forward with evidence which would 'entitle it to a directed verdict if the evidence went uncontroverted at trial.'" Int'l Shortstop, Inc. v. Rally's, Inc., 939 F.2d 1257, 1263-64 (5th Cir. 1991). The nonmoving party can then defeat the motion by either countering with sufficient evidence of its own, or "showing that the moving party's evidence is so sheer that it may not persuade the reasonable fact-finder to return a verdict in favor of the moving party." Id. at 1265.
If the dispositive issue is one on which the nonmoving party will bear the burden of proof at trial, the moving party maysatisfy its burden by merely pointing out that the...
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