Ebrahimi v. City of Huntsville Bd. of Educ.

• Decision Date: 09 May 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-6079,96-6079
• Citation: 114 F.3d 162
• Parties: 73 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1491, 71 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,828, 37 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1192, 10 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 916 Paule EBRAHIMI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF HUNTSVILLE BOARD OF EDUCATION, Martha Miller, Ann Fee, Randy Bounds, James Dawson, individually and in their official capacities as members of the City of Huntsville Board of Education, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 162

114 F.3d 162

73 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1491,

71 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,828, 37 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1192,

10 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 916

Paule EBRAHIMI, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF HUNTSVILLE BOARD OF EDUCATION, Martha Miller, Ann Fee, Randy Bounds, James Dawson, individually and in their official capacities as members of the City of Huntsville Board of Education, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 96-6079.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

May 9, 1997.

Ann C. Robertson, Rebecca J. Anthony, Laura M. Hitt, Gordon Silberman Wiggins & Childs, Birmingham, AL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

J.R. Brooks, Donna S. Pate, Lanier Ford Shaver & Payne, Huntsville, AL, Frederick L. Fohrell, Walter A. Kelley, Wilmer & Shepard, Huntsville, AL, Mark S. Boardman Edward M. Weed, J. Wesley Hughes, Boardman & Tyra, PC, Birmingham, AL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before DUBINA and BLACK, Circuit Judges, and EISELE ^*, Senior District Judge.

PER CURIAM:

By this appeal, Paule Ebrahimi seeks to challenge the partial dismissal of her civil rights action. The complaint filed by Ebrahimi alleged that the Huntsville City Board of Education (the Board); the Board members; the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of the Huntsville City Schools; the Director and President of the Huntsville Education Association (HEA); and various teachers at the McDonnell Elementary School unlawfully discriminated against her when they removed her from the position of principal at McDonnell Elementary School. The district court dismissed causes of action brought by Ebrahimi under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Section 1981) and 42 U.S.C. § 1985 (Section 1985), but retained the discrimination claims she had asserted under Title VII, Title IX, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Section 1983). The district court then certified its decision as a partial final judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b), allowing Ebrahimi to file the instant appeal. We dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction because the district court abused its discretion when it issued the Rule 54(b) certification.

I. BACKGROUND

On May 25, 1995, Appellant Paule Ebrahimi instituted this civil rights action by filing a prototypical "shotgun complaint." The complaint offered vague and conclusory factual allegations in an effort to support a multiplicity of discrimination claims leveled against 15 defendants associated with the McDonnell Elementary School. According to Ebrahimi, defendants' discriminatory campaign against her culminated in an involuntary transfer from her position as principal of the school to a less desirable appointment as curriculum technologist. The complaint advanced claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.; Section 1983; Section 1985; and Alabama state law. Ebrahimi subsequently amended her complaint to add a cause of action under Section 1981 and to add certain defendants to her Section 1985 claim.

On July 24, 1995, the defendants filed motions to dismiss. The district court ruled upon the motions in an order issued on October 24, 1995. First, the court dismissed the Title VII, Title IX, and Section 1981 claims asserted against the individually-named defendants, both in their individual and official capacities. Second, with regard to the equal protection claim asserted under Section 1983, the district court dismissed the individually-named defendants in their official capacities. Third, the order dismissed the Section 1983 due process claim because the complaint itself established that Ebrahimi had received notice and an opportunity to respond prior to the transfer. Fourth, the district court dismissed the state law claim for outrage. The district court denied the motion to dismiss the Section 1985 claim, however, finding that Ebrahimi had adequately alleged a conspiracy motivated by racial animus.

On November 6, 1995, Appellant Ebrahimi filed a motion for reconsideration. The motion urged the district court to reinstate the Section 1981 claim against the individually-named defendants. In an order dated November 22, 1995, the district court not only rejected Ebrahimi's request to reinstate the Section 1981 claim, but also ruled that the claim would be dismissed as to all defendants, not merely the individually-named defendants.

In a motion dated November 21, 1995, defendants Rex Cheatham and Patsy Parker, the Director and President of the HEA, also prevailed upon the district court to alter one of its earlier rulings. Specifically, Parker and Cheatham requested that the court reconsider whether the Section 1985(3) conspiracy claim should be dismissed. On December 11, 1995, the Board and its members also requested reconsideration of the district court's denial of their motion to dismiss the Section 1985 conspiracy claim. On December 21, 1995, the district court granted these motions for reconsideration and dismissed the Section 1985 claim as to all defendants. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b), the district court then certified its prior dismissals as a partial final judgment. On January 17, 1996, Ebrahimi filed a timely notice of appeal directed to dismissal of her Section 1981 and Section 1985 claims.

II. DISCUSSION

Appellant Ebrahimi's complaint is typical of the sort of shotgun notice pleading we have encountered in scores of cases brought before this Court. See, e.g., Cesnik v. Edgewood Baptist Church, 88 F.3d 902, 905 (11th Cir.1996), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 946, 136 L.Ed.2d 834 (1997); Beckwith v. City of Daytona Beach Shores, 58 F.3d 1554, 1567 (11th Cir.1995); Pelletier v. Zweifel, 921 F.2d 1465, 1517-18 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 855, 112 S.Ct. 167, 116 L.Ed.2d 131 (1991). In such cases, it is particularly important for district courts to undertake the difficult, but essential, task of attempting to narrow and define the issues from the earliest stages of the litigation. Absent such efforts, shotgun notice pleadings of the sort filed by Ebrahimi would impede the orderly, efficient, and economic disposition of disputes. See Fikes v. City of Daphne, 79 F.3d 1079, 1083 n. 6 (11th Cir.1996) (discussing the inherent authority of the district court to narrow issues in a case); Marx v. Gumbinner, 855 F.2d 783, 792 (11th Cir.1988) (noting that district courts may invoke their inherent power to narrow the issues for trial). Experience teaches that when district courts abdicate this responsibility, "issues are not joined, discovery is not controlled, the trial court's docket becomes unmanageable, the litigants suffer, and society loses confidence in the court's ability to administer justice." Anderson v. District Bd. of Trustees of Central Florida Community College, 77 F.3d 364, 367 (11th Cir.1996). Without commenting on the substance of its decisions, we therefore commend the district court in the present case for recognizing and skillfully discharging its duties in this regard.

The present case, however, requires us to decide whether the decisions made by the district court in its efforts to impose some order on Ebrahimi's unwieldy complaint were properly certified as a partial final judgment under Rule 54(b). Although neither party raised the issue in its brief, we consider the propriety of Rule 54(b) certification sua sponte because such certifications implicate the scope of our appellate jurisdiction. See Braswell Shipyards, Inc. v. Beazer East, Inc., 2 F.3d 1331, 1336 (4th Cir.1993). Federal courts have an independent obligation to police the constitutional and statutory limits on our jurisdiction. Minority Police Officers Ass'n v. City of South Bend, 721 F.2d 197, 199 (7th Cir.1983). That obligation is not diminished in the slightest by the parties' apparent acquiescence in the district court's determination that Rule 54(b) certification was appropriate.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b) provides:

When more than one claim for relief is presented in an action, ... or when multiple parties are involved, the [district] court may direct the entry of a final judgment as to one or more but fewer than all of the claims or parties only upon an express determination that there is no just reason for delay and upon an express direction for the entry of judgment.

The Rule provides an exception to the general principle that a final judgment is proper only after the rights and liabilities of all the parties to the action have been adjudicated. Hogan v. Consolidated Rail Corp., 961 F.2d 1021, 1024-25 (2d Cir.1992).

As a prerequisite to Rule 54(b) certification, the district court must evaluate whether there is any just reason to delay the appeal of individual final judgments. Curtiss-Wright Corp. v. General Elec. Co., 446 U.S. 1, 8, 100 S.Ct. 1460, 1464-65, 64 L.Ed.2d 1 (1980). The question requires the district court to balance judicial administrative interests and relevant equitable concerns. Id. at 8, 100 S.Ct. at 1465. Consideration of the former factor is necessary to ensure that application of the Rule effectively "preserves the historic federal policy against piecemeal appeals." Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Mackey, 351 U.S. 427, 438, 76 S.Ct. 895, 901, 100 L.Ed. 1297 (1956). The latter factor serves to limit Rule 54(b) certification to instances in which immediate appeal would alleviate some danger of hardship or injustice associated with delay. Southeast Banking Corp. v. Bassett, 69 F.3d 1539, 1547 n. 2 (11th Cir.1995); Burlington Northern R.R. v. Bair, 754 F.2d 799, 800 (8th Cir.1985); see Vann v. Citicorp Sav. of Ill., 891 F.2d 1507, 1509-10 (11th Cir.1990).

As these factors will often suggest contrary conclusions, Rule 54(b) certifications "must be reserved for the unusual case in which the costs and risks of multiplying the number of proceedings and of...