Feliciano v. Tribunal Supremo De Puerto Rico, Civ. No. 98-1243(DRD).

• Citation: 78 F.Supp.2d 4
• Decision Date: 30 September 1999
• Docket Number: No. Civ. No. 98-1243(DRD).,Civ. No. 98-1243(DRD).
• Parties: Victor Velazquez FELICIANO, Plaintiff, v. TRIBUNAL SUPREMO DE PUERTO RICO, et al., Defendants.
• Court: United States District Courts. 1st Circuit. District of Puerto Rico

Page 4

78 F.Supp.2d 4

Victor Velazquez FELICIANO, Plaintiff, v. TRIBUNAL SUPREMO DE PUERTO RICO, et al., Defendants.

No. Civ. No. 98-1243(DRD).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

September 30, 1999.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Victor Velazquez Feliciano, pro se.

Gilberto J. Marxuach-Torros, McConnell Valdes, San Juan, PR, for defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER

DOMINGUEZ, District Judge.

Pending before the Court is Co-defendants' motion for summary judgment (Docket No. 27) and Plaintiffs opposition thereto (Docket No. 28).

I. Introduction

Plaintiff Víctor Velázquez Feliciano filed a complaint pro se in which he seeks monetary and equitable relief for alleged violations to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the United States Constitution. Velázquez urges this Court to order the Puerto Rico Supreme Court ("the Supreme Court") to grant a hearing on Plaintiff's March 1997 bar exam score or to allow him to retake the Puerto Rico Bar Examination ("Bar Examination"). Plaintiff further questions the Puerto Rico Board of Bar Examiners' (the "Board") failure to grant Plaintiffs request for reconsideration on his Bar Examination results. For the reasons set forth herein, Co-defendants' motion for summary judgment (Docket No. 27) is granted and Plaintiffs causes of action are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.

II. Background

In accordance with the standards for summary judgment, the following are the facts not in controversy, supported by the record, and interpreted in the light most favorable to the Plaintiff¹:

Since March 17, 1983, the Supreme Court, through its then enacted Rule 2(c) of the Regulations for the Board of Bar Examiners ("the Board Regulations"), has reserved its authority to limit the number of times that an applicant seeking admission to the Bar may sit to take the corresponding Bar Examination. On or around May or June of 1984, Velázquez Feliciano obtained his Juris Doctor degree from Interamerican University. Prior thereto, on February 23, 1984, the Supreme Court limited to five (5) the number of attempts to pass the Examination². Since February 1986, up to and including the current Rule 5.8.1 of the 1998 Board Regulations, the Supreme Court has consistently limited to six (6) sittings the number of attempts to pass the Bar Examination.

Since his graduation from Law School in 1984 Plaintiff has attempted to pass the Bar Exam on six (6) different occasions.³ To date he has been unable to pass the general substantive and procedural portion of the Bar Exam⁴. On his last sitting, March 1997, Plaintiff obtained a calibrated grade of 583, falling short of the calibrated passing grade by 13 points.

Pursuant to Board Regulations, on June 30, 1997, Plaintiff moved for reconsideration on the evaluation and results of his answers to seven (7) of the twelve (12) essay questions made during the March 1997 Bar Examination. The Board, after evaluating de novo the answers to these questions, denied the reconsideration⁵. On July 29, 1997, Plaintiff filed a petition of review before the Supreme Court. On November 10, 1997, the Supreme Court denied the petition. Plaintiff now appears before this Court seeking relief from application of Rule 5.8.1, seeking an order directing the Supreme Court to hold a hearing on Plaintiffs sixth Bar Examination results, and seeking an award of damages and attorney's fees.

III. Standards for Summary Judgment

The function of summary judgment is "to pierce the boilerplate of the pleadings and examine the parties' proof to determine whether a trial is actually necessary." Vega-Rodriguez v. P.R.T.C., 110 F.3d 174, 178 (1st Cir.1997). Accordingly, federal courts will grant summary judgment where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." FED.R.CIV.P. 56(c).

To defeat a motion for summary judgment the resisting party will have to show the existence of "a trial worthy issue as to some material facts." Cortes-Irizarry v. Corporacion Insular, 111 F.3d 184, 187 (1st Cir.1997). A fact is deemed "material" if the same "potentially affect[s] the suit's determination." Garside v. Osco Drug Inc., 895 F.2d 46, 48 (1st Cir.1990). "An issue concerning such a fact is `genuine' if a reasonable factfinder, examining the evidence and drawing all reasonable inferences helpful to the party resisting summary judgment, could resolve the dispute in that party's favor." Cortes-Irizarry, 111 F.3d at 187. Nonetheless, "speculation and surmise, even when coupled with effervescent optimism that something definite will materialize further down the line, are impuissant on the face of a properly documented summary judgment motion." Ayala-Gerena v. Bristol Myers-Squibb Co., 95 F.3d 86, 95 (1st Cir.1996) (citations omitted) The movant for summary judgment, of course, must not only show that there is "no genuine issue of material facts," but also, that he is "entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Vega-Rodriguez, 110 F.3d at 178. Further, the court is required to examine the record "drawing all reasonable inferences helpful to the party resisting summary judgment." Cortes-Irizarry, 111 F.3d at 187. There is "no room for credibility determinations, no room for the measured weighing of conflicting evidence such as the trial process entails, no room for the judge to superimpose his own ideas of probability and likelihood ..." Greenburg v. Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Auth., 835 F.2d 932, 936 (1st Cir.1987). The facts must be examined under the above criteria because on a potential appeal the appellate court examines "the undisputed facts in the light most congenial to the appellants and adopts their version of any contested facts which are material to our consideration of the issues." Vega-Rodriguez v. Puerto Rico Tel. Co., 110 F.3d 174, 178 (1st Cir.1997).

The movants in the instant case have met their burden of demonstrating the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. In fact, Plaintiff himself has conceded to this in his Memorandum of Law. (Docket No. 28, pg. 4) Accordingly, the Court may proceed to adjudicate the issues of law surrounding Co-defendants' motion for summary judgment.

IV. Analysis

A. Claims against the Puerto Rico Supreme Court and the Board of Bar Examiners

Co-defendants maintain that the Eleventh Amendment Bars this Court from entertaining Plaintiffs claims against the Supreme Court and the Board. Moreover, Co-defendants contend that even without the Eleventh Amendment's Bar, neither the Supreme Court or the Board are "persons" under § 1983 and, thus, the complaint fails to state a claim against them.

1. Eleventh Amendment Immunity

The Eleventh Amendment renders states, including Puerto Rico, immune from claims brought in federal courts by citizens of the same or any other state. Metcalf & Eddy v. P.R. Aqueduct & Sewer Authority, 991 F.2d 935, 938 (1st Cir.1993); De Leon Lopez v. Corporacion Insular de Seguros, 931 F.2d 116, 121 (1st Cir.1991); Ezratty v. Com. of Puerto Rico, 648 F.2d 770, 776 n. 7 (1st Cir.1981); Perez v. Rodriguez Bou, 575 F.2d 21 (1st Cir.1978). There are, of course, exceptions to this broad rule. Specifically, the Eleventh Amendment protection does not apply in four (4) circumstances: a state may consent to be sued in a federal forum; a state may waive its own immunity by statute or the like; Congress may abrogate state immunity; or, if circumstances allow, other constitutional imperatives may take precedence over the Eleventh Amendment's Bar. Metcalf, 991 F.2d at 938. See also Ramirez v. Puerto Rico Fire Serv., 715 F.2d 694, 697 (1st Cir.1983) (the Eleventh Amendment "bars federal court lawsuits by private parties insofar as they attempt to impose liabilities necessarily payable from public coffers, unless the state has consented to suit or unless the protective cloak of the amendment has been doffed by waiver or stripped away by congressional fiat.")

In the instant case Plaintiff does not advance the applicability of any of the above exceptions to the Eleventh Amendment's immunity. Rather, Plaintiff argues that his causes of action against the Supreme Court and the Board fall under Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 453, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). (Docket 28, pg. 9). Plaintiff, however, has erred in his interpretation of the cause of action created by Young, for Young and its progeny applies only to causes of action for injunctive relief against officers in their official capacities, not against states as such. Being so, the question the Court must address is whether Plaintiffs claims against the Supreme Court and the Board are barred by the Eleventh Amendment. The Court concludes that they are.

In Metcalf the First Circuit stated the test that Courts must apply in determining the applicability of Eleventh Amendment immunity to an arm or instrumentality of the state:

The Eleventh Amendment's primary concern is to minimize federal courts' involvement in disbursal of the state fisc. It follows that "when the action is in essence one for the recovery of money from the state, the state is the real, substantial party in interest and is entitled to invoke its sovereign immunity from suit. [...] Generally, if a state has a legal obligation to satisfy judgments against an institution out of public coffers, the institution is protected from federal adjudication by the Eleventh Amendment." (Citations omitted)

991 F.2d at 939. See also Ford Motor Co. v. Dept. of Treasury of Indiana, 323 U.S. 459, 464, 65 S.Ct. 347, 89 L.Ed. 389 (1945).

There is no controversy in this case that the Supreme Court is an arm of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or that any judgment against the Supreme Court would have to be satisfied from Puerto Rico's coffers. See P.R.Laws Ann. tit. 1, Const. Art. V, § 1; P.R.Laws Ann. tit....