Flowers v. Seki, CV. 94-00190DAE.
| Decision Date | 13 February 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. CV. 94-00190DAE.,CV. 94-00190DAE. |
| Citation | 45 F.Supp.2d 794 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Hawaii |
| Parties | Robert S. FLOWERS, M.D., Plaintiff, v. Sherrie T. SEKI, Cynthia S. Nakamura, Irene M. Nakano, Owen K. Tamamoto, individually and in their official capacities as attorneys for the Regulated Industries Complaint Office, Department of Consumer Affairs, State of Hawaii; Earl Harada, individually and in his official capacities as investigator for the Regulated Industries Complaint Office, Department of Consumer Affairs, State of Hawaii; Kathryn S. Matayoshi, in her official capacity as Director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, State of Hawaii; and Sharon On Leng, in her official capacity as Complaints and Enforcement Officer of the Regulated Industries Complaints Office, Department of Consumer Affairs, State of Hawaii; and John Does 1-20, Defendants. |
David L. Turk, Honolulu, HI, for Robert S. Flowers, M.D., plaintiff.
David A. Webber, James C. Paige, Office of the Attorney General — State of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, Kenneth S. Robbins, Honolulu, HI, Shinken Naitoh, Robbins & Rhodes, Honolulu, HI, for Sherrie T. Seki, Cynthia S. Nakamura, defendants.
Kenneth S. Robbins, Shinken Naitoh, Honolulu, HI, for Owen K. Tamamoto, Sharon On Leng, Irene M. Nakano, Earl Harada, Kathryn S. Matayoshi, defendants.
ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO DISMISS OR FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
The court heard Defendants' Motion on January 5, 1998. David L. Turk, Esq., appeared at the hearing on behalf of Plaintiff; Kenneth S. Robbins, Esq., and Deputy Attorney General David A. Webber, appeared at the hearing on behalf of Defendants. After reviewing the motion and the supporting and opposing memoranda, the court GRANTS Defendants' Motion to Dismiss for failure to state a claim.
This case has a tortured and extended history. Because the instant motion is dispositive, and this court has issued previous orders cited by the parties, and relevant hereto, a discussion in some detail of the background of the case is necessary.
This case arises from a Hawaii state license revocation proceeding charging Plaintiff, a plastic surgeon, with gross negligence and manifest incapacity under Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 453. Defendants are officials and employees of the State of Hawaii who investigate and prosecute complaints against those with licenses issued by the State of Hawaii. Specifically, Defendants are employees in some capacity of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs ("DCCA"). The controversy in the instant proceeding is based upon an investigation and petition filed by the attorneys at the Regulated Industries Complaints Office ("RICO"), a division of DCCA. Each of the Defendants is alleged to be in some manner involved in the proceedings pending against Plaintiff.
Defendants Seki, Nakano and Tamamoto are staff attorneys employed by RICO. Defendant Nakamura is a supervising attorney employed by RICO, and Defendant On Leng is the Complaints and Enforcement Officer, and heads RICO. Defendant Harada is an investigator employed by DCCA, working in the RICO division. And finally, Defendant Matayoshi heads DCCA, and as Director she presides over RICO. While the Board of Medical Examiners is the State agency that adjudicates the complaints over physicians within the State of Hawaii, the investigative as well as charging authority for the complaints is delegated to RICO.
The first RICO investigation into Plaintiff's professional activities was the result of earlier charges lodged against Plaintiff. After some discussion, Plaintiff and RICO entered into a Settlement Agreement in 1988. The Settlement Agreement restricted Plaintiff's practice and required RICO monitoring and individualized reporting. After the 1988 Settlement, more complaints were filed against Plaintiff, and a new investigation was commenced in February 1991. On December 17, 1993, Defendant Seki filed a petition in the Office of Administrative Hearings, so that a hearing could be conducted on the new complaints. On March 9, 1994, Plaintiff filed the above-entitled action, requesting declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as damages. Plaintiff also alleges that Defendants violated his civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 because the petition was investigated and filed in bad faith without a reasonable expectation of success. Plaintiff contends that Defendants conspired to violate his constitutional rights, and that the supervising Defendants were deliberately indifferent to such violations. Plaintiff asserts state law claims of intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision, and defamation.
On the same day that Plaintiff filed this complaint, he filed a preliminary injunction requesting emergency relief. The late District Court Judge Harold M. Fong determined that abstention pursuant to Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), was appropriate, and denied the Motion for Preliminary Injunction staying the federal proceedings pending the outcome of the state administrative action.
The Ninth Circuit reversed Judge Fong's Order, vacated the stay, and instructed the district court to enter a preliminary injunction. In its memorandum opinion, the Ninth Circuit found that Defendants were prosecuting Plaintiff in bad faith, and that abstention under Younger was therefore inappropriate. Pursuant to the Ninth Circuit's opinion, this court granted Plaintiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction.
On October 30, 1997, Defendants filed the instant Motion to Dismiss or for Summary Judgment alleging Plaintiff failed to state a federal claim, and various defenses to Plaintiff's claims. While Defendants focus on whether they are entitled to immunity, Defendants also claim that Plaintiff failed to state a federal cause of action. Plaintiff filed his Opposition on December 18, 1997, and Defendants replied on December 23, 1997.
A motion to dismiss will be granted where the plaintiff fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Fed. R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). For the purposes of a 12(b)(6) motion, "[r]eview is limited to the contents of the complaint." Clegg v. Cult Awareness Network, 18 F.3d 752, 755 (9th Cir.1994).
A complaint should not be dismissed "unless it appears beyond doubt that plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of [her] claim which would entitle [her] to relief." Buckey v. County of Los Angeles, 968 F.2d 791, 794 (9th Cir.1992) (quoting Love v. United States, 915 F.2d 1242, 1245 (9th Cir.1989)) (further citations omitted). All allegations of material fact are taken as true and construed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Id. Civil rights complaints are to be liberally construed. Id. (citing Gobel v. Maricopa County, 867 F.2d 1201, 1203 (9th Cir.1989)).
To the extent, however, that "matters outside the pleadings are presented to and not excluded by the court, the motion shall be treated as one for summary judgment." Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b); Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd. v. Monterey, 920 F.2d 1496, 1507 (9th Cir.1990).
Plaintiff requested a continuance under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(f). Plaintiff contends that he was unable to depose Defendants Seki and Nakamura regarding their roles in the Flowers investigation, or the scope of their duties at RICO. Plaintiff's Opp. at 40. Based upon the following discussion, the court finds that additional discovery will not cure the deficiencies present in Plaintiff's federal claim or assist Plaintiff in defending against this motion.
Plaintiff alleges a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against each of the Defendants. The court will consider this cause of action first as it forms the basis for federal jurisdiction.1 Plaintiff contends that he is entitled to damages from Defendants Seki, Nakamura, Tamamoto, and Harada under § 1983 "for instituting and/or maintaining an ongoing bad faith prosecution and investigation in violation of Dr. Flowers, constitutional rights under the privileges and immunities clause of the United States Constitution and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution." First Amended Complaint at ¶ 201. Plaintiff also alleges that Defendants Nakamura, Nakano, Tamamoto, and Harada conspired to violate his constitutional rights. Id. at ¶ 204. Plaintiff asserts that Defendants Nakamura and Matayoshi, were deliberately indifferent, and knew or should have known, that "Defendants Seki, Nakano, Tamamoto, and Harada were engaged and continue to engage in a bad faith prosecution and investigation of Dr. Flowers," and failed to properly supervise Defendants Seki, Nakano, Tamamoto, and Harada, thus adopting or ratifying their actions. First Amended Complaint at ¶ 207. Section 1983 is the basis for each of Plaintiff's federal claims. Hence, to remain in federal court, Plaintiff must properly allege a violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 upon which relief can be granted.
To assert a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Plaintiff must allege that he was deprived of a specific constitutional right by Defendants, who are unquestionably state actors. Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991). In determining jurisdiction, this court previously characterized Plaintiff's constitutional right in this case as a substantive due process right, and stated that "Plaintiff's relief depends upon establishing the applicability and validity of his claims under the Fourteenth Amendment." January 30, 1997 Order Adopting Magistrate's Findings and Recommendations that Plaintiff's Motion to have the Appellate Court's Finding of Bad Faith to be Law of the Case be Granted in Part and Denied in Part at 4-5. At this time the court is compelled to review Plaintiff's federal claim again to determine if it can survive a motion to dismiss...
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