Garcia Rodriguez v. Laboy, Civil No. 07-1801(JAG).

• Decision Date: 26 June 2008
• Docket Number: Civil No. 07-1801(JAG).
• Citation: 598 F.Supp.2d 186
• Parties: Gerardo GARCÍA RODRÍGUEZ, et al., Plaintiffs v. Jessica LABOY, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

598 F.Supp.2d 186

Gerardo GARCÍA RODRÍGUEZ, et al., Plaintiffs v. Jessica LABOY, et al., Defendants.

Civil No. 07-1801(JAG).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

June 26, 2008.

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Carlos J. Rivera-Ruiz, Manfredy & Manfredy CSP, Ponce, PR, for Plaintiff.

Jose J. Gueits-Ortiz, Department of Justice of Puerto Rico, Office of General Litigation Unit VII, San Juan, PR, for Defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER

JAY A. GARCIA-GREGORY, District Judge.

Pending before the court is co-defendants Ivan Echevarria-Maldonado and Luz N. Espada-Ortiz's (jointly "co-defendants") Motion to Dismiss the complaint. (Docket No. 8). For the reasons set forth below, the court GRANTS co-defendant's motion to dismiss.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On August 29, 2007, plaintiffs Jorge L. Vázquez González, Gerardo L. García Rodriguez, Sonny Centeno Caquias, Alex Caraballo Caquías, Felix Vélez Perez, Carlos F. Rueda León, Carmen S. Badillo Santiago, Mariselis Padilla Quiles, Adelaida Feliciano, Carmen Mercado Quiñones, Janice Feliciano Ramos, Jorge Meléndez Guzmán, and Wilson Martinez Curet (collectively "plaintiffs"), filed the present complaint against Jessica Laboy, Miguel A. Lassalle Santana, Luz Espada, Luis Casiano Almeda, Ivan Echevarria Maldonado and Officers John Doe 1 to 12, Joe Supervisor I to V, all individually and in their official capacities, all defendants also on their own behalf and of the conjugal partnership formed respectively with Jane Doe or Richard Doe I to XX, alleging Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment violations pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

In the complaint, plaintiffs allege that in 2005, defendants, all of which were officers of the Canine Unit of the Correction Department of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, made several inspections in the Correctional Complexes of "Guayama 500" and "Las Cucharas." Specifically officers of this Unit strip searched employees of "Guayama 500" from September 28 to October 3, 2005 and employees of "Las Cucharas" from November 7 to November 11, 2005.

These searches required employees to make a line where narcotics dogs would sniff them. If the dogs alerted to the presence of narcotics, the employees would be subject to a strip search. However, the employees had to sign release forms before the strip search, and were forced to do so without time to read the forms and under threat of losing their jobs. Then, the employees were required to undress and subject themselves to a body cavity search. The searches took place in areas to which the public, other employees, and inmates had access to and from where they were able to witness the process.

When conducting these types of searches, Officers of the Canine Unit violated several of the internal regulations of the Unit ("ROUC"). The regulations required the officers of the Unit to take every person searched before a supervisor, write a memorandum about each search, and ensure that the area of inspection was not contaminated prior to that particular search. Also, the search had to be limited to a physical search.

Although the officers of the Canine Unit searched over thirty employees, they never found any controlled substances. Nonetheless, the employees were subject to public strip searches that made them scared, anxious, and nervous. Moreover, the officers conducted these searches every time the employees entered and left the institution for lunch, or at the end of their work shifts.

On December 14, 2007, co-defendants Ivan Echevarria-Maldonado ("Echevarria-Maldonado") and Luz N. Espada-Ortiz ("Espada-Ortiz") filed a Motion to Dismiss. In their motion, co-defendants allege that (1) plaintiffs' claims for monetary damages under Federal Law against them in their official capacities are barred by the Eleventh Amendment; (2) plaintiffs' 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim and Articles 1802 and 1803 claims against Espada-Ortiz are time-barred; (3) plaintiffs' fail to state a claim under the Fourth Amendment; (4) plaintiffs' fail to state a claim under the Fourteenth Amendment; (5) defendants, in their individual capacities, are entitled to qualified immunity; and (6) the pendent claims should be dismissed. (Docket No. 8). On December 21, 2007, plaintiffs filed an opposition to the Motion to Dismiss. (Docket No.9).

DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. Rule 12(b)(6), a complaint may not be dismissed unless it appears beyond doubt that plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief. See Brown v. Hot, Sexy, and Safer Prods., Inc., 68 F.3d 525, 530 (1st Cir.1995). To survive dismissal for failure to state a claim, a complaint must allege "a plausible entitlement to relief." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1967, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). According to Twombly, the complaint must state enough facts to "nudge [plaintiffs'] claims across the line from conceivable to plausible." Id. at 1974. Therefore, to preclude dismissal pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), the complaint must rest on factual allegations sufficient "to raise a right to relief above the speculative level." Id. at 1965.

At the motion to dismiss stage, the court accepts all well-pleaded factual allegations as true, and draws all reasonable inferences in plaintiffs favor. See Correa-Martinez v. Arrillaga-Belendez, 903 F.2d 49, 51 (1st Cir.1990). Thus, plaintiffs bear the burden of stating factual allegations regarding each element necessary to sustain recovery under some actionable theory. Gooley v. Mobil Oil Corp., 851 F.2d 513, 514 (1st Cir.1988). The court need not address complaints supported only by "bald assertions, unsupportable conclusions, periphrastic circumlocutions, and the like." Aulson v. Blanchard, 83 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir.1996).

B. Statute of Limitations

The present complaint is the second complaint filed in relation to the events that transpired from September 28, 2005 until November 11, 2005. The same parties herein filed an action under a different civil case number, Civil No. 06-1631(JP), on June 23, 2006.¹ In that earlier complaint, plaintiffs named as defendants some officers of the Canine Unit of the Correction Department and designated others as John Does. On August 7, 2007 and pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(m)² and 41(b),³ that complaint was dismissed without prejudice and partial judgment was entered as to defendants "J. Lamboy," "Luis Valentin-Lasalle," Joe Supervisor I-V and John Doe 1 through 12 for failure to identify and serve process upon them. (See Civil No. 06-1631(JP), Docket Nos. 45, 46). Plaintiffs moved for reconsideration and requested permission to amend the complaint and serve summons upon officers Jessica Lamboy, Luz Espada, Luis Casiano Almeda, Ivan Echevarria Maldonado and Miguel A. Lasalle Santana, who were some of the previously unnamed or mistakenly named defendants. The Court denied plaintiffs' request on August 10, 2007. (See Civil No. 06-1631(JP), Docket No. 48). Following the denial of their Motion for Reconsideration, on August 29, 2007, plaintiffs filed the present complaint, alleging the same facts contained in the first complaint. However, the present complaint names the five officers (Jessica Lamboy, Luz Espada, Luis Casiano Almeda, Ivan Echevarria Maldonado and Miguel A. Lasalle Santana) who plaintiffs wanted to include through an amendment to the complaint in the first case, and also includes Officers John Doe 1 to 12 and Joe Supervisor I to V. Two of the five named defendants in the present complaint, Espada-Ortiz and Echevarria-Maldonado, are the co-defendants that filed the Motion to Dismiss pending before this Court. Since they were never identified or served in Civil No. 06-1631, co-defendants (as well as all the other defendants in this case) have been brought before a court for the first time in the present proceeding to respond for the events that occurred from September 28, 2005 until November 11, 2005.

Co-defendants move to dismiss the complaint alleging that the claims against Espada-Ortiz are time-barred. Co-defendants argue that over a year has transpired since the events alleged in the complaint occurred and that the partial judgment in Civil No. 06-1631 did not toll the statute of limitations as to Espada-Ortiz because it did not include her. In their opposition, plaintiffs posit that the statutory period did not accrue when the events allegedly committed by Espada-Ortiz took place, but instead when plaintiffs discovered her "identity." In the alternative, plaintiffs claim that the complaint is not time-barred because the original complaint tolled the statute of limitations.

Congress has "plainly instructed" in 42 U.S.C. § 1988 that in § 1983 actions, federal courts should refer to state law when federal law provides no rule of decision. Chardon v. Fumero Soto, 462 U.S. 650, 657, 103 S.Ct. 2611, 77 L.Ed.2d 74 (1983). Therefore, "[u]nder 42 U.S.C. § 1988, the federal cause of action is governed by appropriate `laws of the United States,' but if such laws are unsuitable or inadequate, state-law rules are borrowed unless a particular state rule is `inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States.'" Id. at 655-56, 103 S.Ct. 2611. Because Federal Civil Rights statutes do not provide a statute of limitation, courts must look to state statutory limitations for personal injury claims. Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 266, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985). In Puerto Rico, the one year statutory limitation for tort action governs § 1983 claims. See Article 1868(2) of the Civil Code, P.R. Laws Ann. 31 § 5298(2); Altair Corp. v. Pesquera De Busquets, 769 F.2d 30, 31 (1st Cir.1985).

Although this Court will apply the one-year period applicable for local tort actions, the date of accrual is a federal law question. See Carreras-Rosa v. Alves-Cruz, 127 F.3d 172, 174 (1st Cir. 1997). The one-year statute of limitations "begins running one...