Giannini v. Real
| Decision Date | 20 April 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. C-88-6279 SAW.,C-88-6279 SAW. |
| Citation | 711 F. Supp. 992 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Central District of California |
| Parties | Joseph R. GIANNINI, Plaintiff, v. Manuel L. REAL, the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Albert Lee Stephens, Jesse W. Curtis, Francis C. Whelan, Irving Hill, A. Andrew Hauk, William P. Grey, David W. Williams, Robert J. Keleher, Lawrence T. Lydick, Lauglin E. Waters, William M. Byrne, Robert M. Takasugi, Mariana R. Pfaelzer, Terry J. Hatter, Jr., A. Wallace Tashima, David V. Kenyon, Consuelo B. Marshall, Richard A. Gadbois, Jr., Edward Rafeedie, Pamela A. Rymer, Harry L. Hupp, Alicemarie H. Stotler, William J. Rea, James M. Ideman, William D. Keller, Ferdinand F. Fernandez, Stephen V. Wilson, J. Spencer Letts, Dickran Tevrizian, John G. Davies, Ronald S.W. Lew, California Supreme Court, Malcolm Lucas, Stanley Mosk, Allen Broussard, Edward Panelli, John Arguelles, David Eagleson, Marcus Kaufman, the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, Gordon Thompson, Jr., William Enright, Earl Gilliam, Howard Turentine, Rudi Brewster, John Rhodes, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Lawrence Karlton, Milton Schwartz, Edward Dean Price, Raul Ramirez, Robert Coyle, Edward Garcia, Thomas MacBride, Phillip Wilkins, M.D. Crocker, the Committee of Bar Examiners, Jeanne Ray, Edward Costello, Fernando D. DeNoechea, Galal S. Gough, Judy Johnson, Fulton Haight, Fern Laethem, John R. Stokes, Michael R. Yamaki, Hoyt Zia, Defendants. |
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Joseph R. Giannini, Marina del Ray, Cal., pro se.
California Atty. General's Office, Angela Sierra, Christopher Caldwell, U.S. Atty's. Office, Roger West, Los Angeles, Cal., Ellen Peck, Pacific Palisades, Cal., for defendants.
Plaintiff brings this action challenging his denial to practice law in the State of California, and in the United States District Courts for the Central, Southern and Eastern Districts of California. Defendants are the California Supreme Court, the named justices of that court, the said District Courts, the named judges of those courts, the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar and its committee members.1
Plaintiff moves for summary judgment for admission to practice in the named federal district courts and for a preliminary injunction ordering admission to the California bar. He also moves for default judgment against the individually named members of the Committee of Bar Examiners and for criminal sanctions against the Committee's attorneys, Truitt Richey and Diane Yu.
The California Supreme Court, its justices and the Committee of Bar Examiners (hereinafter, collectively referred to as the state defendants) move to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim. The said District Courts and their judges (hereinafter, collectively referred to as the federal defendants) also move to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Defendant Judge Tashima moves in the alternative to stay the action. The remaining federal defendants move to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
Plaintiff alleges that he graduated from Temple University, an American Bar Association accredited law school, and that he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court of New Jersey, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Tax Court.2
Plaintiff's complaint goes on to allege that he took the July, 1986, and February, 1987, California Bar Examinations but did not receive an overall passing score.
The present action is not the first brought by plaintiff relating to denial of admission to practice law. He initially challenged the constitutionality of the California Bar Examination in a prior action filed in this Court. Giannini v. The Committee of Bar Examiners, C-87-3797 JGD. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the action, noting that plaintiff had failed to appeal to the state supreme court which had the authority to grant or deny admission to the bar, and that plaintiff therefore had suffered no deprivation under federal law. Giannini v. The Committee of Bar Examiners, 847 F.2d 1434, 1435 (9th Cir.1988).
In a separate action, plaintiff challenged this Court's local admission rule. Giannini v. Real, C-88-012467. The Court ordered the action stayed until plaintiff "fully exhausts his administrative remedies with regard to the State Bar of California." Order Staying Plaintiff's Action, Civil No. 88-1467-RB, August 25, 1988, at 4.
In July, 1988, plaintiff filed a Petition for Admission and Other Declaratory Relief with the California Supreme Court. On October 12, 1988, the California Supreme Court denied the petition in a one line order.
Plaintiff filed the instant complaint on October 24, 1988.3 Because the complaint names as defendants all judges of this Court, the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit designated and assigned the undersigned to perform the duties in this case as United States District Judge for the Central District of California.
Plaintiff alleges that the California Supreme Court and the Committee of Bar Examiners have violated the fourteenth amendment's due process and equal protection clauses, the privileges and immunities clause of article IV, section 2, and the commerce clause of article I, section 8. Complaint, Counts 1-5. Plaintiff also brings claims for damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985 against the Committee and its members. Complaint, Counts 9-10. Finally, plaintiff brings state law claims against the Committee based on alleged breach of contract and fraud. Complaint, Counts 7-8.
The state defendants are correct in asserting that this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction because the complaint seeks review of a state court judicial determination. District Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 476, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 1311-12, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983); Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 44 S.Ct. 149, 68 L.Ed. 362 (1923); see 28 U.S.C. § 1257. Plaintiff's petition to the California Supreme Court asked that court to "grant his admission to the California bar, declare the present Committee testing scheme to be improper under California law and/or unconstitutional, and award attorney fees." Petition, Exhibit 101 to Federal Defendant's Motion, at 3. The California court thus had to "investigate, declare, and enforce `liabilities as they stood on present or past facts and under laws supposed already to exist.'" See Feldman, 460 U.S. at 479, 103 S.Ct. at 1313 (quoting Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co., 211 U.S. 210, 226, 29 S.Ct. 67, 69, 53 L.Ed. 150 (1908)). The California Court's denial was therefore a judicial determination.
This does not end the inquiry, however. A plaintiff can bring two types of challenges to bar admissions: "`The first is a constitutional challenge to the state's general rules and regulations governing admission; the second is a claim, based on constitutional or other grounds, that the state has unlawfully denied a particular applicant admission.'" Feldman, 460 U.S. at 485, 103 S.Ct. at 1316 (quoting Doe v. Pringle, 550 F.2d 596, 597 (10th Cir.1976), cert. denied 431 U.S. 916, 97 S.Ct. 2179, 53 L.Ed.2d 227 (1977)).
United States district courts ... have subject-matter jurisdiction over general challenges to state bar rules, promulgated by state courts in nonjudicial proceedings, which do not require review of a final state-court judgment in a particular case. They do not have jurisdiction, however, over challenges to state-court decisions in particular cases arising out of judicial proceedings....
Feldman, 460 U.S. at 486, 103 S.Ct. at 1317.
This Court therefore does not have jurisdiction if it "would have to go beyond mere review of the state rule as promulgated, to an examination of the rule as applied by the state court to the particular factual circumstances of the applicant's case." Razatos v. Colorado Supreme Court, 746 F.2d 1429, 1433 (10th Cir.1984), cert. denied 471 U.S. 1016, 105 S.Ct. 2019, 85 L.Ed. 2d 301 (1985) (emphasis in the original). In addition, "if the constitutional claims presented to a United States district court are inextricably intertwined with the state court's denial in a judicial proceeding of a particular plaintiff's application for admission to the state bar," Feldman at 483-484, n. 16, 103 S.Ct. at 1315 n. 16, the district court does not have subject matter jurisdiction.
In his first cause of action, plaintiff asserts that his procedural due process rights were violated because (1) the Committee did not provide reasons or notice as to why plaintiff failed the California Bar Examination, and (2) neither the Committee nor the California Supreme Court provided plaintiff an opportunity to be heard or to present a claim or defense. This count asks the Court to review directly the California Supreme Court's determination, and to overrule it by ordering that court to admit plaintiff to its bar. This demand is inextricably intertwined with the California court's denial, and therefore this Court is without jurisdiction to address it.
The remaining claims do not require any direct review of plaintiff's application to the California Supreme Court. They challenge the California Bar Examination as unconstitutional per se. Therefore, this Court has subject matter jurisdiction over these general challenges.
The Committee of Bar Examiners asserts that the Court's jurisdiction is barred by the eleventh...
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