Guttman v. Khalsa, 03-2244.

• Citation: 446 F.3d 1027
• Decision Date: 19 April 2006
• Docket Number: No. 03-2244.,03-2244.
• Parties: Stuart T. GUTTMAN, M.D., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. G.T.S. KHALSA, Livingston Parsons, and The State of New Mexico, Defendants-Appellees. United States of America, Intervenor.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (10th Circuit)

Page 1027

446 F.3d 1027

Stuart T. GUTTMAN, M.D., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. G.T.S. KHALSA, Livingston Parsons, and The State of New Mexico, Defendants-Appellees.

United States of America, Intervenor.

No. 03-2244.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

April 19, 2006.

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Ian D. McKelvy, Sanders, Bruin, Coll & Worley, P.A., Roswell, New Mexico, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Timothy S. Hale (Susan R. Johnson with him on the brief), Riley, Shane & Hale, P.A., Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before LUCERO, ANDERSON, and McCONNELL, Circuit Judges.

LUCERO, Circuit Judge.

Stuart Guttman appeals the dismissal on summary judgment of his claims that G.T.S. Khalsa, Livingston Parsons, and the State of New Mexico violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 by revoking his medical license in a flawed state administrative proceeding. The district court dismissed his claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. In the alternative, the district court held that Khalsa and Parsons were protected from suit by absolute immunity and that the state was entitled to sovereign immunity. On appeal, we affirmed the district court's dismissal based on a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Guttman v. Khalsa, 401 F.3d 1170 (10th Cir.2005). That decision was vacated by the Supreme Court in light of its decision in Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 125 S.Ct. 1517, 161 L.Ed.2d 454 (2005), and remanded to this court. Guttman v. Khalsa, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 321, 163 L.Ed.2d 29 (2005).

Under Exxon Mobil, it is clear that the district court does have subject matter jurisdiction to hear the case because, although Guttman filed his claim after it was resolved by a New Mexico court, it was filed before the end of the state courts' appeal process. Thus, we must review the district court's decision with respect to absolute and sovereign immunity. We AFFIRM the district court's determination that summary judgment was proper as to the claims against Khalsa and Parsons because they are entitled to absolute immunity. However, as a result of two recent Supreme Court decisions — Tennessee v. Lane, 541 U.S. 509, 124 S.Ct. 1978 158 L.Ed.2d 820 (2004), and United States v. Georgia, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 877, 163 L.Ed.2d 650 (2006) — the district court must reconsider the Title II claim against New Mexico. It must first determine whether Guttman stated a claim that New Mexico violated Title II of the ADA; if so, it must then determine whether Title II abrogated sovereign immunity as applied to the class of conduct at issue in this case. As such, we REVERSE the grant of summary judgment to the State of New Mexico and REMAND the case for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I

The facts of this case were discussed at length in our original opinion. See Guttman v. Khalsa, 401 F.3d 1170, 1170-72 (10th Cir.2005) ("Guttman II").¹ Guttman is a doctor who formerly was licensed to practice in New Mexico. He also suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. In December 1999, the Impaired Physicians Committee ("Committee") of the New Mexico Board of Medical Examiners ("the Board") directed Guttman to appear before it in response to a series of complaints about Guttman's professional conduct. The Committee issued a "Notice of Contemplated Action and an Order of Summary Suspension" of his medical license because of Guttman's mental illness and allegations that he lied to the committee. The Board held a three-day hearing in front of Livingston Parsons, with G.T.S. Khalsa serving as the Administrative Prosecutor. The Board then revoked Guttman's medical license pursuant to its authority under N.M. Stat. Ann. § 61-1-1, et seq.

Guttman appealed the Board's decision to the Seventh Judicial District Court of New Mexico. On appeal, Guttman also claimed that the Board's decision violated Title II of the ADA. The state court denied the appeal because the Board's decision was based on substantial evidence and was not arbitrary, capricious, or fraudulent. It refused to consider Guttman's ADA claim because he did not raise it before the Board. He appealed this decision to the New Mexico Court of Appeals, but his appeal was denied on April 10, 2003. Guttman filed a petition for certiorari to the New Mexico Supreme Court, but on April 17, 2003, before the New Mexico Supreme Court acted, he filed this claim against Parsons, Khalsa and the state of New Mexico in federal district court, alleging violations of Title II of the ADA and violations of his procedural due process rights under § 1983. The New Mexico Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari on May 16, 2003.

The defendants moved for summary judgment and the district court dismissed the case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Guttman I, 320 F.Supp.2d at 1169. In the alternative, the district court held that Khalsa and Parsons were protected against suit by absolute immunity and that Guttman could not raise a claim against the state of New Mexico under Title II of the ADA because, under this court's decision in Thompson v. Colorado, 278 F.3d 1020, 1034 (10th Cir.2001), Title II of the ADA did not abrogate the state's sovereign immunity. Id. at 1169-71. We affirmed that decision, holding that the court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction because of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Guttman II, 401 F.3d at 1176. Because we dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, we did not address the district court's alternate holdings with respect to absolute and sovereign immunity. The Supreme Court vacated our decision and remanded in light of its decision in Exxon Mobil. Guttman III, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 321, 163 L.Ed.2d 29 (2005).

II

Guttman claims that the district court erred in dismissing the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine because he filed his federal complaint before his case in state court was final. Under Exxon Mobil, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine only applies to cases brought "after the state proceedings have ended." 125 S.Ct. at 1526. State proceedings had not ended when Guttman filed his federal court claim. As such, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine does not apply and the district court did have subject matter jurisdiction.

We review de novo a district court's dismissal of a complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Kiowa Indian Tribe of Okla. v. Hoover, 150 F.3d 1163, 1165 (10th Cir.1998). By statute, "[f]inal judgments or decrees rendered by the highest court of a State in which a decision could be had, may be reviewed by the Supreme Court by writ of certiorari." 28 U.S.C. § 1257(a). In Rooker v. Fid. Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 44 S.Ct. 149, 68 L.Ed. 362 (1923), the Supreme Court interpreted § 1257(a) to mean that only the Supreme Court can hear appeals from final judgments of state courts. Therefore, a federal district court does not have subject matter jurisdiction to review a case that was resolved by state courts. In D.C. Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983), the Court held that challenges to a state court judgment are barred even if the claim forming the basis of the challenge was not raised in the state proceedings. "[I]f 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... [state court claims], then the district court is in essence being called upon to review the state-court decision." Id. at 483, 103 S.Ct. 1303, n.16. See Bolden v. City of Topeka, 441 F.3d 1129, 1138 (10th Cir.2006). (discussing the scope of the Feldman decision). Together, these two cases created what is commonly known as the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.

After its cryptic decision in Feldman, the Supreme Court did not explain the scope of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine until it decided Exxon Mobil twenty-three years later. Exxon Mobil, 125 S.Ct. at 1523. In the absence of such guidance, this court, like others around the country, adopted a rule that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine applied to state court decisions that were not final: "Under Rooker-Feldman, lower federal courts possess no power whatever to sit in direct review of state court decisions. This prohibition extends to all state-court decisions — final or otherwise." Kenmen Eng'g v. City of Union, 314 F.3d 468, 473 (10th Cir.2002) (citations and quotation marks omitted). See also Facio v. Jones, 929 F.2d 541, 542-43 (10th Cir.1991); Anderson v. Colo., 793 F.2d 262, 263-64 (10th Cir.1986).

Exxon Mobil reverses this holding from our decision in Kenmen. In Exxon Mobil, the Supreme Court reversed a Third Circuit decision holding that a federal court lacked subject matter jurisdiction when a state and federal suit were filed concurrently and the state court ruled first. Exxon Mobil, 125 S.Ct. at 1525-26. In so doing, the Court reduced the scope of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine to the narrow set of cases out of which it was born. "The Rooker-Feldman doctrine ... is confined to cases of the kind from which the doctrine acquired its name: cases brought by state-court losers complaining of injuries caused by state-court judgments rendered before the district court proceedings commenced and inviting district court review and rejection of those judgments." Id. at 1522-23. The Court explained the scope of its holding by stating:

Rooker and Feldman exhibit the limited circumstances in which this Court's appellate jurisdiction over state-court judgments, 28 U.S.C. § 1257, precludes a United States district court from exercising subject-matter jurisdiction in an action it would otherwise be empowered to adjudicate under a congressional grant of authority.... In both cases, the losing party in state court filed suit in federal court after the state proceedings...