Heartland Academy Community Church v. Waddle

• Decision Date: 14 October 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-2474.,04-2474.
• Citation: 427 F.3d 525
• Parties: HEARTLAND ACADEMY COMMUNITY CHURCH, a Missouri Not-for-Profit Corporation; CNS International Ministries, Inc., a Missouri Not-for-Profit Corporation; Tracy Leftwich; David Christensen; Becky Christensen; Paula McKinney; Del McKinney; Jennifer Armstead; Peggy White; Sam Perumalla; Sheela Perumalla; Jim Brownfield; Cheryl Crary; Jim Crary; David Lawson; Marilyn Lawson; Susan McCloy; John McCloy; Denver Barry Selser; Ross Dale; Tina Dale; Shawn Jarnigan; Amy Jarnigan; Brad Hampton; Martha Hampton, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Michael WADDLE, in his individual and official capacities, Defendant-Appellant, David Parrish, in his individual and official capacities; Patricia McAfee, in her individual and official capacities; Lewis County, Missouri; Missouri Department of Social Services; Cindy Kennel Ayers, in her individual and official capacities, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

427 F.3d 525

HEARTLAND ACADEMY COMMUNITY CHURCH, a Missouri Not-for-Profit Corporation; CNS International Ministries, Inc., a Missouri Not-for-Profit Corporation; Tracy Leftwich; David Christensen; Becky Christensen; Paula McKinney; Del McKinney; Jennifer Armstead; Peggy White; Sam Perumalla; Sheela Perumalla; Jim Brownfield; Cheryl Crary; Jim Crary; David Lawson; Marilyn Lawson; Susan McCloy; John McCloy; Denver Barry Selser; Ross Dale; Tina Dale; Shawn Jarnigan; Amy Jarnigan; Brad Hampton; Martha Hampton, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v Michael WADDLE, in his individual and official capacities, Defendant-Appellant David Parrish, in his individual and official capacities; Patricia McAfee, in her individual and official capacities; Lewis County, Missouri; Missouri Department of Social Services; Cindy Kennel Ayers, in her individual and official capacities, Defendants.

No. 04-2474.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: March 16, 2005.

Filed: October 14, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

C. Gail Vasterling, argued, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, MO (James R. McAdams, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, MO, Cheryl A. Schuetze, Special Asst. Atty. Gen., Birmingham, AL, on the brief), for appellant.

Timothy Belz, argued, St. Louis, MO (Robert T. Haar, on the brief), for appellee.

Before MORRIS SHEPARD ARNOLD, BOWMAN, and RILEY, Circuit Judges.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

Michael Waddle appeals from the judgment of the District Court¹ granting injunctive and declaratory relief to Heartland Academy Community Church and CNS International Ministries, Inc. (collectively, Heartland). We affirm.

I.

The facts leading up to this lawsuit are set forth in great detail in the District Court's Memorandum and Order, Heartland Academy Community Church v. Waddle, 317 F.Supp.2d 984, 992-1085 (E.D.Mo.2004). Briefly, in October 2001, Waddle, as Chief Juvenile Officer for the Second Circuit of Missouri, effected the removal of 115 boarding students from Heartland Christian Academy (HCA), an educational facility owned and operated by Heartland. Although Waddle had obtained ex parte probable-cause state-court orders to remove some of the boarding students (and also to remove some students who were no longer at HCA and others who were not even within the jurisdiction of juvenile authorities because of their ages), there were no orders of any kind to remove many of the students who were taken from the school that day. The removal action was without notice to Heartland, the students, or their parents and was taken because of several allegations of mistreatment and abuse of students at HCA.

Soon after the removal, Heartland sought and received a temporary restraining order (TRO) in the District Court. After a hearing, the District Court entered a final preliminary injunction enjoining Waddle and others from "seeking or participating in any pre-hearing removal of all boarding children from HCA unless all boarding children at HCA are directly involved in the underlying facts that serve as the basis for such removal." Heartland Acad. Cmty. Church v. Waddle, 335 F.3d 684, 688 (8th Cir.2003) (Heartland I) (quoting the District Court's order). On appeal, we affirmed. Id. at 691.

In its third amended complaint, Heartland sought declaratory and injunctive relief against Waddle and others under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for alleged violations of the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The District Court held a full trial on the merits of Heartland's claims. The court found that "Mr. Waddle appears ready and willing to once again remove the children from Heartland, if the circumstances were the same as they were at the time of the mass removal on October 30, 2001." Heartland Acad., 317 F.Supp.2d at 1109. Because the court determined that Waddle's actions in October violated the constitutional rights of Heartland and its students, the court granted Heartland a permanent injunction and declaratory relief. The injunction, in its entirety, reads:

Hereafter, Mike Waddle, or any juvenile officer acting at his direction, shall not cause or attempt to cause the pre-notice or pre-hearing removal of or take into protective custody any child or children from Heartland Academy or CNS International Industries, Inc., without reasonable cause to believe that each child for whom protective custody or removal is sought is in imminent danger of suffering serious physical harm, threat to life from abuse or neglect, or has been sexually abused or is in imminent danger of sexual abuse.

Id. at 1110.

Waddle appeals. We review the District Court's findings of fact for clear error and its conclusions of law de novo. To the extent that the issues raise mixed questions of fact and law, we review de novo.

II.

Initially, Waddle makes a series of arguments challenging the jurisdiction of the federal courts and contending that he has immunity from suit.

A.

In the first appeal of this case, we rejected the challenge Waddle made to jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine,² which prohibits federal-court review of a state-court judgment. We held that the injunctive relief Heartland was seeking would "not interfere with a state-court judgment" and so "the District Court did not need to take on any issue actually litigated in the state courts or any claim `inextricably intertwined' with such an issue" in deciding whether to grant the requested relief. Heartland I, 335 F.3d at 689. That remained true at the subsequent trial on Heartland's request for permanent prospective injunctive relief. In this appeal, Waddle acknowledges our holding but suggests that this Court "retract its statement." Brief of Appellant at 34. Nothing has occurred since the first appeal that would compel us to do so. We therefore reiterate our holding that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine has no effect on federal-court jurisdiction in this case.

B.

Waddle argues that the District Court "should also have refused to hear this case on general principles of comity." Id. at 34. He claims that the injunction interferes with his authority "and thus with the authority given to the juvenile court." Id. at 36. Waddle then proceeds to make an abstention argument. (Neither comity nor abstention is discussed anywhere in the District Court's Memorandum and Order).

The comity doctrine "teaches that one court should defer action on causes properly within its jurisdiction until the courts of another sovereignty with concurrent powers, and already cognizant of the litigation, have had an opportunity to pass upon the matter." Rhines v. Weber, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 1528, 1533, 161 L.Ed.2d 440 (2005) (citations to quoted cases omitted). Here, no one has sought to invoke the jurisdiction of the state court to address the federal constitutional questions presented. Heartland does not challenge any state laws or rules, state-court judgments or orders, or anything else that a state court should address in the first instance, so there are no issues of comity in this case. And as we said in our first opinion, to the extent Waddle seeks federal-court abstention on some other ground, we see no abuse of discretion. Heartland I, 335 F.3d at 688 n. 4; see Haw. Hous. Auth. v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229, 236, 104 S.Ct. 2321, 81 L.Ed.2d 186 (1984) (standard of review).

C.

Waddle also seeks Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity as a state official sued in his official capacity, citing Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 155-56, 159, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). But the Ex Parte Young doctrine describes an exception to Eleventh Amendment immunity for a state official where the relief sought is prospective and not compensatory. Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 102-03, 104 S.Ct. 900, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984). A federal court may therefore issue an injunction to prevent state officials from violating the Constitution without running afoul of the Eleventh Amendment. Green v. Mansour, 474 U.S. 64, 68, 106 S.Ct. 423, 88 L.Ed.2d 371 (1985); see also R.W.T. v. Dalton, 712 F.2d 1225, 1233 (8th Cir.) ("Although the juvenile officer may have limited immunity from liability for damages, there is no reason to extend that immunity to liability for equitable relief." (citation omitted)), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1009, 104 S.Ct. 527, 78 L.Ed.2d 710 (1983). "An injunction to prevent [a state officer] from doing that which he has no legal right to do is not an interference with the discretion of an officer." Ex Parte Young, 209 U.S. at 159, 28 S.Ct. 441. We agree with the District Court and hold, as we did summarily in our prior opinion, Heartland I, 335 F.3d at 691, that Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity is not a bar to suit in this case.

D.

In another claim not addressed by the District Court, Waddle contends that he is entitled to absolute immunity from civil suit because he is a child services worker. In support of this proposition, he cites a case from the Ninth Circuit where the court compared social workers with criminal prosecutors and held that "social workers are entitled to absolute immunity in performing quasi-prosecutorial functions connected with the initiation and pursuit of child dependency proceedings." Coverdell v. Dep't of Soc. & Health Servs., 834 F.2d 758, 763 (9th Cir.1987) (quoting Meyers v. Contra Costa County Dep't of Soc. Servs., 812 F.2d 1154, 1157 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 829, 108 S.Ct. 98, 98 L.Ed.2d 59 (1987)). We are not certain that the immunity afforded prosecutors for their work in bringing criminals to justice should be available to juvenile officers in civil removal proceedings that are unrelated to detaining juveniles for reasons of delinquency or their caretakers on criminal charges related to the care of the juveniles. But we do not reach that issue because Heartland is not challenging Waddle's commencement of court proceedings per se. Heartland's complaints are with the ex parte nature of the proceedings and the information presented to the state court to justify the...