Howard v. Whitbeck

• Decision Date: 31 August 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-1396.,03-1396.
• Citation: 382 F.3d 633
• Parties: James L. HOWARD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. William C. WHITBECK, Chief Judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals; Maura D. Corrigan, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

382 F.3d 633

James L. HOWARD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. William C. WHITBECK, Chief Judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals; Maura D. Corrigan, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 03-1396.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued June 11, 2004.

Decided and Filed August 31, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Wendell A. Miles, J.

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Sarah M. Riley (argued and briefed), Warner, Norcross & Judd, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for Appellant.

Kevin R. Himebaugh (argued and briefed), Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees.

Before SILER, MOORE, and BALDOCK, Circuit Judges.^*

MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Michigan prisoner James L. Howard ("Howard") appeals from the district court's dismissal of his § 1983 suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the basis of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Howard had filed suit against William C. Whitbeck ("Whitbeck"), Chief Judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals, and Maura D. Corrigan ("Corrigan"), Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, alleging that he had been denied access to the courts under MCL § 600.2963, requiring certain filing fees to be paid by prisoners before filing civil suits. Howard previously had appeals rejected by both the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court for failure to pay filing fees. While the district court was correct to dismiss Howard's claim that § 600.2963 was unconstitutional as applied to him, as that claim is barred by Rooker-Feldman, we conclude that the district court erred in deciding the merits of Howard's general challenge to the statute in deciding it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The failure of a claim on the merits does not divest the district court of jurisdiction. We therefore hold that the district court erred in dismissing that part of the complaint, and REVERSE the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

Given Howard's pro se status in the Michigan courts and in filing his initial complaint in the United States district court,¹ and the sparse nature of the state-court records filed in the district court, the procedural history of Howard's suit in the state courts is not entirely clear on appeal. On September 20, 2000, Howard and two other prisoners, James Tomzek ("Tomzek") and Stuart Trosky ("Trosky"), filed suit in the Ingham County Circuit Court, complaining of prison conditions, namely environmental tobacco smoke. On September 12, 2001, the suit was dismissed, presumably on the merits, as it was after extensive briefing. Along with the appeal filed by Tomzek and Howard,² a motion to waive fees was filed on January 2, 2002. When that motion was docketed, it was classified as only having been filed for Tomzek, and Howard's federal complaint seems to indicate that this was the case: "Plaintiff and Mr. Tomzek filed a claim of appeal along with a motion for waiver of fees and costs and prisoner account statement for Mr. Tomzek." Joint Appendix ("J.A.") at 12 (Compl.). It appears from Howard's complaint that he and Tomzek believed only one fee was necessary, and so filed a waiver for just Tomzek. The waiver motion is not in the Joint Appendix, nor does it appear to have been part of the record in the district court. In any case, that motion was denied on February 26, 2002, by Chief Judge Whitbeck. Tomzek paid the partial fee he had been directed to pay; Howard instead filed "an application to the Michigan Supreme Court," complaining that requiring two filing fees and denying the indigency application had been in error and that MCL § 600.2963(8), requiring filing fees for prior cases to be paid in full before subsequent suits can be filed, was unconstitutional. J.A. at 14-15 (Compl.). Because Howard did not pay the initial partial filing fee required by the February 26 order and refile his pleadings with that fee, his appeal was not officially filed.

The application Howard submitted to the Michigan Supreme Court does not appear in the Joint Appendix, but the docket sheet for Howard's suit in the Michigan Court of Appeals indicates that he filed an "Inter Application" to the Michigan Supreme Court on March 21, 2002. J.A. at 127. A motion to waive fees for the appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court appears on the Court of Appeals docket sheet as well; the entries for both "Sct Motion:Waive Fees" and "SctOrder:Denying Motion" are dated March 25, 2002, J.A. at 127, but Howard's appellate brief indicates that he filed the waiver at the same time as his application (i.e., March 21). The Michigan Supreme Court Order of March 25, 2002 required an initial partial filing fee of $21.00, which Howard did not pay, and his appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court was dismissed on May 8, 2002. On May 10, Howard submitted a "Motion For Show Cause Hearing" to the Michigan Court of Appeals, alleging three errors: the "split filing fee" (requiring money from both Howard and Tomzek); the denial of his motion for waiver of the fee; and that the refusal to file Howard's appeal had resulted in a constitutional violation. J.A. at 137-38 (Mot. For Show Cause Hr'g). This motion was returned to Howard on May 15 because he no longer had an appeal pending in the Michigan Court of Appeals.

On June 11, 2002, Howard filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, asking for a declaratory judgment and a preliminary injunction against Chief Justice Corrigan and Chief Judge Whitbeck requiring them to accept his appeals despite his failure to pay his filing fees. A motion to dismiss on the basis of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine was filed on August 9, 2002, by Chief Justice Corrigan and Chief Judge Whitbeck. Counsel was appointed for Howard on October 7, 2002, who filed a response to the motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgment on November 15, 2002. On March 19, 2003, the district court granted Chief Justice Corrigan and Chief Judge Whitbeck's motion to dismiss. Howard filed a timely notice of appeal.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of Review

We normally review de novo the district court's decision to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1). See Cob Clearinghouse Corp. v. Aetna United States Healthcare, Inc., 362 F.3d 877, 880 (6th Cir.2004). Where the district court does not merely analyze the complaint on its face, but instead inquires into the factual predicates for jurisdiction, the decision on the Rule 12(b)(1) motion resolves a "factual" challenge rather than a "facial" challenge, and we review the district court's factual findings for clear error. See RMI Titanium Co. v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 78 F.3d 1125, 1133-35 (6th Cir.1996); United States v. Ritchie, 15 F.3d 592, 598 (6th Cir.1994); Ohio Nat'l Life Ins. Co. v. United States, 922 F.2d 320, 325 (6th Cir.1990). While this is a "factual" challenge, as the parties submitted exhibits relating to the state-court proceedings the district court made no factual findings that would require deference.

B. The Statute

The Michigan statute at issue, requiring the payment of partial filing fees before an action or appeal will be docketed, reads in its entirety:

§ 600.2963. Indigent prisoners; filing of civil action or appeal in civil action; submission of institutional account for payment of filing fees

Sec. 2963. (1) If a prisoner under the jurisdiction of the department of corrections submits for filing a civil action as plaintiff in a court of this state or submits for filing an appeal in a civil action in a court of this state and states that he or she is indigent and therefore is unable to pay the filing fee and costs required by law, the prisoner making the claim of indigency shall submit to the court a certified copy of his or her institutional account, showing the current balance in the account and a 12-month history of deposits and withdrawals for the account. The court then shall order the prisoner to pay fees and costs as provided in this section. The court shall suspend the filing of the civil action or appeal until the filing fee or initial partial filing fee ordered under subsection (2) or (3) is received by the court. If the court orders that a prisoner pay a filing fee or partial filing fee, all documents submitted by the prisoner that relate to that action or appeal shall be returned to the prisoner by the court along with 2 certified copies of the court order. An additional certified copy of the court order shall be sent to the department of corrections facility where the prisoner is housed. The prisoner then shall, within 21 days after the date of the court order, resubmit to the court all documents relating to the action or appeal, accompanied by the required filing fee or partial filing fee and 1 certified copy of the court order. If the filing fee or initial partial filing fee is not received within 21 days after the day on which it was ordered, the court shall not file that action or appeal, and shall return to the plaintiff all documents submitted by the plaintiff that relate to that action or appeal.

(2) If, upon commencement of the civil action or the filing of the appeal, the balance in the prisoner's institutional account equals or exceeds the full amount of the filing fee required by law, the court shall order the prisoner to pay that amount.

(3) If, upon commencement of the civil action or the filing of the appeal, the balance in the prisoner's institutional account is less than the full amount of the filing fee required by law, the court shall require the prisoner to pay an initial partial filing fee in an amount equal to 50% of the greater of the following:

(a) The average monthly deposits to the prisoner's institutional account for the 12 months preceding the date on which the civil action is commenced or the appeal is filed.

(b) The average monthly balance in the prisoner's institutional account for the...