Keating v. State of RI

• Decision Date: 06 March 1992
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 91-0481L.
• Citation: 785 F. Supp. 1094
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Rhode Island
• Parties: Joseph KEATING, and Providence Police & Fire-Fighters' Retirement Association, Plaintiffs, v. STATE of RHODE ISLAND, and R. Gary Clark, Tax Administrator of the State of Rhode Island, Defendants.

785 F. Supp. 1094

Joseph KEATING, and Providence Police & Fire-Fighters' Retirement Association, Plaintiffs, v. STATE of RHODE ISLAND, and R. Gary Clark, Tax Administrator of the State of Rhode Island, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 91-0481L.

United States District Court, D. Rhode Island.

March 6, 1992.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Joel D. Landry, Landry & Connors, Providence, R.I., for plaintiffs.

Marcia McGair Ippolito, Bernard J. Lemos, R.I. Div. of Taxation, Providence, R.I., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

LAGUEUX, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter is before the Court on the motion of both defendants to dismiss the plaintiffs' complaint under Rule 12 or, in the alternative, to grant summary judgment under Rule 56. Plaintiffs are a Rhode Island taxpayer and a retirement association of which he is a member. They have alleged that the State of Rhode Island ("the State") has violated their federal and state constitutional and statutory rights.

Plaintiff Keating is a retired Providence police officer and a member of the Providence Police and Firefighters' Retirement Association (the "Association"). The Association has some 700 members, all former police officers or firefighters receiving pensions from the City of Providence. Before 1985, the pension income of the Association's members was exempt from state income taxes, pursuant to a 1923 state statute. R.I.Pub.L.1923 ch. 489 § 15, as amended by R.I.Pub.L.1963 ch. 151 § 8. In 1985, the Rhode Island General Assembly repealed this tax exemption. R.I.Pub.L. 1985 ch. 496. When this exemption disappeared, the Association decided to contest the repeal and elected to make Keating's case a "test" or "pilot" case. Therefore, Keating properly paid the additional tax due and then sought a refund, challenging the 1985 repealing act in proceedings before the Rhode Island Tax Administrator. Keating alleged various violations of his state and federal constitutional and statutory rights. When the Tax Administrator denied relief, Keating appealed to the Rhode Island District Court, Sixth Division, which affirmed the Tax Administrator's decision. Keating v. Clark ("Keating I"), A.A. No. 88-69 (R.I.Dist.Ct., 6th Div. Mar. 6, 1992) (Defendants' Appendix II). Keating then sought review in the Rhode Island Supreme Court. The Rhode Island Supreme Court ultimately denied Keating's petition for certiorari, thus effectively affirming the District Judge's decision.

At this point, Keating could have sought review of the federal constitutional issues in the United States Supreme Court. He and the Association chose not to do that. Instead, they filed this suit in this Court. It is a transparent attempt to resuscitate a claim that the Rhode Island state courts have already fully adjudicated. The only differences between this complaint and the previous one are the addition of the Association as a plaintiff, the explicit naming of the State as a defendant, and the new allegation that the defendants have violated the plaintiffs' federal civil rights under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981-1986.

As explained below, these modifications do not give legitimacy to the plaintiffs' federal complaint. Accordingly, this case must be dismissed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. The Retirement Association's Standing

The Association lacks standing to join this suit. That the individual members of the Association may have common complaints against the defendants does not confer standing on the Association, which is a separate legal entity from its individual members. Even if the members could allege individual claims, as in a class action complaint, the Association itself must also be injured before it can join the suit. The Complaint's awkward syntax ("Plaintiff, Providence Police and Firefighters Retirement Association members,....") tacitly acknowledges that the Association is attempting to become a surrogate for its individual members. Complaint, para. 13.

The Complaint simply alleges no injury to the Association. Accordingly, the Court must dismiss the Association's claims, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

B. The Federal Tax Injunction Act

The Federal Tax Injunction Act of 1937, 28 U.S.C. § 1341 (1988), prevents this Court from assuming jurisdiction of the remaining plaintiff's¹ claims. The statute provides:

The district courts shall not enjoin, suspend or restrain the assessment, levy or collection of any tax under State law where a plain, speedy and efficient remedy may be had in the courts of such State.

Id. This statute applies to all federal claims, even those posing important constitutional or civil rights questions.

The statute's prohibitions are akin to the federal abstention doctrine. As this Court recently explained:

A federal district court should abstain from ruling on constitutional questions whenever state judicial proceedings involving important state interests have been initiated, substantive proceedings on the merits have not yet taken place in the federal court, and the state proceedings afford an adequate opportunity to raise the constitutional claims.

Colonial Courts Apartment Co. v. Paradis, 780 F.Supp. 88, 90 (D.R.I.1992). The rule prevents needless federal interference in matters of state competence and reduces the risk of dual litigation, while entrusting the enforcement of federal rights to adequate state processes. For state tax disputes, the Tax Injunction Act codified a jurisdictional rule that had previously been a judicial policy of comity and restraint. United Gas Pipe Line Co. v. Whitman, 595 F.2d 323, 324-25 (5th Cir.1979).

The plain words of the Tax Injunction Act leave the plaintiff no escape. Certainly any action by this Court granting the plaintiff declaratory relief or a tax refund would "restrain the assessment, levy or collection of a tax under State law." California v. Grace Brethren Church, 457 U.S. 393, 408, 102 S.Ct. 2498, 2507, 73 L.Ed.2d 93 (1982); United Gas Pipe Line, 595 F.2d at 324, 326. The only remaining question is whether Rhode Island's procedures for contesting state tax assessments offer "a plain, speedy and efficient remedy." The state procedures need not offer the best of all possible remedies; they must only be adequate. Alnoa G. Corp. v. City of Houston, 563 F.2d 769, 772 (5th Cir.1977) (citing Spector Motor Serv., Inc. v. O'Connor, 340 U.S. 602, 605, 71 S.Ct. 508, 510, 95 L.Ed. 573 (1951)), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 970, 98 S.Ct. 1610, 56 L.Ed.2d 62 (1978). The state remedies are sufficient if they provide the taxpayer with a judicial determination following a full hearing, at which he may raise all his constitutional objections. Grace Brethren Church, 457 U.S. at 411-12, 102 S.Ct. at 2509-10.

The remedies that were available to the plaintiff satisfy the requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 1341. This Court has already ruled that Rhode Island's procedures for challenging state taxes meet the statute's requirements. Sterling Shoe Co. v. Norberg, 411 F.Supp. 128, 132-33 (D.R.I.1976); Fruit Growers Express Co. v. Norberg, C.A. No. 78-0045 (D.R.I.1981) (Defendants' Appendix VI), slip op. at 12. And the plaintiff has already litigated this same claim in the state system, demonstrating that system's speed and efficiency. The plaintiff was not forced to litigate several suits or challenge several taxing authorities. See Rosewell v. LaSalle Nat'l Bank, 450 U.S. 503, 517-18, 101 S.Ct. 1221, 1231-32, 67 L.Ed.2d 464 (1981). He raised his constitutional objections, which were carefully considered and firmly rejected. Keating I, slip op. at 6-10. The state procedures, which gave the plaintiff a full hearing and a judicial determination, were plain, speedy, and efficient. See Grace Brethren Church, 457 U.S. at 411-12, 102 S.Ct. at 2509-10.

The proper line of appeal from the Rhode Island Supreme Court's denial of certiorari is a petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. Diaz-Buxo v. Trias Monge, 593 F.2d 153, 157 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 833, 100 S.Ct. 64, 62 L.Ed.2d 42 (1979); Lampkin-Asam v. Supreme Court of Fla., 601 F.2d 760, 760 (5th Cir.1979) ("It is axiomatic that a federal district court, as a court of original jurisdiction, lacks appellate jurisdiction to review, modify, or nullify a final order of a state court"), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1013, 100 S.Ct. 662, 62 L.Ed.2d 642 (1980). The plaintiff did not follow this course. Instead, he made a few purely cosmetic changes to his complaint and filed suit in this Court.

But this Court has no authority to become involved, despite the plaintiff's civil rights allegations. "A complaint under the Civil Rights Act does not provide the springboard for an unhappy state litigant to raise his federal claims de novo in federal court." Fortune v. Mulherrin, 533 F.2d 21, 22 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 864, 97 S.Ct. 170, 50 L.Ed.2d 143 (1976). Plaintiff's attempt to use this Court as an appellate court for state tax litigation directly collides with the laws of federal jurisdiction and the Tax Injunction Act.

Federal law deprives this Court of jurisdiction over the plaintiff's claims. For this reason alone, all the plaintiff's claims, including any claims that the yet-unnamed class action plaintiffs may try to raise, must be dismissed pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1).

C. Res Judicata

Additionally, principles of res judicata bar relitigation of the plaintiff's claims. The late Judge Henry of the Rhode Island District Court, Sixth Division, issued a carefully crafted, 10-page opinion affirming the state Tax Administrator's decision to deny the plaintiff's requested refund. Judge Henry considered, discussed, and dismissed the Due Process and Takings claims that the plaintiff now asserts in this Court. Keating I, slip op. at 6-10. With the Rhode Island Supreme Courts's denial of certiorari, Judge Henry's decision became final and binding.

Res judicata now prevents relitigation of the plaintiff's claims. In federal civil rights...