Lee v. County of Los Angeles
| Decision Date | 14 February 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-55807,98-55807 |
| Citation | 240 F.3d 754 |
| Parties | (9th Cir. 2001) MARY SANDERS LEE, individually and as the Conservator for the Estate of KERRY SANDERS; KERRY SANDERS, Plaintiff-Appellants, v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES; CITY OF LOS ANGELES; STAN EFRON; A. HADDOCK, Officer, #25553; MCCALLESTER, Detective, #233680; HOLMSTROM, Detective, #320622; NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES, Defendants-Appellees |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Michael D. Seplow and Wilmer J. Harris, Schonbrun & De Simone, Venice, California, for the plaintiffs-appellants.
Janet Bogigian, Deputy City Attorney, Los Angeles, California, attorneys for defendants-appellees, City of Los Angeles, Karl Holmstrom, Julie McCallister, and Art Haddock. Deon J. Nossel, Deputy Attorney General (Argued); Marion R. Buchbinder, Assistant Attorney General (Brief), for defendants-appellees Philip Coombe, Jr. and The State of New York Department of Correctional Services.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California William M. Byrne, District Judge, Presiding D.C. No. CV-96-07268-WMB
Before: Harry Pregerson, William A. Fletcher and Ronald M. Gould, Circuit Judges.
This case arises out of the wrongful arrest, extradition, and incarceration of Kerry Sanders, a mentally disabled Los Angeles resident. Employees of the City of Los Angeles ("City"), the County of Los Angeles ("County"), and New York State Department of Correctional Services ("NYSDCS") incorrectly identified Kerry Sanders as the fugitive Robert Sanders, a convicted embezzler who absconded from a New York state-prison work-release program. As a result, Kerry Sanders was extradited from California to New York in October 1993 and incarcerated in a New York state prison until October 1995, when NYSDCS officials learned that the real Robert Sanders had been arrested by federal drug enforcement agents in another jurisdiction. Had defendants at any time compared Kerry Sanders's fingerprints or other identifying characteristics with those of Robert Sanders, or had defendants in any other way verified the identity of the man they had in custody, Kerry Sanders would not have been arrested, extradited, or incarcerated as Robert Sanders.
Plaintiff Mary Sanders Lee, individually and as the Conservator for the Person and Estate of her son Kerry Sanders, brought suit claiming violations of constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. S 1983, violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. SS 12101, 12131-12134, and violations of rights protected by state law.1 Plaintiffs named as defendants the City, four individual officers of the Los Angeles Police Department ("LAPD"), the County, the Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender who represented Kerry Sanders ("Deputy Public Defender"), Acting Director of NYSDCS Philip Coombe, Jr., and other unnamed employees of the City, County, and NYSDCS. The district court dismissed all federal claims against defendants with prejudice for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, dismissed all claims against NYSDCS defendants for lack of personal jurisdiction, and dismissed plaintiffs' remaining state claims without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
"Because this is an appeal from the dismissal of an action pursuant to [Federal Rule of Civil Procedure] 12(b)(6), we accept as true the facts alleged in the complaint. " Zimmerman v. Oregon Dep't of Justice, 170 F.3d 1169, 1171 (9th Cir. 1999), petition for cert. filed, 68 U.S.L.W. 3129 (U.S. Aug. 10, 1999) (No. 99-243). Plaintiffs allege the following facts:
Kerry Sanders has a long history of mental illness for which he has been institutionalized in the past. He suffers from hallucinations, learning disabilities, and chronic schizophrenia, for which his doctors have prescribed a variety of medications. Kerry Sanders's mental incapacity is "obvious." Because of his mental disability, he was declared mentally incapacitated and his mother, Mary Sanders Lee, was duly appointed as Conservator for his Person and Estate.
In October 1993, the LAPD arrested Kerry Sanders.2 At some point after his arrest, employees of the LAPD mistakenly identified Sanders as the fugitive named Robert Sanders who had absconded from a Temporary Release Program at Greenhaven Correctional Center in Stormville, New York.3 Soon thereafter, the LAPD informed officials at NYSDCS that the person the LAPD had in custody was the fugitive Robert Sanders. NYSDCS provided the LAPD with an identification packet on Robert Sanders. The LAPD, however, failed to take proper steps to verify that the individual in their custody was in fact Robert Sanders. Specifically, plaintiffs allege that the LAPD recklessly and with deliberate indifference failed to check the fingerprints and other characteristics of Kerry Sanders and compare those with the fingerprints and other characteristics of Robert Sanders, which NYSDCS had provided. Plaintiffs further allege that defendants knew or should have known that Kerry Sanders was not in fact the fugitive Robert Sanders because Kerry Sanders's mental incapacity is "obvious," and because neither his fingerprints nor his physical characteristics match those of Robert Sanders. As a result of defendants' acts and omissions, Kerry Sanders was extradited to New York as the fugitive Robert Sanders.
During the extradition hearing, Kerry Sanders was represented by a Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender. The Deputy Public Defender failed to recognize his client's mental incapacity, to verify his client's true identity, or to alert the court that his client was not the individual sought by New York State officials. As a result of the Deputy Public Defender's alleged failure to provide Kerry Sanders with adequate representation during the extradition process, Kerry Sanders was mistakenly extradited to New York as Robert Sanders, where he remained imprisoned for two years.4
Acting on the representations of the LAPD, NYSDCS allegedly caused the extradition of Kerry Sanders to New York. Defendant Philip Coombe, Jr., Acting Director of NYSDCS, and/or other officials of NYSDCS, instructed NYSDCS employees to arrange for the extradition of Kerry Sanders. These NYSDCS employees traveled to Los Angeles, took custody of Kerry Sanders, and transported him back to New York. But they too failed to verify that the person they transported was in fact the absconded fugitive, Robert Sanders. Instead, they simply had him incarcerated in the Greenhaven Correctional Center without further legal process. Because defendants failed to ensure Kerry Sanders's welfare and safety during his wrongful incarceration in New York, he was allegedly sexually molested by other inmates. He remained in prison until the real Robert Sanders was arrested in another jurisdiction and NYSDCS officials realized that Kerry Sanders was not in fact the fugitive Robert Sanders.
Mrs. Lee began searching for her son, Kerry Sanders, shortly after his initial arrest in October 1993. Over the course of the next two years, Mrs. Lee repeatedly contacted the LAPD regarding the whereabouts of Kerry Sanders. Each time she was informed that his whereabouts were unknown.
The procedural history of this case is complex because some of the defendants filed motions to dismiss the original complaint ("Original Complaint"), while other defendants filed motions to dismiss the First Amended Complaint ("First Amended Complaint"). The First Amended Complaint added defendants as well as an ADA claim. Thus, the motions to dismiss at issue in this appeal are: (1) the County's motion to dismiss plaintiffs' S 1983 claims in the Original Complaint; (2) the NYSDCS defendants' motion to dismiss the Original Complaint for lack of personal jurisdiction; (3) the County's and the Deputy Public Defender's motion to dismiss plaintiffs' ADA claim in the First Amended Complaint; and (4) the City's motion to dismiss plaintiffs' S 1983 claims in the First Amended Complaint.
The district court granted NYSDCS's motion to dismiss forlack of personal jurisdiction and the County's motion to dismiss plaintiffs' S 1983 claims before plaintiffs filed their First Amended Complaint. After plaintiffs filed their First Amended Complaint, the district court: (1) granted the City's motion to dismiss the S 1983 claims; (2) granted the County's and the Deputy Public Defender's motion to dismiss the ADA and state law claims; and (3) denied a motion by plaintiffs for leave to further amend their First Amended Complaint. In addition, the district court dismissed sua sponte plaintiffs' ADA claim against the City, and all claims against the individual LAPD defendants.5
Plaintiffs timely appeal the district court's orders dismissing all of plaintiffs' federal claims with prejudice and denying their motion for leave to amend. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. S 1291.
When a district court dismisses a claim pursuant to a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, "we evaluate the complaint de novo to decide whether it states a claim upon which relief could be granted." Gonzalez v. Metropolitan Transp. Auth., 174 F.3d 1016, 1018 (9th Cir. 1999). All factual allegations set forth in the complaint "are taken as true and construed in the light most favorable to [p]laintiffs." Epstein v. Washington Energy Co., 83 F.3d 1136, 1140 (9th Cir. 1999). Conclusory allegations of law, however, are insufficient to defeat a motion to dismiss. Id.
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