Neal v. Wilson
| Decision Date | 25 April 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-2112,96-2112 |
| Citation | 112 F.3d 351 |
| Parties | James A. NEAL, Director of Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct, Plaintiff/Appellee, v. Jimmie L. WILSON, Defendant/Appellant, v. Jack HOLT, Jr., Member of the Supreme Court of the State of Arkansas; Robert H. Dudley, Member of the Supreme Court of the State of Arkansas; Tom Glaze, Member of the Supreme Court of the State of Arkansas; Donald Corbin, Member of the Supreme Curt of the State of Arkansas; John Lineberger, Chancery Judge of the Fourth Judicial District of Arkansas; Members of Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct; Robert Donovan, Attorney for the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct; John Doe, Defendants and other unknown John Doe Defendants, known and unknown, each individually and in his official capacity as set out herein; Ken Reeves, Chairman; Sue Winter, Secretary; Carlton Bailey, Member of the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct; Allen Humphries, Member of the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct; Richard A. Reed, Member of the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct; Burt Virden, Member of the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct; Patricia Youngdahl, Member of the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct, Third Party Defendants/Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
George E. Hairston, argued, New York City (E. Dion Wilson and Roy C. Lewellen, on the brief), for defendant-appellant.
Angela S. Jegley, Senior Assistant Attorney General, argued, Little Rock, AR, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before WOLLMAN and FLOYD R. GIBSON, Circuit Judges, and MONTGOMERY, 1 District Judge.
Jimmie Wilson appeals from the district court's 2 order remanding his disbarment case to state court and dismissing a complaint Wilson filed against various Arkansas officials. We affirm.
The background of this case stretches back almost seventeen years and involves numerous proceedings in state and federal court. Wilson, an African-American from Helena, Arkansas, has been a lawyer, farmer, civil rights activist, and state legislator. Wilson borrowed money for his farm from the Farmers Home Administration between 1980 and 1982, securing the loan with a lien on his crops. Wilson attempted to avoid the government lien and was convicted in 1985 of knowingly disposing of property mortgaged to a government agency, unlawfully converting money of the United States, and conspiring to defraud the United States. See United States v. Wilson, 806 F.2d 171 (8th Cir.1986). His conviction was ultimately reversed in 1989 because of a Batson violation at his trial. See United States v. Wilson, 884 F.2d 1121 (8th Cir.1989) (en banc). Wilson subsequently pleaded guilty in 1990 to five misdemeanor counts of converting property mortgaged or pledged to a farm credit agency and converting public money to personal use and was sentenced to imprisonment and probation.
Because of his conviction, Wilson was suspended from practice by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in January of 1991, pending the outcome of any disciplinary proceedings. The court referred the matter to the Arkansas bar authorities, specifically James Neal, the executive director of the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct (the Committee). The Committee decided that Wilson's conduct warranted disbarment. After Wilson refused to voluntarily surrender his license, the Committee filed a complaint for disbarment in the Phillips County Circuit Court. All of the circuit judges in that circuit recused themselves, and the Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court assigned a circuit judge from another circuit to hear the case. This circuit judge dismissed the complaint in 1993 on the ground it was time-barred, a ruling that was reversed by the Arkansas Supreme Court. See Neal v. Wilson, 316 Ark. 588, 873 S.W.2d 552 (1994) (Wilson I ).
The crux of Wilson's federal case stems from what happened when the case was remanded by the Arkansas Supreme Court to the Phillips County Circuit Court. The appointed circuit judge recused himself because of his disagreement with the supreme court's opinion. The supreme court subsequently appointed another outside circuit judge, John Lineberger, to hear the case in 1994. Wilson moved for Judge Lineberger's disqualification on the basis that there was a new circuit judge in Phillips County who had not recused himself who should hear the case. That judge was Olly Neal, an African-American, who had been elected in 1992 in a minority-majority district, newly created pursuant to a consent decree in a Voting Rights Act lawsuit. Neal was Wilson's former law partner and one of the attorneys who had represented Wilson in his criminal case. Neal also testified at Wilson's federal trial.
Judge Lineberger denied the disqualification motion on January 5, 1995, and set a trial date of June 13, 1995. At Wilson's instigation, a hearing was set before Judge Neal. Following the hearing, Judge Neal ruled on May 24, 1995, that he had jurisdiction. He then decided the merits of the case, concluding that Wilson's conduct warranted only a letter of reprimand. The Committee sought a writ of certiorari from the Arkansas Supreme Court. The supreme court issued the writ on June 12, 1995, ruling that Judge Neal did not have jurisdiction and quashing Judge Neal's orders. See Neal v. Wilson, 321 Ark. 70, 900 S.W.2d 177 (1995) (per curiam) (Wilson II ).
On June 13, 1995, before Wilson's trial began, he removed the case from Judge Lineberger's court to the district court, citing 28 U.S.C. § 1443(1) as the basis for removal. Wilson filed a counterclaim and third-party complaint against numerous state officials, including Neal, the members of the Committee, the justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court who formed the majority in Wilson II, Judge Lineberger, and John Doe defendants. Wilson alleged violations of his federal constitutional and statutory rights and sought declaratory and injunctive relief. See Neal v. Wilson, 920 F.Supp. 976, 982-83 (E.D.Ark.1996) (Wilson III ).
The case was assigned to United States District Judge George Howard, Jr. After briefing, Judge Howard recused himself because of the district court's initial reference of Wilson to the state bar authorities for disciplinary action in 1991 and directed that the case be assigned to a judge from outside the Eastern District of Arkansas. Judge Waters was subsequently assigned the case.
The district court first concluded that Wilson's attempted removal of his disbarment case was improper. Even assuming that Wilson had pleaded causes of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 or the Voting Rights Act, the court concluded that Wilson had not met the requirements for section 1443(1) removal because he had failed to show that he would be unable to adequately enforce his rights in state court. The court also concluded that the removal was untimely and remanded the case to state court. See Wilson III, 920 F.Supp. at 983-86. With regard to the merits of Wilson's complaint, the district court concluded that it should abstain under the Younger abstention doctrine. It also concluded that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine precluded what would be essentially federal court review of the Arkansas Supreme Court's decision regarding Judge Lineberger's appointment. The court then dismissed Wilson's complaint. See id. at 986-91. Wilson subsequently moved for reconsideration and requested that Judge Waters recuse himself for the same reason given by Judge Howard. The district court denied both motions.
On appeal, Wilson argues that he met the requirements of section 1443 for removal, that his petition for removal was timely, that the district court erred in abstaining, that the district court erred applying the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, and that Judge Waters erred in refusing to recuse himself.
We may review the district court's remand order because this case involves a section 1443 removal. See 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d); Doe v. Berry, 967 F.2d 1255, 1257 (8th Cir.1992) (per curiam). We conclude that the district court properly remanded Wilson's case to the state courts because Wilson's notice of removal was untimely; alternatively, the district court correctly concluded that Wilson did not meet the requirements for removal under section 1443(l ).
Wilson admits that he was required to file his notice of removal "within thirty days after receipt ... of a copy of an amended pleading, motion, order or other paper from which it may first be ascertained that the case is ... or has become removable." 28 U.S.C. § 1446(b). Wilson argues that the relevant "order or other paper" was the Arkansas Supreme Court's June 12, 1995, opinion in Wilson II affirming Judge Lineberger's appointment and quashing Judge Neal's orders. We disagree. As the district court stated, the Arkansas Supreme Court's opinion in Wilson II affirming the validity of its own prior action did not convert an otherwise unremovable case into a removable one. See Wilson III, 920 F.Supp. at 986. The thrust of Wilson's complaint is that his rights were violated when the Arkansas Supreme Court appointed Judge Lineberger to hear his case. The Arkansas Supreme Court made this appointment in May of 1994, and Wilson did not file his notice of removal within thirty days of his receipt of this order. Even reading the record in the light most favorable to Wilson, the thirty-day limitation period began running no later than January 5, 1995, the day on which Judge Lineberger overruled Wilson's motion for disqualification in which Wilson raised his argument that Judge Neal had jurisdiction over the case. Wilson's June 13, 1995, notice of removal was thus untimely by a factor of months.
Even assuming that Wilson's removal notice was...
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