P.G. v. Ramsey County

• Decision Date: 27 April 2001
• Docket Number: No. CIV 00-2273 PAM JGL.,CIV 00-2273 PAM JGL.
• Citation: 141 F.Supp.2d 1220
• Parties: P.G., To. G., Ti. G., R.M., and B.M., Plaintiffs, v. RAMSEY COUNTY, Anthony McWell, Ann E. Ploetz, Karen Garvin, Julie Russomanno, Judge James H. Clark, supervisors of McWell, supervisors of Ploetz, supervisors of Garvin, supervisors of Russomanno, Frayda Rosen, and Judy Daggy, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

141 F.Supp.2d 1220

P.G., To. G., Ti. G., R.M., and B.M., Plaintiffs, v. RAMSEY COUNTY, Anthony McWell, Ann E. Ploetz, Karen Garvin, Julie Russomanno, Judge James H. Clark, supervisors of McWell, supervisors of Ploetz, supervisors of Garvin, supervisors of Russomanno, Frayda Rosen, and Judy Daggy, Defendants.

No. CIV 00-2273 PAM JGL.

United States District Court, D. Minnesota.

April 27, 2001.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Bruce P. Candlin, Candlin & Wright, Bloomington, MN, Carl David Dietz, Ramsey County Attorney, St. Paul, MN, W. Karl Hansen, MN Attorney General, St. Paul, MN, Jonathan J. Hegre, Roseann T. Schreifels, Mark A. Solheim, Rider, Bennett, Egan & Arundel, Minneapolis, MN, for defendants.

Dale C. Nathan, Nathan & Assoc., Eagan, MN, for plaintiff.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MAGNUSON, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Defendants' Motions to Dismiss, or for Summary Judgment. For the reasons that follow, the Court grants the Motions.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs are a mother, P.G., and her four minor children. In the fall of 2000, Ramsey County instituted a child protection proceeding to terminate P.G.'s parental rights to her two youngest daughters, R.M. and B.M. P.G.'s other daughter, Ti. G., is currently also in foster care, and her son, To. G., is in a youth detention facility, having been convicted of sexually assaulting his half-sisters. The child protection proceeding began in October 2000, and Plaintiffs' Complaint in this matter was filed shortly after the first day of the hearing. Because of extenuating circumstances, the hearing was continued, and the last two days of the hearing were scheduled to be held on February 27, 2001, and March 1, 2001, after the Motions to Dismiss were fully briefed. There is no indication that any decision as to the termination of parental rights has yet been made.

Plaintiffs have sued nearly every person involved in the child protection proceeding. Defendant Anthony McWell ("McWell") is the Ramsey County child protection officer assigned to Plaintiffs' case. Defendant Ann Ploetz ("Ploetz") is the assistant Ramsey County attorney who instituted the child protection proceeding. Defendants Julie Russomanno ("Russomanno") and Karen Garvin ("Garvin") are, respectively, the guardian ad litem and the counsel for the guardian ad litem in the child protection proceeding. Plaintiffs have also sued unnamed supervisors of McWell, Ploetz, Russomanno, and Garvin. Judge James Clark ("Judge Clark") is the judge of the juvenile court presiding over the child protection proceeding. Dr. Frayda Rosen ("Dr.Rosen") is the psychologist who examined and treated R .M. and B.M., and Judy Daggy ("Daggy") is Ti. G.'s foster parent. Plaintiffs have also named Ramsey County as a Defendant.

Plaintiffs claim that all Defendants, save Dr. Rosen, are liable for violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which prohibits persons acting under color of state law from depriving someone of their rights under the Constitution. Plaintiffs base their § 1983 claims on alleged violations of their substantive and procedural due process rights. Plaintiffs also bring a state-law claim of defamation against Dr. Rosen.

In Count I of the Complaint, Plaintiffs claim that McWell and Daggy violated their substantive due process rights. According to the Complaint, McWell made a racist remark to P.G., and thus is acting from a racist motive, contrary to Plaintiffs' liberty interest in the parent-child relationship. Daggy allegedly refused to allow Ti. G. to attend the public school of her choice, thus violating Ti. G.'s right to the best possible education. In Count II, Plaintiffs claim that their procedural due process rights have been violated by: (1) Ramsey County's failure to provide Plaintiffs fair means of defending against the charges in the child protection proceedings; (2) Ramsey County's failure to provide access to information necessary for such defense; (3) the Ramsey County public defender's failure to provide effective assistance of counsel to P.G. in the child protection proceeding;¹ (4) the failure of the guardian ad litem and her counsel to make a reasonable investigation of the charges against P.G.; and (5) Judge Clark's denial of P.G.'s request for contact with her children without giving her fair means of getting information or contesting the charges. Finally, Count III claims that Dr. Rosen defamed P.G., R.M., and B.M. in a letter she wrote to McWell on August 2, 2000, recommending that P.G. have only supervised contact with R.M. and B.M.

As relief, each Plaintiff seeks damages of $1 million against Ramsey County, McWell, Russomanno, and Garvin, and unspecified damages of at least $25,000 against Daggy and $100,000 against Dr. Rosen. In addition, Plaintiffs request multiple injunctions: (1) requiring Ramsey County to dismiss McWell from Plaintiffs' case; (2) requiring Ramsey County to provide Plaintiffs with the means to defend themselves against the charges in the child protection proceeding, including effective assistance of counsel not affiliated with Ramsey County, and punishing the failure to do so by directing the juvenile court to give P.G. custody of her children; (3) requiring Ramsey County to provide Plaintiffs with the means to defend themselves against the charges in the child protection proceeding, including effective assistance of counsel not affiliated with Ramsey County, and punishing the failure to do so by requiring Ploetz and her supervisors to cease prosecuting P.G. and directing them to make no further attempt to interfere with Plaintiffs' parent-child relationship (4) requiring Ploetz, her supervisors, and Ramsey County to provide P.G., without charge, with complete information relied on as a basis for their actions and recommendations to the juvenile court; (5) requiring the juvenile court to dismiss Russomanno and Garvin from the case and to replace them with persons "not affiliated with or paid by or in any way dependent on" Ramsey County; and (6) requiring Daggy to allow Ti. G. to go to the school of her choice, unless the juvenile court determines that there is good reason for requiring her to attend another school.

Ostensibly to address defects in the Complaint raised by the Motions to Dismiss, Plaintiffs' brief states that Plaintiffs plan to file an Amended Complaint "within one week." (Pls.' Opp'n Mem. at 3.) Plaintiffs' brief was signed on February 26, 2001, and no Amended Complaint has yet been docketed. Moreover, Plaintiffs do not acknowledge that they may not amend their Complaint as a matter of right. Because responsive pleadings have been served, Plaintiffs must seek leave of Court or consent of all Defendants to file an Amended Complaint. Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a). Plaintiffs have not approached the Court with a request to amend,² nor does the docket reflect any consent by Defendants to such amendment. Thus, the Court will disregard Plaintiffs' representations about what an Amended Complaint would claim, and will instead consider only the allegations, claims, and prayers for relief made in the Complaint.

Now before the Court are four separate Motions to Dismiss. The Ramsey County defendants, consisting of Ramsey County, McWell, Ploetz, Russomanno, and their unnamed supervisors, contend that the Younger abstention doctrine applies and the Court must decline to hear Plaintiffs' claims, and that, if the Court decides not to abstain, McWell, Ploetz, and Russomanno are entitled to immunity from Plaintiffs' claims. The State defendants, consisting of Judge Clark and Garvin, also assert that the Younger abstention doctrine bars the Court from interfering in ongoing state proceedings. They argue as well that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine divests the Court of subject matter jurisdiction over Plaintiffs' challenge to a decision in a state judicial proceeding, that Judge Clark is protected by absolute judicial immunity, and that Garvin was not acting under color of state law. Daggy contends that she is not a state actor and cannot be liable under § 1983, and that, in any event, Plaintiffs' response to her memorandum was so untimely that her Motion should be considered unopposed. Daggy asks for her attorney's fees and costs. Finally, Dr. Rosen argues that her statements are entitled to a privilege because they were made in the context of an adversarial proceeding, and that Plaintiffs have failed to plead a necessary element of their defamation claim — that she acted with actual malice. Dr. Rosen also seeks attorney's fees and costs because Plaintiffs' attorney allegedly harassed her and threatened her, and because she contends that the claims against her fail to meet the standards of Fed. R.Civ.P. 11. The Court will address each Defendant's arguments in turn.

DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

For the purposes of Defendants' Motions to Dismiss, the Court takes all facts alleged in Plaintiffs' Complaint as true. Westcott v. Omaha, 901 F.2d 1486, 1488 (8th Cir.1990). The Court must construe the allegations in the Complaint and reasonable inferences arising from the Complaint favorably to Plaintiffs. Morton v. Becker, 793 F.2d 185, 187 (8th Cir.1986). A motion to dismiss will be granted only if "it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts which would entitle him to relief." Id.; see also Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957).

Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b), a motion to dismiss can be treated as one for summary judgment and disposed of according to Rule 56 if the parties are "given reasonable opportunity to present all material made pertinent to such a motion by Rule 56." All of the parties, including Plaintiffs, submitted matters outside the pleadings for the Court's consideration. In most instances, the Court considered the issues raised by Defendants taking all allegations in the Complaint as true, as on a Motion to Dismiss. Where, however, both Plaintiffs and Defendants used evidence outside...