Paskaly v. Seale, 73-1682
| Decision Date | 20 November 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 73-1682,73-1682 |
| Parties | 75 Lab.Cas. P 53,520 John PASKALY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Bryan P. SEALE, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
K. Lambert Kirk (argued), San Francisco, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant.
Leonard M. Sperry, Jr., Deputy Atty. Gen. (argued), San Francisco, Cal., for defendant-appellee.
Before HAMLEY, BROWNING and WALLACE, Circuit Judges.
John Paskaly, plaintiff in this civil rights damage action under 42 U.S.C. 1983, appeals from a summary judgment in favor of defendant Bryan P. Seale. We affirm.
Seale is a deputy labor commissioner attached to the Division of Labor Law Enforcement, Department of Industrial Relations, State of California (Division). One of Seale's official functions is to investigate wage claims and to take appropriate action. He received a wage claim from an employee in the amount of eight hundred and thirty dollars against Paskaly for services allegedly rendered as an electrician and carpenter.
Pursuant to this claim, Seale sent Paskaly the Division's demand in February, 1969, for eight hundred and thirty dollars in wages. Such demands are not enforceable except by means of a subsequent civil court action. Paskaly refused the demand whereupon Seale sent Paskaly the Division's order to appear at a hearing on March 5, 1969. This was not a subpoena and Paskaly was not obliged to obey it. 1 Seale conducted the hearing, received certain evidence, and thereafter ordered Paskaly to pay the wage claim plus penalties in the amount of five hundred thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents. As in the case of Seale's original order, this order could be enforced only in a civil court action.
Paskaly refused to comply with this order whereupon Seale referred the matter to the Division's legal section for action. The supervisor of the legal section assigned counsel to the case. The employee assigned his wage claim to the Division and, pursuant to section 210 of the California Labor Code, the Division instituted a civil suit against Paskaly in the Municipal Court for the City and County of San Francisco. The civil suit came on for trial on February 9, 1971, and resulted in a judgment for Paskaly, entered on April 23, 1971.
Paskaly commenced this civil rights action against Seale on September 26, 1972, seeking damages in the sum of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars for assertedly depriving plaintiff of due process of law. In his complaint, Paskaly alleged that: (1) when Seale processed the wage claim he knew or should have known that the employee who had made the wage claim had been an institutionalized alcoholic; (2) Seale knew or should have known that the wage claim was false; (3) Seale knew of the attempts the employee's divorced wife had made to blackmail Paskaly; (4) Seale sent the notice to Paskaly to appear at the March 6, 1969, hearing for the purpose of frightening, intimidating, and coercing Paskaly; (5) at that hearing Seale, who presided, was 'arrogant, insolent, uncivil and insulting,' and refused to consider a statement of Ray Chadley, offered by Paskaly; (6) Seale's order entered as a result of this hearing, directing Paskaly to pay the wage claim and penalties, was entered in an effort to coerce Paskaly; (7) the penalties imposed by Seale were unlawfully assessed; and (8) Seale attended the trial and sat at the Division's counsel table. 2
Seale moved to dismiss the complaint under Rules 8(a) and 12(b)(6), F.R.Civ.P. and, in the alternative, moved for summary judgment under Rule 56, F.R.Civ.P. To support these motions, an affidavit by Seale and a legal memorandum were also submitted to the court. The memorandum indicated that the motion for summary judgment was made on the dual grounds that Seale was protected from liability under the doctrine of quasi-judicial immunity and the action was barred by the statute of limitations.
The district court granted the motion for summary judgment on both of the grounds urged by Seale. 3
In view of the motion for summary judgment we take, as true, all of the facts and allegations stated above, except those contrary to Seale's affidavit. See note 2, supra.
In our opinion, the undisputed facts do not establish a civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. 1983 or any other provision of the Civil Rights Act. 4
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which Paskaly invokes, forbids the states from depriving any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law. Paskaly asserts that, acting under color of state law, Seale deprived him of liberty and property without due process of law.
First, with regard to the administrative processing of the wage claim, Paskaly was subjected to insulting and arrogant treatment. Moreover, Seale, as presiding officer, failed to permit Paskaly to introduce evidence or otherwise make an effective defense, and decided against Paskaly although he knew the wage claim was false. This conduct would constitute a denial of due process of law, if either Paskaly's liberty or property were at stake in the administrative proceedings. Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 573, 576, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972).
It is obvious that Paskaly's property interest in retaining the amount of the wage claim and penalties was not in jeopardy in the administrative proceedings, because no binding administrative order could be, or was, entered, Moreover, Paskaly was never deprived of that property interest because he ultimately prevailed in the civil suit. As stated in Mitchell v. W. T. Grant Company, 416 U.S. 600, 611, 94 S.Ct. 1895, 1902, 40 L.Ed.2d 406 (1974):
"where only property rights are involved, mere postponement of the judicial enquiry is not a denial of due process, if the opportunity given for ultimate judicial determination of liability is adequate.' Phillips v. Commissioner, 283 U.S. 589, 596-597, 51 S.Ct. 608, 75 L.Ed.2d 1289 . . ..'
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