Remer v. Burlington Area School District
| Decision Date | 06 March 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 99-2487,99-2487 |
| Citation | 205 F.3d 990 |
| Parties | (7th Cir. 2000) SANDRA REMER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BURLINGTON AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT, LARRY ANDERSON, WILLIAM C. CAMPBELL, et al., Defendants-Appellees |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. No. 99 C 209--J.P. Stadtmueller, Chief Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE and DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judges.
Sandra Remer appeals the dismissal of her sec. 1983 lawsuit against the Burlington Area School District (the "School District" or the "District") and the individual members of the District's school board. The district court dismissed Ms. Remer's lawsuit on the ground that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine precluded federal jurisdiction over the case. After the court entered its judgment, Ms. Remer filed with this court a petition for an interlocutory appeal, see 28 U.S.C. sec. 1292; a panel of this court denied her petition. Ms. Remer then filed a notice of appeal that indicated that she was appealing the same district court ruling as a final order. See 28 U.S.C. sec. 1291. This second filing, however, came over a month and a half after the date for filing a timely notice of appeal.
We first must resolve two jurisdictional questions. Given the irregularities in Ms. Remer's notice of appeal, we must address whether we have appellate jurisdiction over this case. We also must decide whether the district court was correct in holding that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine blocks federal jurisdiction over Ms. Remer's lawsuit. The School District urges, in the alternative, that we affirm the district court's dismissal on the ground that Ms. Remer's federal action is barred by the doctrine of claim preclusion.
As we explain more fully in the following opinion, we conclude that we do have jurisdiction over this appeal and that, on this record, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine is not an appropriate basis for dismissal. Moreover, we hold that claim preclusion does not apply to Ms. Remer's federal claims.
In November 1998, Sandra Remer's tenth-grade son, M.R., and four other Burlington High School students hatched a plot to bring several guns to school and then to shoot certain administrators and students. Acting on information from a confidential informant, Burlington police officers were able to foil the plot two days before the planned siege. The day after the informant revealed the plot, police officers briefed Burlington High's principal and assistant principal, and, based on the information provided by the police, the school administrators decided to suspend M.R. from school for five days for his role in the planned attack.
In the days after word of the plot surfaced, the five students were the subjects of both police and school investigations. Ms. Remer hired attorney Terrence Rose to represent M.R. through these investigations. After Ms. Remer retained Rose, Burlington High's assistant principal contacted Ms. Remer by letter to inform her that M.R.'s suspension would be extended pending the outcome of an expulsion hearing before the District's school board. Responsibility for arranging the expulsion hearing later passed to the District's superintendent, Ron Jandura. On November 24, Superintendent Jandura sent a letter to Ms. Remer informing her that the expulsion hearing had been scheduled for December 1.
Meanwhile, as Burlington High's administration set the expulsion process in motion, the School District's attorneys filed a civil complaint against M.R. in the Circuit Court of Racine County. In its complaint, the District sought to obtain a declaratory judgment as well as a temporary restraining order and an injunction that would prevent M.R. from contacting the School District or coming within 200 yards of any District property "for as long as [M.R. is] suspended and for the length of any future expulsion." R.8, Ex.I. The circuit court granted the temporary restraining order, and the hearing date for the injunction request was set for November 30. When it later became impossible for the court to hold the hearing on November 30, M.R., through attorney Rose, agreed to extend the temporary restraining order until the circuit court could conduct the injunction hearing.
On December 1, the District's school board, which consisted of the named individual defendants1 in the present lawsuit, held the expulsion hearing for M.R. The Remers and Rose did not attend the hearing. The school board voted to expel M.R. until 2003, the year M.R. will turn 21 years old; the practical effect of expelling M.R. until age 21 is that M.R. can never again be a student at Burlington High. The Remers learned of the school board's decision by letter. According to the expulsion order, M.R. was expelled from the District's schools until April 2003 and was ordered not to enter District property during the period of his expulsion.
In January 1999, Ms. Remer retained another attorney, Willie J. Nunnery, to represent her and her son. Mr. Nunnery sent a letter to Superintendent Jandura that requested the school board reconsider its decision to expel M.R. The school board denied Mr. Nunnery's request. Then, in February, M.R. and his mother, acting through their first attorney, Terrence Rose, stipulated to an injunction in the state circuit court. (The circuit court had not yet held a hearing on the School District's injunction request.) The terms of this stipulated injunction were as follows: "[M.R.] shall be enjoined from calling the Burlington Area School District or any of its facilities, until [M.R.] attains the age of 21," and "[M.R.] shall be enjoined from going on the property of any Burlington Area School District facility, including Burlington High School . . . until [M.R.] attains the age of 21." R.8, Ex.R.
Ms. Remer subsequently filed the present sec. 1983 lawsuit in the district court. In her complaint, Ms. Remer alleged that the District and the individual members of the school board had deprived M.R. of due process of law in their handling of M.R.'s expulsion. Ms. Remer's complaint sought compensatory and punitive damages, injunctive and declaratory relief, and M.R.'s reinstatement into Burlington High School.
Shortly after Ms. Remer filed this lawsuit, the district court held a hearing on Ms. Remer's request for a temporary restraining order. During this hearing, the court raised, sua sponte, the possibility that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine precluded federal jurisdiction over the case. After the parties had an opportunity to address the court's concerns, the district court dismissed the lawsuit in a written order.
The district court's order held that the stipulated injunction entered by the state circuit court amounted to a "de facto" expulsion of M.R. The court reasoned that a ruling on the merits of Ms. Remer's federal lawsuit would be a judgment on the validity of the stipulated injunction. Thus, the district court dismissed the action on the ground that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The district court also appeared to dismiss the action on the ground of claim preclusion.
The district court entered its order dismissing the case on March 30, 1999. On April 12, Ms. Remer, citing 28 U.S.C. sec. 1292, filed with this court a petition for an interlocutory appeal. A panel of this court denied Ms. Remer's petition on May 27, 1999. The panel's one-page order stated that, if she was inclined to do so, Ms. Remer could "appeal as of right from the district court's final order." R.30, Ex.A. On June 7, Ms. Remer filed in the district court a notice of appeal that indicated she was appealing the district court's order dated March 30, 1999.
Compliance with the notice of appeal requirements of Rule 3 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure is a prerequisite to appellate review. See Smith v. Barry, 502 U.S. 244, 248 (1992); AlliedSignal, Inc. v. B.F. Goodrich Co., 183 F.3d 568, 571 (7th Cir. 1999); Badger Pharmacal, Inc. v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., 1 F.3d 621, 624 (7th Cir. 1993). Rule 3 states that "[a]n appeal permitted by law as of right from a district court to a court of appeals may be taken only by filing a notice of appeal with the district clerk within the time allowed by Rule 4." Fed. R. App. P. 3(a)(1). The rule allows appellants some leeway in that, other than the timeliness of the filing, an appellant's failure to comply strictly with the rule's provisions will not automatically doom an appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 3(a)(2). In contrast, however, the timely filing of a notice of appeal is both "mandatory and jurisdictional," and a notice filed too late will preclude appellate jurisdiction. Browder v. Director, Dep't of Corrections, 434 U.S. 257, 264 (1978).
Ms. Remer had 30 days from the date the district court entered its judgment to file a timely notice of appeal. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(a)(1)(A) & (B). Although Ms. Remer has indicated her desire to appeal the district court's order dated March 30, 1999, she filed her "notice of appeal" in the district court on June 7, 1999, unquestionably after the 30 days allowed by the federal rules. Even so, Ms. Remer filed her petition for an interlocutory appeal under sec. 1292 on April 12, 1999, which was well within 30 days of the district court's March 30 order. Thus, we must decide whether Ms. Remer's petition to this court for an interlocutory appeal under sec. 1292 suffices as a notice of appeal under Rule 3.
According to Rule 3, a proper notice of appeal (1) specifies the party or parties taking the appeal, (2) designates the judgment, order or part thereof appealed from, and (3) names the court to which the appeal is taken. See Fed. R. App. P. 3(c)(1). The Supreme Court has instructed that Rule 3's...
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