Ringgold-Lockhart v. Cnty. of L. A.

• Decision Date: 04 August 2014
• Docket Number: No. 11–57231.,11–57231.
• Parties: Justin RINGGOLD–LOCKHART; Nina Ringgold, Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES; Andrea Sheridan Ordin, erroneously sued as Andrea Sheridan Orin, in her Official Capacity as County Counsel; Jerry Brown, in his Official Capacity as Governor of the State of California; Kamala Harris, in her Official Capacity as Attorney General of the State of California; John A. Clarke, in his Official and Administrative Capacity as Executive Officer of the Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles, Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

761 F.3d 1057

Justin RINGGOLD–LOCKHART; Nina Ringgold, Plaintiffs–Appellants,

v.COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES; Andrea Sheridan Ordin, erroneously sued as Andrea Sheridan Orin, in her Official Capacity as County Counsel; Jerry Brown, in his Official Capacity as Governor of the State of California; Kamala Harris, in her Official Capacity as Attorney General of the State of California; John A. Clarke, in his Official and Administrative Capacity as Executive Officer of the Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles, Defendants–Appellees.

No. 11–57231.

United States Court of Appeals,Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Dec. 2, 2013.

Filed Aug. 4, 2014.

Nina Ringgold (argued), Law Offices of Nina R. Ringgold, Northridge, CA, for Plaintiffs–Appellants.

Marc Jesse Wodin (argued), Law Offices of Marc J. Wodin, Calabasas, CA, for Defendants–Appellees County of Los Angeles and Andrea Sheridan Ordin.

David Adida (argued), Deputy State Attorney General, Office of the California Attorney General, Los Angeles, CA, for Defendants–Appellees Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris.

Kevin Michael McCormick (argued), Benton, Orr, Duval & Buckingham, Ventura, CA, for Defendant–Appellee John A. Clarke.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Manuel L. Real, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. 2:11–cv–01725–R–PLA.

Before: HARRY PREGERSON, MARSHA S. BERZON, and MORGAN CHRISTEN, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

BERZON, Circuit Judge:

This appeal requires us to consider the limits of a federal court's authority to impose pre-filing restrictions against so-called vexatious litigants. The case arises from one of many episodes in a legal saga involving Nina Ringgold and the Los Angeles Probate Court. Ringgold brought a federal lawsuit challenging the Probate Court's authority to remove her as a trustee of the Aubry Family Trust. The district court dismissed the suit in a series of rulings, culminating in an order declaring Ringgold and co-plaintiff, Justin Ringgold–Lockhart, vexatious litigants. Ringgold and Ringgold–Lockhart appeal the vexatious litigant order. We reverse.

I.

Ringgold, an attorney, is a former trustee of the Aubry Family Trust (“the Trust”). According to her complaint, the Trust was established after the Aubry family was excluded from purchasing a home in a white Los Angeles neighborhood by race-based restrictive covenants. The Trust's purpose was to benefit and empower the African–American community of South Central Los Angeles by providing for future generations. After Robert Aubry died in 2002, Ringgold and another individual became trustees. For reasons not entirely clear, the Los Angeles Probate Court in 2005 removed Ringgold and replaced her with a new trustee, Myer Sankary. See Sankary v. Ringgold, No. B210169, 2009 WL 386969, *3 (Cal.App. Feb. 18, 2009). Ringgold alleges that Sankary has since liquidated the trust and abused his position.

Ringgold challenged her removal in state court, lost, and was declared a vexatious litigant by the state courts. See id. She then filed suit in federal court. Ringgold–Lockhart—Ringgold's son and an alleged beneficiary of the Aubry Family Trust—joined her suit as a named plaintiff.

After dismissing Ringgold and Ringgold–Lockhart's (together, “the Ringgolds”) claims, the district court issued an order on December 6, 2011 declaring the Ringgolds vexatious litigants and imposing a pre-filing condition. The court noted that it warned the Ringgolds that they were at risk of being declared vexatious litigants on September 19, 2011 and that on November 7, 2011, it entered a tentative ruling deeming them vexatious. The court described the scope of the order as follows:

Plaintiffs will need permission from this Court prior to filing any action that relates to the Aubry Revocable Family Trust or the administration of state courts or probate courts. The Court will approve all filings that it deems to be meritorious, not duplicative, and not frivolous.

The Court notes that Plaintiff Nina Ringgold is subject to the order in her capacity as an individual, not as an attorney. This distinction is made in order to comply with the holding of Weissman v. Quail Lodge Inc., 179 F.3d 1194 (9th Cir.1999), which declared that attorneys could not be sanctioned as vexatious litigants, because they are merely appearing on behalf of a client. Plaintiff Nina Ringgold will be able to continue her law practice as she sees fit, but she will be unable to raise her own claims or the claims of her son, Justin Lockhart–Ringgold [sic] to the extent that they relate to the Aubry Revocable Family Trust or the administration of state courts or probate courts.

The court appended a listing of the Ringgolds' filings in the instant case and in an earlier federal case, Ringgold–Lockhart v. Sankary, No. 09–cv–9215 (C.D. Cal. filed Dec. 15, 2009), that, in its view, supported the order.

II.

Federal courts can “regulate the activities of abusive litigants by imposing carefully tailored restrictions under ... appropriate circumstances.” De Long v. Hennessey, 912 F.2d 1144, 1147 (9th Cir.1990) (quotation marks omitted). Pursuant to the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a), “enjoining litigants with abusive and lengthy [litigation] histories is one such ... restriction” that courts may impose.¹De Long, 912 F.2d at 1147.

Restricting access to the courts is, however, a serious matter. “[T]he right of access to the courts is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution.” Delew v. Wagner, 143 F.3d 1219, 1222 (9th Cir.1998). The First Amendment “right of the people ... to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” which secures the right to access the courts, has been termed “one of the most precious of the liberties safeguarded by the Bill of Rights.” BE & K Const. Co. v. NLRB, 536 U.S. 516, 524–25, 122 S.Ct. 2390, 153 L.Ed.2d 499 (2002) (internal quotation marks omitted, alteration in original); see also Christopher v. Harbury, 536 U.S. 403, 415 n. 12, 122 S.Ct. 2179, 153 L.Ed.2d 413 (2002) (noting that the Supreme Court has located the court access right in the Privileges and Immunities clause, the First Amendment petition clause, the Fifth Amendment due process clause, and the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause).

Profligate use of pre-filing orders could infringe this important right, Molski v. Evergreen Dynasty Corp., 500 F.3d 1047, 1057 (9th Cir.2007) (per curiam), as the pre-clearance requirement imposes a substantial burden on the free-access guarantee. “Among all other citizens, [the vexatious litigant] is to be restricted in his right of access to the courts.... We cannot predict what harm might come to him as a result, and he should not be forced to predict it either. What he does know is that a Sword of Damocles hangs over his hopes for federal access for the foreseeable future.” Moy v. United States, 906 F.2d 467, 470 (9th Cir.1990).

Out of regard for the constitutional underpinnings of the right to court access, “pre-filing orders should rarely be filed,” and only if courts comply with certain procedural and substantive requirements. De Long, 912 F.2d at 1147. When district courts seek to impose pre-filing restrictions, they must: (1) give litigants notice and “an opportunity to oppose the order before it [is] entered”; (2) compile an adequate record for appellate review, including “a listing of all the cases and motions that led the district court to conclude that a vexatious litigant order was needed”; (3) make substantive findings of frivolousness or harassment; and (4) tailor the order narrowly so as “to closely fit the specific vice encountered.” Id. at 1147–48.

The first and second of these requirements are procedural, while the “latter two factors ... are substantive considerations ... [that] help the district court define who is, in fact, a ‘vexatious litigant’ and construct a remedy that will stop the litigant's abusive behavior while not unduly infringing the litigant's right to access the courts.” Molski, 500 F.3d at 1058. In “applying the two substantive factors,” we have held that a separate set of considerations employed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals “provides a helpful framework.” Id. The Second Circuit considers the following five substantive factors to determine “whether a party is a vexatious litigant and whether a pre-filing order will stop the vexatious litigation or if other sanctions are adequate”:

(1) the litigant's history of litigation and in particular whether it entailed vexatious, harassing or duplicative lawsuits; (2) the litigant's motive in pursuing the litigation, e.g., does the litigant have an objective good faith expectation of prevailing?; (3) whether the litigant is represented by counsel; (4) whether the litigant has caused needless expense to other parties or has posed an unnecessary burden on the courts and their personnel; and (5) whether other sanctions would be adequate to protect the courts and other parties.

Id. (quoting Safir v. U.S. Lines, Inc., 792 F.2d 19, 24 (2d Cir.1986)). The final consideration—whether other remedies “would be adequate to protect the courts and other parties” is particularly important. See Cromer v. Kraft Foods N. Am., Inc., 390 F.3d 812, 818 (4th Cir.2004). In light of the seriousness of restricting litigants' access to the courts, pre-filing orders should be a remedy of last resort.

We review the district court's compliance with these procedural and substantive standards for an abuse of discretion.²Molski, 500 F.3d at 1056.

A. Notice and Opportunity To Be Heard

The district court entered a tentative ruling declaring the Ringgolds vexatious litigants on November 7, 2011. At that time, the district court notified the Ringgolds that it was considering “all of the complaints and motions filed in this court, as well as the various appeals and writs of certiorari,” and “a number of state court decisions that ultimately led to Plaintiff Ringgold being declared a vexatious litigant.” Its...