Torres v. Comision Estatal de Elecciones de PR

• Decision Date: 23 September 1988
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 88-1451 HL.
• Parties: Cesar TORRES TORRES, Plaintiff, v. COMISION ESTATAL de ELECCIONES de PUERTO RICO and Marcos Rodriguez Estrada, President, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

700 F. Supp. 613

Cesar TORRES TORRES, Plaintiff, v. COMISION ESTATAL de ELECCIONES de PUERTO RICO and Marcos Rodriguez Estrada, President, Defendants.

Civ. No. 88-1451 HL.

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

September 23, 1988.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Nicolás Nogueras, Miguel Pagán, Eliezer Aldarondo Ortíz, Hato Rey, P.R., for plaintiff.

David Rive Rivera, Hato Rey, P.R., for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

LAFFITTE, District Judge.

The matter before the Court is a constitutional action for declaratory, injunctive, and monetary relief. Plaintiff Cesar Torres-Torres asserts jurisdiction in this Court based on 42 U.S.C. sect. 1983, 28 U.S.C. sections 1331, 1341, 1343, 2201, and 2202.

Plaintiff avers that defendants, Comisión Estatal de Elecciones de Puerto Rico ("Elections Commission") and Marcos Rodríguez-Estrada, President of the Elections Commission, unconstitutionally deprived him of his guaranteed rights protected under the first and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, by decertifying him on August 9, 1988 as the New Progressive Party ("NPP") candidate for mayor in the municipality of Juncos, Puerto Rico, in the forthcoming November elections. Plaintiff alleges that defendants' acts were carried out under color of state law, pursuant to Section 3.01(a)(6) of Law No. 146 of June 18, 1980, 21 L.P.R.A. section 3001(a)(6), as amended ("Municipal Organic Act"), and Law No. 4 of December 20, 1977, 16 L.P.R.A. section 3001 et seq. ("Puerto Rico Electoral Act"). Plaintiff challenges the constitutionality of Section 3001(a)(6) of the Municipal Organic Act on its face and as applied to him.¹ Plaintiff, the former Mayor of Juncos, also alleges that he was unconstitutionally deprived of his elective position for the present term when the Elections Commission dismissed him from office.

Essentially, plaintiff asserts two causes of action — one involving removal as mayor and the other involving decertification as a mayoral candidate. As to plaintiff's first cause of action, the Court is requested to declare that he has been unconstitutionally deprived of his position as mayor of Juncos and to order his reinstatement to said position. On the second cause of action, plaintiff seeks a declaration that his decertification by the Elections Commission was constitutionally impermissible; that the Elections Commission be enjoined from excluding him from appearing on the ballot for the 1988 elections; and that Section 3001(a)(6) of the Municipal Organic Act be declared unconstitutional.

Defendants move to dismiss the complaint on the basis that this Court lacks jurisdiction over the Elections Commission pursuant to the Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity doctrine. Defendants also contend, as ground for dismissal, that plaintiff has failed to join indispensable parties.

I.

A. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The complaint in this case was filed on August 22, 1988. On September 9, 1988, the last day for a political party candidate to appear on the ballot for this year's general elections, plaintiff filed a motion for a temporary restraining order. Chief Judge Pérez Giménez issued a temporary restraining order until September 19, 1988, and set the matter for a show cause hearing before the undersigned, for September 19, 1988. See Order of September 9, 1988.² At the conclusion of the hearing, the Court, with the parties' consent, extended the temporary restraining order until September 29, 1988. Subsequently, the Attorney General of Puerto Rico sought and obtained leave to intervene.

B. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff was elected Mayor of the municipality of Juncos, Puerto Rico in 1976 and was reelected in 1980 and in 1984 on the NPP ticket. Plaintiff seeks to run again as the NPP candidate in this year's elections.

On April 2, 1986, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico filed a complaint before the Municipal Complaints Commission ("Complaints Commission"), the administrative agency empowered by law to adjudicate complaints against any mayor of Puerto Rico charged with misconduct while in office. 21 L.P.R.A. sect. 3101. The Governor leveled several charges against plaintiff consisting of violations of the Municipal Organic Act, misuse of public funds, abandonment, inexcusable neglect, and conduct detrimental to the best interest of the public in the performance of his duties.

The Governor summarily suspended plaintiff from office pursuant to Puerto Rico law, 21 L.P.R.A. sect. 3005.³

After eighteen days of hearings,⁴ on June 26, 1987, the Complaints Commission ordered plaintiff's removal from office based on the Governor's charges. Joint Exhibit II.

On August 3, 1987, plaintiff filed an appeal before Puerto Rico Superior Court, Caguas Part. The Superior Court found that it had jurisdiction, stayed the resolution of the Complaints Commission, and interlocutorily ordered the reinstatement of plaintiff to the office of Mayor of Juncos. On appeal, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court reversed on the ground that the lower court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter and to order reinstatement because plaintiff had failed to file a timely appeal from the Complaints Commission's decision to the Superior Court. Gobernador v. Alcalde de Juncos, 88 JTS 73 (June 2, 1988). As a result of plaintiff's untimeliness, the Complaints Commission's factual findings and conclusions are final and not subject to review.

In May of 1988, the mayoral candidate of the Popular Democratic Party ("PDP"), Rafael Beltrán, filed a complaint in the Superior Court, San Juan Part, requesting the disqualification of his political opponent, Torres, pursuant to 21 L.P.R.A. sect. 3001(a)(6). Beltrán claimed that because Torres was removed as Mayor for improper conduct, he could not be certified as mayoral candidate by the Elections Commission. The Superior Court, Caguas Part, held that since the Complaints Commission's decision removing Torres was rendered final and unappealable by the Supreme Court in Gobernador v. Alcalde de Juncos, 88 JTS 73 (June 2, 1988), Torres is therefore barred from running anew as mayor pursuant to 21 L.P.R.A. section 3001(a)(6).⁵

On August 9, 1988, the Elections Commission decertified Torres as mayoral candidate for the NPP for Juncos pursuant to the Caguas Superior Court judgment in Beltran v. Torres, Civ. No. 88-1069 (P.R. Superior Ct. July 1988).

On August 22, 1988, the Caguas Superior Court, in another action filed by plaintiff against the Elections Commission, again refused to set aside the Complaints Commission's decision for lack of jurisdiction because of plaintiff's failure to file the record with the court.

On September 8, 1988, the NPP requested that Rafael Bonilla-Robles be certified as their mayoral candidate for Juncos pending outcome of this case.

Notwithstanding plaintiff's predicament, he has never been criminally tried, nor convicted in any court of law. Plaintiff and his main accuser, Corsino, were the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. Corsino was indicted, tried and convicted. Plaintiff was not indicted.

II.

Before we turn to the merits of the constitutional claim under equal protection, various threshold issues raised by defendants must be addressed.

A. FEDERAL JURISDICTION

An examination of the issues before us demonstrates that plaintiff has successfully "made a federal case out of" his disqualification from the mayoral ballot under 21 L.P.R.A. sect. 3001(a)(6). While the power to impose restrictions on those seeking public office is one reserved to the states under the tenth amendment, this power must be exercised in accord with the United States Constitution. In response to the argument that the tenth amendment should protect Commonwealth autonomy in regulating electoral privileges, we borrow Chief Justice Rehnquist's phrase, "The Tenth Amendment cannot save legislation prohibited by the subsequently enacted Fourteenth Amendment." Hunter v. Underwood, 471 U.S. 222, 233, 105 S.Ct. 1916, 1922, 85 L.Ed.2d 222 (1985). See also Chimento v. Stark, 353 F.Supp. 1211, 1215 (D.C.N.H.1973), aff'd., 414 U.S. 802, 94 S.Ct. 125, 38 L.Ed.2d 39 (1973); 63A AM. JUR.2d Public Officers and Employees sect. 36, at 690. "The State may not deny to some the privilege of holding office that it extends to others on the basis of distinctions that violate federal constitutional guarantees." Turner v. Fouche, 396 U.S. 346, 362-63, 90 S.Ct. 532, 541-42, 24 L.Ed. 2d 567 (1970).

Here, plaintiff alleges that 21 L.P.R.A. sect. 3001(a)(6), which disqualifies those people who have "been dismissed from a position or employment for improper conduct in the performance of their duties" from running for mayor, violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. As such, this allegation raises a federal question, and the jurisdiction of this Court over the instant case is assured under 28 U.S.C. sect. 1331. Lentini v. City of Kenner, 479 F.Supp. 966 (E.D.Louisiana 1979); Henderson v. Fort Worth Independent Sch. District, 526 F.2d 286 (5th Cir.1976); Mancuso v. Taft, 476 F.2d 187 (1st Cir. 1973).

B. JUSTICIABILITY

Nor does the political question doctrine impede this Court's exercise of jurisdiction. "Of course the mere fact that the suit seeks protection of a political right does not mean it presents a political question." Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 209, 82 S.Ct. 691, 705, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962). Moreover, none of the factors counselling the judicial branch to refuse to decide a case on justiciability grounds is present in the instant case. The question presented is the constitutionality of a Commonwealth statute, and neither the executive nor the legislative branch is committed to deciding that question. Judicially manageable standards are omnipresent here; "judicial standards under the Equal Protection Clause are well developed and familiar." Id. at 226, 82 S.Ct. at 714. "When challenges to state action respecting matters of `the administration of the affairs of the State and the officers...