Turner v. Pleasant

• Decision Date: 16 December 2011
• Docket Number: No. 11–30129.,11–30129.
• Citation: 663 F.3d 770
• Parties: Ada D. TURNER; Ronnie Turner, Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. Neal E. PLEASANT; RPIA of Delaware, Incorporated; Standard Fire Insurance Company, Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

663 F.3d 770

Ada D. TURNER; Ronnie Turner, Plaintiffs–Appellants,

v.Neal E. PLEASANT; RPIA of Delaware, Incorporated; Standard Fire Insurance Company, Defendants–Appellees.

No. 11–30129.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Nov. 23, 2011.As Revised Dec. 16, 2011.

Russell Bennett Ramsey, Jr. (argued), New Orleans, LA, Ernest N. Souhlas, Souhlas Law Firm, Carter B. Wright, Law Office of Carter B. Wright, Covington, LA, for Plaintiffs–Appellants.

Elton Anthony Foster, Waller & Associates, Metairie, LA, Ralph S. Hubbard, III (argued), Reed S. Minkin, Lugenbuhl, Wheaton, Peck, Rankin & Hubbard, New Orleans, LA, for Defendants–Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before JOLLY, HIGGINBOTHAM and SOUTHWICK, Circuit Judges.

LESLIE H. SOUTHWICK, Circuit Judge:

Ada and Ronnie Turner seek to reopen a judgment entered in 2001. Their personal injury claims were heard in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. After a bench trial, Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. entered judgment for the defendants. The Turners moved for a new trial, or, alternatively, for Judge Porteous to recuse himself because of their claim that the judge had an overly close relationship with the defendants' attorney. Judge Porteous denied these motions. This court affirmed.

In June 2010, after Judge Porteous's impeachment, the Turners filed what they termed an independent action in equity in the same district court on the grounds that the judgment was procured by fraud involving the district judge. A new district judge dismissed the suit as barred by the doctrine of res judicata. We REVERSE and REMAND.

FACTS

On June 3, 2001, Ada and Ronnie Turner were on a small fishing boat on the Intracoastal Waterway in Houma, Louisiana.¹ They were passed by a yacht controlled by Neal Pleasant. The Turners allege that the high speed and size of the yacht created large swells in the waterway. The swells grew so large that the Turners' boat was thrown into the air. The Turners claim that Ada Turner injured her back when she landed.

The Turners brought a personal injury lawsuit against the yacht's operator, owner, and insurance company: Neal Pleasant, RPIA of Delaware, and the Standard Fire Insurance Company, respectively. The case, filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana, was assigned to Judge G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. Originally, the defendants were represented by Mark S. Taylor, a lawyer in Metairie, Louisiana. One week before the preliminary conference, the defendants retained Richard A. Chopin as well. While Taylor still worked on the case, Chopin was designated as the trial attorney of record.

Chopin and Judge Porteous were friends. They would dine and travel together. Their relationship was such that Chopin served as an intermediary when a company unrelated to this litigation provided Judge Porteous with all-expenses-paid hunting trips. Chopin accompanied Judge Porteous on these trips, sharing a room at least twice. One of these trips occurred during the pendency of the original lawsuit, after the complaint was filed but three months before Chopin was retained by the defendants.

A central evidentiary battle at trial was between expert witnesses. The defendants' experts disputed the assertion that the yacht caused the wake and, even if it did, that Ada was injured. The defendants presented evidence that at the time of the accident, Ada suffered from a pre-existing injury to her lower back. Dr. Christopher Cenac, Sr. testified for the defendants. Chopin frequently retained Cenac to be the medical expert in personal injury cases. Like Chopin, Cenac and Judge Porteous spent time together outside of court including traveling on luxury hunts; they certainly appeared to be friends. Ultimately, Judge Porteous ruled in favor of the defendants, relying heavily on his determination that Cenac was more credible than the Turners' expert.

The Turners moved for a new trial and for the judge to recuse himself. Most of the motion concerned reasons for a new trial. Only the final paragraph presented arguments for recusal. No facts were introduced, but the motion asserted “the findings of fact and the conclusions of law reflect [partiality] and bias in favor of the defendant and/or defense counsel in this case.” The defendants' response described the recusal motion as “an act of desperation never previously witnessed” that “vituperatively attacked the Court and its integrity.” The merits of the Turners' arguments were not addressed because the defendants refused to “dignify the plaintiffs' allegations by according them any additional print.”

Judge Porteous denied both motions, explaining that any suggestion of partiality was “utterly unsubstantiated,” “unfounded and without merit,” and “not supported by any evidence.” He admitted to being Chopin's friend and asserted, inaccurately according to the current pleadings, that he was friends with the Turners' counsel as well. The plaintiffs appealed.

On appeal, the judge's insistence of his impartiality and the absence of any factual support for the allegations led this court to deny the “unsupported” claims and affirm the district court's orders. Turner v. Pleasant, 127 Fed.Appx. 140, 141 (5th Cir.2005). For two years, the case appeared resolved.

In May 2007, the Department of Justice sent a Complaint of Misconduct against Judge Porteous to the Chief Judge of this court regarding misconduct unrelated to this case. After investigating the complaint, the Judicial Council of the Fifth Circuit determined that Judge Porteous's misconduct might be grounds for impeachment. Accordingly, it certified its determination to the Judicial Conference of the United States. The Judicial Conference unanimously decided to transmit the report to the House of Representatives, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 355(b)(1).

On September 17, 2008, the House of Representatives authorized the House Judiciary Committee to conduct an investigation to determine whether impeachment was warranted. This authorization was renewed at the beginning of the 111th Congress. In January 2009, the House Judiciary Committee delegated the investigation to a special sub-committee. The sub-committee concluded its report in early 2010, and recommended to the full committee that Judge Porteous be impeached. The members of the full committee agreed, introducing Articles of Impeachment on January 21, 2010. H.R. Res. 1031, 111th Cong. (2010).

On March 4, days before the House was to vote on the matter, the House Judiciary Committee printed a Report detailing its investigation into Judge Porteous's misconduct. On March 11, 2010, the House unanimously voted to impeach on four articles of impeachment. 156 Cong. Rec. H1334–1337 (daily ed. Mar. 11, 2010). On December 8, 2010, the Senate removed Judge Porteous from office. 156 Cong. Rec. S8608–11 (daily ed. Dec. 8, 2010).

This personal injury action was one of the cases discussed in the report of the House Judiciary Committee. Placing Turner v. Pleasant in context of Judge Porteous's other alleged misconduct, the House Report stated that, at the time the Turners filed their motion for recusal, Judge Porteous was presiding over another trial in which Chopin was an attorney. At that trial, Chopin was representing a company that secretly provided the judge with all-expenses-paid hunting trips. Chopin served as the intermediary for these gifts. The Turners, after reviewing the House Report, filed a new complaint seeking to set aside the prior judgment.

The new cause of action repeated the argument concerning Judge Porteous's relationship with Chopin. But it also made new allegations. The complaint alleged that the defendants and Chopin improperly used Cenac as a witness in an attempt to gain favorable treatment. It also gathered facts and details from the House Report. The complaint claimed Chopin frequently bought meals for Judge Porteous, that the judge and the defendants' expert witness were friends who hunted together, that Chopin and the judge shared a hotel room while the underlying case was on appeal to this court, and that Judge Porteous made deceptive statements in his order denying recusal in an attempt to hide his relationship with Chopin and cloud the record on appeal.

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss on the basis that the complaint was barred by res judicata. The district court granted the motion. The court held that the complaint, as a collateral attack on a prior judgment, was barred by res judicata. It also discussed in a footnote the claim of fraud, finding it unsupported by any facts. The Turners timely appealed.

DISCUSSION

We review de novo a district court's dismissal for failure to state a claim. Colony Ins. Co. v. Peachtree Constr., Ltd., 647 F.3d 248, 252 (5th Cir.2011). We construe facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, as a motion to dismiss under 12(b)(6) “is viewed with disfavor and is rarely granted.” Harrington v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 563 F.3d 141, 147 (5th Cir.2009) (quotation marks and citation omitted). Dismissal is appropriate only if the complaint fails to plead “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).² To satisfy this standard, the complaint must provide more than conclusions, but it “need not contain detailed factual allegations.” Colony Ins. Co., 647 F.3d at 252. Yet, it must allege enough facts to move the claim “across the line from conceivable to plausible.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955. Determining whether the plausibility standard has been met is “a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1950, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).

The Turners filed an independent action in equity.³ A significant hurdle for them, one the district...