[ DO NOT PUBLISH] 

## In the 

# United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________
No. 21

- 12760

Non

- Argument Calendar

____________________

BRONWYN RANDEL,
Plaintiff

- Appellant,

versus RABUN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT,

Defendant

- Appellee.

____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 2:20

- cv

- 00268

- RWS

____________________ USCA11 Case: 21-12760 Date Filed: 04/22/2022 Page: 1 of 82 Opinion of the Court 21

- 12760

Before ROSENBAUM, LUCK and DUBINA, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM: Appellant Bronwyn Randel appeals the district court’s order dismissing her federal claim against her former employer, the Rabun County School District, arising from the Rabun County Boardof Education’s (“the board”) decision not to renew her employment contract. Randel argues that the board violated her due process rights u nder 42 U.S.C. § 1983 b y failing to provide her with a neutral arbiter at the non

- renewal proceedings

. She also a sserts that the state’s damages are insufficient because she could be unable to recover attorney’s fees if she succeeds on her due process cla im

. Randel contends that , in Knick v. T ownship of Scott
, ___ U.S. ___, 139 S. Ct. 2162 (2019), the Supreme Court essentially overturned our precedent in McKinney v. Pate , 20 F.3d 1550 (11 th Cir. 1994) ( en banc )
, and Cotton v. Jackson
, 216 F. 3d 1328 (11 th C ir. 2000), and now she can state a due process claim

. She also argues that the recent decision of the Georgia Court of Appeals in her ongoing state litigation collaterally estops the board from arguing that it did not violate her due process rights

. Having read the parties’ briefs and reviewed the record, we affirm the district court’s order dismissing Ra ndel’s complaint.

I.

We review de novo a district court’s dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim. Chua v. Ekonomou , 1 F.4th 948, 952 (11th Cir. 2021). We also review de novo a district court’s USCA11 Case: 21-12760 Date Filed: 04/22/2022 Page: 2 of 821

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conclusions on collateral estoppel. Richardso n v. Miller , 101 F.3d 665, 667

- 68 (11th Cir. 1996). Collateral estoppel rules fully apply to § 1983 actions. Brown v. City of Hialeah , 30 F.3d 1433, 1437 (11th Cir. 1994). Sitting as a panel, we cannot overturn one of our en banc decision s

. Amodeo v. FCC Coleman , 984 F.3d 992, 1002 (11th Cir. 2021). The prior panel precedent rule requires us to follow a prior binding precedent unless and until it is overruled by the Supreme Court or our court en banc

. EEOC v. Excel, Inc. , 884 F.3d 1326, 1332 (11th Ci r. 2018). The prior panel precedent rule applies even if the prior precedent is arguably flawed. See United States v. Golden , 854 F.3d 1256, 1257 (11th Cir. 2017). A “Supreme Court decision must be clearly on point” to overrule one of our prior panel’s decision s

. Garrett v. Univ. of Ala. at Birmingham Bd. of Trs. , 344 F.3d 1288, 1292 (11th Cir. 2003). Additionally, the Supreme Court decision must “actually abrogate or directly conflict with, as opposed to merely weaken, the holding of the prior panel.” United States v. Kaley , 579 F.3d 1246, 1255 (11th Cir. 2009).
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) permits defendants to move a district court to dismiss a case because the complaint “fail[s] to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. ” Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). In reviewing the grant of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion,

we are “guided by the same principles of review as the district court” and view the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, accepting the complaint’s well

- plead ed facts as true. Am. United Life Ins. Co. v. Martinez , 480 F.3d 1043, 1057 (11th Cir. USCA11 Case: 21-12760 Date Filed: 04/22/2022 Page: 3 of 84 Opinion of the Court 21

- 12760
2007). To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient facts that, if true, state a facially plausible claim for relief. Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U .S. 662, 678 , 129 S. Ct. 1937, 1949 (2009 ). A claim is facially plausible if it creates a “reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Id.

II. There are three elements to a § 1983 procedural due process claim: “(1) a de privation of a constitutionally

- protected . . . property interest; (2) state action; and (3) constitutionally

- inadequate process.” Spencer v. Ben i son , 5 F.4th 1222, 1232 (11th Cir. 2021) (quotation marks omitted) (alteration in original). The process tha t a state provides is both that employed by the government entity whose action is in question and the remedial process that state courts would provide if asked. Horton v. Bd. of C n

ty. Comm’rs
, 202 F.3d 1297, 1300 (11th Cir. 2000).

In McKinney , we held t hat, “[w]hen a state procedure is inadequate,” the state does not violate the plaintiff’s due process right “unless and until the state fails to remedy that inadequacy.” 20 F.3d at 1560. The plaintiff’s need to seek state remedies is a requirement

to sta te a procedural due process claim. Cotton , 216 F.3d at 1331, 1331 n.2. To provide an adequate remedy for an alleged procedural due process violation, a state need not provide all the relief that could be available in a § 1983 claim if it could have compen sated the plaintiff for her property losses. Id. at 1331; McKinney , 20 F.3d at 1564. Rather, “the state procedure must be able to correct USCA11 Case: 21-12760 Date Filed: 04/22/2022 Page: 4 of 821

- 12760 Opinion of the Court 5
whatever deficiencies exist and to provide plaintiff with whatever process is due.” Cotton , 216 F.3d at 1331.

In Co tton , we stated that, even if the plaintiff has no specif ic legal remedy, the ability to seek a writ of mandamus in the state supreme court may be a sufficient remedy to a local government’s alleged procedural due process violation. Cotton
, 216 F.3d at 1332; see also Doe v. Valencia Coll. , 903 F.3d 1220, 1234

- 35 (11th Cir. 2018) (affirming summary judgment entered against a defendant who could have petitioned for a writ of certiorari with the state supreme court regarding his expulsion from c ollege). We determined that, even though the plaintiff sought a hearing to clear hisname from the state’s damage to his reputation, the mere possibility that the state supreme court could have issued a writ of mandamus in his favor was a sufficient proce ss. Cotton , 216 F.3d at
1331

- 33; see also Club Madonna, Inc. v. C i ty. of Miami Beach
, 924 F.3d 1370, 1378

- 79 (11th Cir. 2019) (holding that the plaintiffhad sufficient procedural due process because, after the city suspended its business license, local l aw entitled the plaintiff to an emergency hearing before a special master and an appeal of that decision to the state trial court). In the employment context, we ha ve determined that, when a former state employee alleged that the decisionmaker at his
pre

- t ermination hearing was biased, the state system provided a sufficient procedural process for him to redress that error because he could appeal his termination to the superior court of the proper county. Narey v. Dean , 32 F.3d 1521, 1527

- 28 (11th Cir. 1994 ). We USCA11 Case: 21-12760 Date Filed: 04/22/2022 Page: 5 of 86 Opinion of the Court 21

- 12760
noted that the possibility to recover back pay and reinstatement to the former position provided adequate post

- deprivation remedies for improperly terminated employees. Id. at 1528. Under Georgia law, a hearing to address a teacher’s firing “shall be conducted before the local board, or the local board may designate a tribunal to consist of not less than three nor more than five impartial persons possessing academic expertise to conduct the hearing and submit its findings and recommendations to the local board for its decision thereon.” O.C.G.A. § 20

- 2

- 940(e)(1). Afterthe local board issues its decision, the party aggrieved by that decision may appeal it to the State Board of Education. Id. § 20

- 2

- 1160(b). After the state board issues its decisi on, the aggrieved party may appeal to the superior court in the same county as the local board. Id. § 20

- 2

- 1160(c). However, “[n]either the state board nor the superior court shall

. . . consider the matter de novo, and the review by the state board or t he superior court shall be confined to the record.” Id. § 20

- 2

- 1160(e).

III. As an initial matter, we note that binding precedent forecloses Randel’s argument that McKinney and Cotton were wrongly decided because she is unable to show that Knick overruled either case

. In the absence of such a showing, we are bound by our prior precedent. We conclude from the record that the district court properly granted the board’s motion to dismiss. Although the state supreme USCA11 Case: 21-12760 Date Filed: 04/22/2022 Page: 6 of 821

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court denied Randel’s petition for writ of certiorari , see Rabun Cnty. Bd. Of Educ. v. Randel, S.E.2d 160 (Ga. Ct. App. 2021)
, cert. denied , Case No. S22C0268 (Ga. March 22, 2022)
, she still does not present a due process violation . T he state court system’s willingness to review a claim of a biased state employment decisionmaker is sufficient process for such a claim, and both a state trial court and the state court of appeals have heard her claims . She has not stated a due process violation for failure to provide sufficient damages because w e have stated that b ack wages and reinstatement can be sufficient damages

. See Narey , 32 F.3d at 1528. T he state need not provide all the compensation that would be available under § 1983 if it was capable of remedying “whatever deficiencies exist” and
p roviding her “with whatever process is due.” See Cotton , 216 F.3d
at 1331. Because we conclude that the state did not entirely fail to provide Randel with a process to challenge her non

- renewal of employment
, the district court properly granted the state ’s motion todismiss. Based on the aforementioned reasons, we affirm the district court’s order dismissing Randel’s complaint. 1

1 We decline to address the issue of collateral estoppel even though Randel is not estopped from arguing that the state’s failure to appoint a tribunal to hear her claim violated her right to due process because we conclu de on the merits that Randel does not state a federal due process violation. Randel contendsthat the state court of appeals concluded that there was no due process violation because state law did not require the appointment of a tribunal but it also expl icitly found that no due process violation occurred on the facts of this case. The state did not entirely fail to provide her a process for review of her non

renewal of her employment contract, and we have stated previously that USCA11 Case: 21-12760 Date Filed: 04/22/2022 Page: 7 of 88 Opinion of the Court 21

- 12760

AFFIRMED.

Georgia’s procedures are s ufficient for a former employee who alleges that she was terminated by a biased government agency. See Cotton , 216 F.3d at 1331. USCA11 Case: 21-12760 Date Filed: 04/22/2022 Page: 8 of 8