NOT FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

SMITA SANGHVI and MOUNTAIN VIEW 

CENTERS, INC., 

Appellants, 

 v. 

COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO, a 

municipal corporation; et. al., 

Appellees.

No. 21-55422 

D.C. No. CV-20-11437-PA-JC

MEMORANDUM*

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Central District of California

Percy Anderson, District Judge, Presiding

Submitted February 15, 2022**

Pasadena, California

Before: BRESS and BUMATAY, Circuit Judges, and BENITEZ,*** District 

Judge.

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent 

except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.

** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision 

without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

*** The Honorable Roger T. Benitez, United States District Judge for the 

Southern District of California, sitting by designation.

FILED

FEB 17 2022

MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
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Smita Sanghvi and Mountain View Centers, Inc. (collectively, “Appellants”), 

appeal a district court order granting a motion to dismiss filed by the County of San 

Bernardino, California, Adriane Picazo, and Jesse Archer (collectively, 

“Appellees”). We review de novo a district court’s decision to grant a motion to 

dismiss, Zadrozny v. Bank of N.Y. Mellon, 720 F.3d 1163, 1167 (9th Cir. 2013), and 

we affirm. 

I

Appellants’ Section 1983 claim alleges violations of the Fourth Amendment, 

Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, and vicarious liability under Monell v. 

Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978). The district court correctly dismissed on 

all theories of liability.

Due Process

There was no deprivation of due process here. Appellants can seek a remedy 

under California law for any damages suffered due to any alleged breach of contract 

claim. California law thus affords Appellants sufficient opportunity to pursue their 

breach of contract claim in state court. Accordingly, we conclude that the California 

statutory scheme does not deprive Appellants of their claim for damages without due 

process of law. See Lujan v. G & G Fire Sprinklers, Inc., 532 U.S. 189, 195 (2001)

(holding that a California law which provided sufficient opportunity to pursue 

payment in state court did not violate due process).
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Appellants’ attempt to distinguish Lujan from the present case fails. First, 

Appellants do not have a property interest in the residents of the facility. Second, 

Appellants were not deprived of pursuing their occupation because Mountain View 

remained open and the County did not seize their property. Finally, under California 

Probate Code § 2351(a), the right to the care, custody, and control of conservatees 

is reserved expressly to the conservator. Under Section 2352, this includes the 

authority to establish the residence of the ward at any place within the State without 

permission of the Court. Appellants had no “present entitlement” to control the 

housing decisions of the conservatees in their facility under state conservatorships. 

See Lujan, 532 U.S. at 196.

Appellants’ substantive due process claim fails too. To establish a violation 

of substantive due process, Appellants are required to prove that the County’s 

actions were “‘clearly arbitrary and unreasonable, having no substantial relation to 

the public health, safety, morals or general welfare.’” Sinaloa Lake Owners Ass’n.

v. City of Simi Valley, 882 F.2d 1398, 1407 (9th Cir. 1989) (quoting Euclid v. Ambler 

Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 395 (1926)). To constitute a violation of substantive due 

process, the alleged deprivation must “shock the conscience and offend the 

community’s sense of fair play and decency.” Marsh v. Cty. of San Diego, 680 F.3d 

1148, 1154 (9th Cir. 2012) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). 

Appellants fail to demonstrate how a decision to remove conservatees from an 
4 

environment where there are allegations of sexual assault (even if they are later 

found out to be false) either “shock[s] the conscience” or “offend[s] the community’s 

sense of fair play.” Id. 

Equal Protection

Appellants did not brief the Equal Protection Clause issue to this Court. We 

therefore decline to reach the issue. See, e.g., Smith v. Marsh, 194 F.3d 1045, 1052 

(9th Cir. 1999) (“[O]n appeal, arguments not raised by a party in its opening brief 

are deemed waived.”). 

Monell

Appellants’ complaint fails to point to any specific “policy or custom” that 

resulted in a constitutional deprivation. Monell, 436 U.S. at 694. Appellants’ 

conclusory allegation that Appellees “acted under color of statutes, regulations, 

customs, and usages of the County of Los Angeles, County of San Bernardino and 

the State of California for purposes of ‘state action’ and ‘color of law’ under 42 

U.S.C. § 1983” is insufficient to state a claim under Monell. 

Fourth Amendment

The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and 

seizures of “their persons, houses, papers, and effects.” U.S. CONST. amend. IV. 

Appellants’ complaint does not specify what their property interest is in this case.

The opposition to Appellees’ motion to dismiss indicates that the property interest 
5 

is the residents. However, because Appellants do not have a property interest in the 

residents, their Fourth Amendment claim fails

II

Federal Fair Housing Act

Appellants’ complaint contains no allegations of how the County’s decision 

to remove residents was based on a protected status under the FHA. To the contrary, 

Appellants assert the decision to remove residents was based on an incorrect report 

that one of the residents had sexually assaulted other residents. Appellants’ 

complaint thus demonstrates there were non-discriminatory reasons for the removal 

of the patients from their facilities.

AFFIRMED.