Opinion ID: 171635
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Differentiating Remedial from Coercive Administrative Proceedings

Text: The First Circuit has provided the clearest guidance as to how to decide whether a state administrative proceeding is coercive or remedial. In Kercado-Melendez v. Aponte-Roque, 829 F.2d 255 (1st Cir.1987), the court analyzed a § 1983 action initiated by a Puerto Rican school superintendent claiming that she had been fired because of her political beliefs. Id. at 257-58. After receiving notice that she had been fired, Kercado opted not to file an administrative appeal and, instead, proceeded with her § 1983 action in federal court. The defendant, the Secretary of Puerto Rico's Department of Public Instruction, contended that Kercado's failure to avail herself of the administrative appeal process required Younger abstention. Id. at 258. A divided panel of the First Circuit rejected this argument. In the process, it highlighted two critical distinctions between Dayton Christian Schools and Patsy. The panel focused first on the crucial distinction ... that in Patsy the state proceeding was an option available to the federal plaintiff on her own initiative to redress a wrong inflicted by the state whereas in other abstention cases the participation of the federal plaintiff in the state administrative proceeding was mandatory. Id. at 260. Second, the panel noted that [i]n Dayton Christian Schools and similar cases, the state proceeding is itself the wrong which the federal plaintiff seeks to correct via injunctive relief under section 1983. Id. These two considerations provide a starting point for analyzing whether a state proceeding is coercive (and therefore entitled to Younger deference) or remedial. [7] A third factor emerges from a review of the proceedings at issue in the cases where our sister circuits have held that state administrative and judicial proceedings are ongoing proceedings entitled to Younger deference. In these cases, the federal plaintiff sought to thwart a state administrative proceeding initiated to punish the federal plaintiff for a bad act. Thus, a common thread appears to be that if the federal plaintiff has committed an alleged bad act, then the state proceeding initiated to punish the plaintiff is coercive. In Maymo-Melendez, the First Circuit held that the district court should have abstained from hearing a federal claim brought by a horse trainer whose license had been suspended because he had administered performance-enhancing drugs to his horses. See 364 F.3d at 34-37. The trainer had failed to pursue administrative remedies available within the Puerto Rican Racing Board. See id. at 34. Thus, unlike in Kercado-Melendez, in Maymo-Melendez there was an underlying bad act by the federal plaintiff being punished by Puerto Rico. Similarly, in Laurel Sand & Gravel, Inc. v. Wilson , the Fourth Circuit held that abstention was appropriate where the plaintiff had committed an alleged bad act. 519 F.3d 156, 166-67 (4th Cir.2008). The case arose after the Maryland Department of Environment concluded that Laurel Sand & Gravel (Laurel), the federal plaintiff, had violated Maryland's Dewatering Act. 519 F.3d at 160-61. Pursuant to the Act, Maryland had compelled Laurel, a mining company, to replace a well that had run dry in Laurel's zone of influence. Id. at 161. In holding abstention appropriate, the Fourth Circuit relied on its 2005 decision in Moore. Id. at 165-67 (citing Moore, 396 F.3d at 388). In Moore, a federal plaintiff sought to challenge the City of Asheville's noise ordinance, after he had been cited for violating the ordinance twice (the pertinent bad acts). 396 F.3d at 388. Mr. Moore opted not to appeal either citation to the North Carolina courts. Id. at 388-89. In essence, of course, Mr. Moore sought to protest his noise citations  and thereby challenge the state-initiated enforcement proceedings against him. In the same vein, the Third Circuit, in O'Neill, upheld abstention where the federal plaintiffs sought to challenge Philadelphia's parking ticket procedures in federal court, but had not exhausted state judicial remedies. 32 F.3d at 787-88. The plaintiffs had amassed a slew of parking tickets over the years and sought to avoid paying them. Id. at 788-89. Finally, the apposite Seventh Circuit case dealt with a decision by the Indiana State Board of Nursing to suspend the license of a nurse who had allegedly euthanized elderly patients. Majors, 149 F.3d at 711-12. The nurse sought to bar the suspension proceedings. Id. Each of these cases addressed state administrative enforcement proceedings; that is, each originated with the state's proactive enforcement of its laws (horse training regulations, noise ordinances, parking ticket procedures, and licensing laws for the nursing profession). As such, each federal case arose out of situation where the federal plaintiff had engaged in misconduct and sought to block proceedings that would ultimately impose punishment for that misconduct. [8]