Opinion ID: 160810
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Heightened Pleading Requirement

Text: 20 Defendants correctly note that this court requires plaintiffs to meet a heightened pleading requirement once a defendant raises the defense of qualified immunity. See, e.g., Breidenbach v. Bolish, 126 F.3d 1288, 1292 (10th Cir. 1997); Sawyer v. County of Creek, 908 F.2d 663, 667 (10th Cir. 1990). The heightened pleading standard requires plaintiffs to do more than assert bare allegations of a constitutional violation. Breidenbach, 126 F.3d at 1293. The plaintiff's complaint must include 'all of the factual allegations necessary to sustain a conclusion that defendant violated clearly established law.' Id. (quoting Dominque v. Telb, 831 F.2d 673, 676 (6th Cir. 1987)). The factual allegations must be specific and non-conclusory, and sufficient for a district court to determine that those facts, if proved, demonstrate the defendant is not entitled to qualified immunity. Id. The heightened pleading requirement is an exception to the notice pleading standard in Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the accepted rule that a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief. Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46 (1957). 21 Plaintiffs question whether this court's heightened pleading requirement survives the recent Supreme Court case of Crawford-El v. Britton, 118 S. Ct. 1584 (1998). Although we are generally bound by the prior precedent of this court, there is an exception to this rule when that precedent is superceded by contrary decisions of the Supreme Court. See United States v. Bell, 154 F.3d 1205, 1209 n.6 (10th Cir. 1998); United States v. Erving L., 147 F.3d 1240, 1246 (10th Cir. 1998). This court has recognized on several occasions the possibility that Crawford-El might affect this court's heightened pleading requirement, but has yet to resolve that question in a published, precedential opinion. See Ramirez v. Dep't of Corr., 222 F.3d 1238, 1241 n.2 (10th Cir. 2000); see also Smith v. Dep't of Human Servs., No. 00-6046, 2000 WL 1480259, at  n.2 (10th Cir. Oct. 6, 2000) (unpublished disposition); Watkins v. Colo. Dep't of Corr., No. 98-1063, 1999 WL 594584, at  (10th Cir. Aug. 9, 1999) (unpublished disposition). See generally Patricia M. Wald, Summary Judgment at Sixty, 76 Tex. L. Rev. 1897, 1925 & n.187 (suggesting that Crawford-El puts an end to judicially-crafted heightened pleading requirements in qualified immunity cases). Because application of the heightened pleading requirement affects the outcome of this case, this court must consider its continued viability after Crawford-El. 22 The heightened pleading requirement is premised on the purpose of the qualified immunity doctrine itself. Breidenbach, 126 F.3d at 1292. More specifically, this court has linked the heightened pleading requirement to the Supreme Court case of Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982): 23 When the Supreme Court reformulated its qualified immunity test in Harlow to focus on the objective reasonableness of an officer's actions as opposed to his or her subjective intent, the Court sought to shield government officials not only from the substantial costs of subjecting officials to the risks of trial, but also from [j]udicial inquiry into subjective motivation, including broad-ranging discovery and the deposing of numerous persons. The Court held that such inquiries can be peculiarly disruptive of effective government. In keeping with this important concern for shielding government officers from burdensome discovery in cases where subjective intent is at issue, this court and several other circuits have imposed a more stringent pleading requirement where a qualified immunity defense is asserted. 24 Breidenbach, 126 F.3d at 1292 (citations omitted). 25 In Harlow the Supreme Court reconsidered qualified immunity law as it existed at the time. Before Harlow a plaintiff could defeat a government official's defense of qualified immunity two ways: by demonstrating the official knew or should have known her action was unconstitutional (referred to by the Court as the objective element of qualified immunity) or by demonstrating the official acted with the malicious intent to cause injury (the intent element of qualified immunity 3 ). See Harlow, 457 U.S. at 815. In Harlow, however, the Court decided the intent element of qualified immunity had proved in practice to be incompatible with the overall goal of qualified immunity, which is to prevent government officials from being disrupted by a trial of insubstantial claims. See id. at 815-17. The Court explained that because the question of an official's intent to cause harm could not usually be disposed of at summary judgment, many plaintiffs were proceeding to trial against government officials on insubstantial claims because the plaintiffs were able to easily create an issue of fact on whether the government official had the subjective intent to harm them. See id. at 815-18. The Court eliminated the intent element of qualified immunity, reasoning that bare allegations of malice should not suffice to subject government officials either to the costs of trial or to the burdens of broad-reaching discovery. Id. at 817-18. 4 26 Thus, after Harlow, a plaintiff can defeat a defendant's claim of qualified immunity only by demonstrating the defendant violated clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. Id. at 818. After Harlow, many circuits imposed upon plaintiffs a heightened pleading requirement, similar to this court's, once qualified immunity was raised as a defense. See, e.g., Branch v. Tunnell, 14 F.3d 449, 452 (9th Cir. 1994); Gooden v. Howard County, 954 F.2d 960, 969-70 (4th Cir. 1992); Elliott v. Thomas, 937 F.2d 338, 344-45 (7th Cir. 1991). 27 In Crawford-El the Supreme Court examined the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal's heightened burden of proof. The D.C. Circuit's heightened-proof standard applied when a plaintiff sued a government official, the government official asserted the defense of qualified immunity, and the plaintiff's cause of action depended on proving improper motive of the defendant. See Crawford-El, 118 S. Ct. at 1588-91. The D.C. Circuit's heightened burden of proof, applicable at both summary judgment and trial, required plaintiffs to prove by clear and convincing evidence defendant's improper motive. See id. at 1590. Justice Stevens, writing for a majority of the Court, expansively framed the issue before the Court in Crawford-El as follows: 28 The broad question presented is whether the courts of appeals may craft special procedural rules for [improper-motive] cases to protect public servants from the burdens of trial and discovery that may impair the performance of their official duties. The more specific question is whether, at least in cases brought by prisoners, the plaintiff must adduce clear and convincing evidence of improper motive in order to defeat a motion for summary judgment. 29 Id. at 1587. 30 Ultimately, the Supreme Court rejected the D.C. Circuit's heightened burden of proof. See id. at 1596. The D.C. Circuit had justified its heightened burden of proof requirement, like this court justifies its heightened pleading requirement, on the Supreme Court's opinion in Harlow. See id. at 1590. The Court explained, however, that neither the specific holding in Harlow nor its reasoning justified the D.C. Circuit's heightened burden of proof. See id. at 1591-96. 31 The Court carefully distinguished Harlow as a case dealing only with the defense of qualified immunity: Harlow did not implicate the elements of the plaintiff's initial burden of proving a constitutional violation nor address any question concerning the plaintiff's affirmative case. Id. at 1592, 1591. The Court explained that although the decision in Harlow was motivated by a concern that public officials be protected from the costs associated with defending against lawsuits, particularly baseless ones, it did not follow that a defendant's claim of qualified immunity could always be resolved before at least some discovery was conducted. See id. at 1593-94 & 1594 n.14. In addition, the Court commented that a heightened proof standard alters the cause of action itself in a way that undermines the very purpose of 1983--to provide a remedy for the violation of federal rights. Id. at 1595. 32 The Court in Crawford-El also observed that neither federal statutory law nor the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure gave any support to the heightened burden of proof. See id. at 1595. In language particularly relevant to this court's heightened pleading requirement, the Supreme Court stated the following: 33 In the past we have consistently declined similar invitations to revise established rules that are separate from the qualified immunity defense. We refused to change the Federal Rules governing pleading by requiring the plaintiff to anticipate the immunity defense, Gomez, 446 U.S., at 639-640, or requiring pleadings of heightened specificity in cases alleging municipal liability, Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit, 507 U.S. 163, 164-169 (1993). We also declined to craft an exception to settled rules of interlocutory appellate jurisdiction and rejected the argument that the policies behind the immunity defense justify interlocutory appeals on questions of evidentiary sufficiency. Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 317- 318 (1995). Our reasons for those unanimous rulings apply with equal force to the imposition of a clear and convincing burden of proof in cases alleging unconstitutional motive. 34 As we have noted, the Court of Appeals adopted a heightened proof standard in large part to reduce the availability of discovery in actions that require proof of motive. To the extent that the court was concerned with this procedural issue, our cases demonstrate that questions regarding pleading, discovery, and summary judgment are most frequently and most effectively resolved either by the rulemaking process or the legislative process. See, e.g., Leatherman, 507 U.S., at 168-169. 35 Crawford-El, 118 S. Ct. at 1595 (duplicate citations omitted). 36 The Seventh Circuit has recently cited Crawford-El for the proposition that [c]ivil rights complaints are not held to a higher standard than complaints in other civil litigation. Nance v. Vieregge, 147 F.3d 589, 590 (7th Cir. 1998). But see Elliott, 937 F.2d at 344-45 (explaining, prior to issuance of Crawford-El, the Seventh Circuit's heightened pleading requirement). Similarly, the D.C. Circuit, the very court from which Crawford-El appealed to the Supreme Court, has recently stated that the Supreme Court held [in Crawford-El] that plaintiffs making constitutional claims based on improper motive need not meet any special heightened pleading standard. See Harbury v. Deutch, 233 F.3d 596, 611 (D.C. Cir. 2000). The First Circuit, however, has concluded that Crawford-El does not affect its heightened pleading requirement. See Judge v. City of Lowell, 160 F.3d 67, 72-75 (1st Cir. 1998). 5 In upholding their heightened pleading requirement, the First Circuit relied on the following language from Crawford-El: 37 In Harlow we noted that a 'firm application of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure' is fully warranted and may lead to the prompt disposition of insubstantial claims. 457 U.S., at 819-820, n. 35 (quoting Butz, 438 U.S., at 508). Though we have rejected the Court of Appeals' solution, we are aware of the potential problem that troubled the court. It is therefore appropriate to add a few words on some of the existing procedures available to federal trial judges in handling claims that involve examination of an official's state of mind. 38 When a plaintiff files a complaint against a public official alleging a claim that requires proof of wrongful motive, the trial court must exercise its discretion in a way that protects the substance of the qualified immunity defense. It must exercise its discretion so that officials are not subjected to unnecessary and burdensome discovery or trial proceedings. The district judge has two primary options prior to permitting any discovery at all. First, the court may order a reply to the defendant's or a third party's answer under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 7(a), or grant the defendant's motion for a more definite statement under Rule 12(e). Thus, the court may insist that the plaintiff put forward specific, nonconclusory factual allegations that establish improper motive causing cognizable injury in order to survive a prediscovery motion for dismissal or summary judgment. Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 236 (1991) (KENNEDY, J., concurring in judgment). This option exists even if the official chooses not to plead the affirmative defense of qualified immunity. 39 Crawford-El, 118 S. Ct. at 1596-97 (duplicate citations omitted). 40 This court respectfully disagrees with the First Circuit in its conclusion that the above language from Crawford-El saves circuit-imposed heightened pleading requirements. The passage in reality constitutes a rejection of deviations from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure combined with an instruction to federal trial judges to exercise their discretion under the Federal Rules to manage cases in a way that serves both the purposes of qualified immunity and 1983. See id. at 1596-98. Furthermore, the Court in Crawford-El was careful to distinguish between the D.C. Circuit's solution to protect government officials from insubstantial claims, which it rejected, and the options otherwise available under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for federal trial judges to deal with this concern. See id.; see also id. at 1587 (defining the broad issue presented in the case as whether the courts of appeals may craft special procedural rules for cases involving constitutional claims of improper motive against government officials (emphasis added)). This court's analysis is buttressed by the following language in Crawford-El: 41 It is the district judges rather than appellate judges like ourselves who have had the most experience in managing cases in which an official's intent is an element. Given the wide variety of civil rights and constitutional tort claims that trial judges confront, broad discretion in the management of the factfinding process may be more useful and equitable to all the parties than the categorical rule imposed by the Court of Appeals. 42 Id. at 1598. Thus, the circuit courts are admonished in civil rights cases not to impose management rules which deviate from those express in the statute and rules of procedure, and the district courts are encouraged to use the provisions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to manage these cases. 43 We conclude that this court's heightened pleading requirement cannot survive Crawford-El. There is no relevant difference between the D.C. Circuit's heightened burden of proof at summary judgment and this court's heightened pleading requirement which justifies the continuing viability of the latter after Crawford-El. See Nance, 147 F.3d at 590 (citing Crawford-El for the proposition that civil rights complaints are not held to a higher standard than complaints in other civil litigation). Like the D.C. Circuit's heightened burden of proof, this court's heightened pleading requirement was based on Harlow. See Breidenbach, 126 F.3d at 1292. Nevertheless, as the Supreme Court made clear in Crawford-El, neither the holding nor the reasoning of Harlow, a qualified immunity case, warranted a change in the requirements of a plaintiff's affirmative case. See Crawford-El, 118 S. Ct. at 1590-94. Like the D.C. Circuit's heightened proof requirement, this court's heightened pleading requirement finds no support in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and constitutes a deviation from the notice-pleading standards of Rule 8. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a) (A pleading which sets forth a claim for relief . . . shall contain . . . a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief . . . .); Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) (Malice, intent, knowledge, and other condition of mind of a person may be averred generally.). Additionally, the manner in which the Court framed the broad question presented for appeal--whether the courts of appeals may craft special procedural rules for [civil rights cases that require proof of improper motive] to protect public servants from the burdens of trial and discovery--suggests that the Court's ruling is not limited to the D.C. Circuit's heightened burden of proof. See Crawford-El, 118 S. Ct. at 1587. Finally, to the extent the Supreme Court considered whether a court may require a plaintiff to plead 'specific, nonconclusory factual allegations' to survive a prediscovery motion for dismissal, it concluded this option resides in the discretion of federal trial judges, not federal circuit courts. Id. at 1596-97 (quoting Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 236 (1991) (Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment)). 44 This court reiterates that trial judges retain discretion to order a reply to a defendant's answer, grant a defendant's motion for a more definite statement, or tightly confine discovery. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 7(a), 12(e); Crawford-El, 118 S. Ct. at 1596-97. The district court in this case, however, thought Plaintiffs had alleged sufficient facts to be allowed discovery. See Currier v. Doran, No. CIV 97-0477 BB/JHG, slip op. at 7 (D.N.M. Aug. 19, 1999) (The Court cannot say Plaintiffs would be unable to recover damages from Doran under any set of facts alleged in the complaint.); id. at 8 ([T]he Court believes Plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to be allowed discovery . . . .); id. at 9 (Given the stay of discovery that has been imposed in this case, it would not be fair to require the Plaintiffs to assert more facts than they have been able to allege at this point.). Therefore, this court will review Defendants' motions under the customary motion to dismiss standard: [A] complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief. Conley, 355 U.S. at 45-46.