Opinion ID: 745288
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: claims against ncua employees

Text: 26 Bruns concedes that he has no claim against the individual NCUA employees under the FTCA or the FCUA. Bruns argues, however, that he has pled a Bivens claim against the individual federal employees. 27 Government employees may be liable for damages resulting from their constitutional torts. See Bivens, 403 U.S. at 395-96, 91 S.Ct. at 2003-04 (creating a cause of action for damages against federal officers for Fourth Amendment violations). In Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228, 242, 99 S.Ct. 2264, 2275, 60 L.Ed.2d 846 (1979), the Supreme Court held that federal officers could be sued for damages based on violations of the Fifth Amendment. The Court has since held that the FTCA does not preclude a Bivens suit because Bivens may provide more effective remedies than the FTCA, Carlson v. Green, 446 U.S. 14, 22, 100 S.Ct. 1468, 1473, 64 L.Ed.2d 15 (1980), and because constitutional torts are not cognizable under 28 U.S.C. § 1346. FDIC v. Meyer, 510 U.S. at 478, 114 S.Ct. at 1001. 28 Nevertheless, Bruns has not pled a colorable Bivens claim against the individual NCUA employees. Although Bruns has alluded to the Fifth Amendment in his response to the first OSC and in his appellate brief, his complaint does not expressly allege that the NCUA employees deprived him of a protected liberty or property interest. While we might construe the complaint as alleging that the NCUA employees deprived Bruns of his job without due process, he has not alleged that he had a constitutionally protected interest in his position at HAFCU. See Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 578, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2709, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972) (discussing whether state university employee had property interest in continued employment); Gini v. Las Vegas Metro. Police Dep't, 40 F.3d 1041, 1044 (9th Cir.1994) (Discharge assumes [a] constitutional dimension when the employee has a property interest in continued employment ... as a result of which she may not be terminated without due process.). Nor has Bruns alleged that the NCUA employees publicized charges against him that damaged his reputation or impose[d] on him a stigma or other disability that foreclose[d] his freedom to take advantage of other employment opportunities. Roth, 408 U.S. at 573, 92 S.Ct. at 2707. 29 [T]he right to hold specific private employment and to follow a chosen profession free from unreasonable governmental interference comes within the 'liberty' and 'property' concepts of the Fifth Amendment, Greene v. McElroy, 360 U.S. 474, 492, 79 S.Ct. 1400, 1411, 3 L.Ed.2d 1377 (1959) (dictum). But even if we assume that Bruns had a property interest in his continued employment as CEO of HAFCU, his complaint fails to allege that the NCUA employees participated in depriving him of that interest without affording him due process. See id. at 492-93, 79 S.Ct. at 1411-12. 30 Bruns' complaint does state that the NCUA employees conspired with the other defendants to replace HAFCU board members and to suspend and terminate Bruns. In Merritt v. Mackey, 827 F.2d 1368, 1371 (9th Cir.1987), a divided court held that an employee of a private company which contracted with a federal agency had a property interest in his employment that was protected by the Fifth Amendment against interference by federal officials. The majority explained:  'The requisite causal connection can be established not only by some kind of direct personal participation in the deprivation but also by setting in motion a series of acts by others which the actor knows or reasonably should know would cause others to inflict the constitutional injury.'  Id. (quoting Johnson v. Duffy, 588 F.2d 740, 743-44 (9th Cir.1978)). Similarly, this court found a colorable Bivens claim against an FBI agent where the plaintiff was fired from his private-sector job after refusing to assist in the agent's investigation. DiMartini v. Ferrin, 889 F.2d 922 (9th Cir.1989), amended 906 F.2d 465 (9th Cir.1990). 31 Here, however, we would have to read numerous unalleged facts into Bruns' complaint in order to find a Bivens claim against the NCUA employees. We decline to do so because a liberal interpretation of a civil rights complaint may not supply essential elements of the claim that were not initially pled. Vague and conclusory allegations of official participation in civil rights violations are not sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss. Ivey v. Board of Regents, 673 F.2d 266, 268 (9th Cir.1982). Bruns has failed to make out a Bivens claim against the individual NCUA employees.