Opinion ID: 676598
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the rooker-feldman issue

Text: 15 The defendants argue that under the Rooker- Feldman doctrine, the decision of the State Personnel Board deprived the district court of subject-matter jurisdiction over Narey's lawsuit, a contention we review de novo. Latin Am. Property & Casualty Ins. Co. v. Hi-Lift Marina, Inc., 887 F.2d 1477, 1479 (11th Cir.1989). 16 The Rooker- Feldman line of cases has been described as the jurisdictional transmutation of res judicata doctrine. 18 Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 4469 (1981). The essence of the Rooker- Feldman doctrine is that a United States District Court has no authority to review final judgments of a state court in judicial proceedings. Review of such judgments may be had only in [the United States Supreme Court]. District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 482, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 1315, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983). The Rooker- Feldman and res judicata doctrines, although related, are distinct: 17 The Rooker- Feldman doctrine asks: is the federal plaintiff seeking to set aside a state judgment, or does he present some independent claim, albeit one that denies a legal conclusion that a state court has reached in a case to which he was a party? If the former, then the district court lacks jurisdiction; if the latter, then there is jurisdiction and state law determines whether the defendant prevails under principles of preclusion. 18 GASH Assocs. v. Village of Rosemont, 995 F.2d 726, 728 (7th Cir.1993). Federal district courts are without jurisdiction to decide federal issues that are 'inextricably intertwined' with a state court's judgment. Liedel v. Juvenile Court of Madison County, 891 F.2d 1542, 1545 (11th Cir.1990) (quoting Feldman, 460 U.S. at 482 n. 16, 103 S.Ct. at 1315 n. 16). 19 Contrary to the defendants' position, the Rooker- Feldman doctrine, unlike that of res judicata, applies only to state court decisions, not to state administrative decisions. Ivy Club v. Edwards, 943 F.2d 270, 284 (3d Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1282, 117 L.Ed.2d 507 (1992); see Feldman, 460 U.S. at 482, 103 S.Ct. at 1315 (holding that district courts have no jurisdiction to review final judgments of a state court in judicial proceedings (emphasis added)). If the decision of a state agency has been upheld by a state court, then the Rooker- Feldman doctrine applies, because a challenge to the agency's decision necessarily involves a challenge to the judgment of the state court. See Staley v. Ledbetter, 837 F.2d 1016 (11th Cir.1988) (holding that a district court lacked jurisdiction to review a decision of a county agency, where that decision had been upheld by the state court of appeals). The effect of unreviewed state administrative decisions, however, is a matter of res judicata, and is governed by the Supreme Court's decision in University of Tennessee v. Elliott, 478 U.S. 788, 106 S.Ct. 3220, 92 L.Ed.2d 635 (1986). Ivy Club, 943 F.2d at 284 (emphasis added). 20 The defendants correctly note that the Rooker- Feldman doctrine has been applied to state bar proceedings. See, e.g., Thomas v. Kadish, 748 F.2d 276 (5th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 473 U.S. 907, 105 S.Ct. 3531, 87 L.Ed.2d 655 (1985). They argue that the doctrine should be applied to any state administrative proceeding that is judicial in nature. However, the rationale for applying Rooker- Feldman to the decision of a board of bar examiners is not that such a board functions like a court; it is that the Board was essentially the agent of the [state] Supreme Court. Scott v. Flowers, 910 F.2d 201, 207 (5th Cir.1990) (emphasis added). 21 Scott illustrates the point. In that case, a member of the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct attempted to invoke the protection of the Rooker- Feldman doctrine to shield a Commission decision from judicial review. The Fifth Circuit refused to apply the doctrine, because [d]espite the judicial nature of its actions ... the Commission cannot be regarded as the agent of the state court system. Unlike the Board [of Bar Examiners], the Commission is constitutionally established and is endowed with a measure of independence from the courts. 910 F.2d at 208. The same is true of the Georgia State Personnel Board in this case, which is not the agent of the state courts. See Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. 4, Sec. 3, p 1 (establishing the State Personnel Board and providing for gubernatorial appointment of Board members). The rationale for extending Rooker- Feldman to cover the decisions of boards of bar examiners is therefore inapposite. 22 Any extension of the Rooker- Feldman doctrine to state administrative agency decisions would be inconsistent with the Supreme Court's disposition of University of Tennessee v. Elliott. In that case, the University of Tennessee had informed Elliott that he would be fired from his position. 478 U.S. at 790, 106 S.Ct. at 3222. Elliott challenged the termination in a state administrative proceeding, arguing that the decision to dismiss him was racially motivated. Id. at 791, 106 S.Ct. at 3222. The state administrative law judge found that the charges made against Elliott were not racially motivated, but that he should be transferred rather than fired. Id. There was no state court proceeding. Elliott brought a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that the job action was racially discriminatory and asserting claims under Title VII and Sec. 1983. Rooker- Feldman is a jurisdictional doctrine. Therefore, if Rooker- Feldman applied to state administrative adjudications, the Supreme Court, which created the doctrine, would have raised the issue on its own motion and thrown out Elliott's claims. See Liberty Mutual Ins. Co. v. Wetzel, 424 U.S. 737, 740, 96 S.Ct. 1202, 1204, 47 L.Ed.2d 435 (1976) (observing that the Supreme Court must question the jurisdiction of the lower courts on its own motion). However, the Supreme Court did not dismiss for want of subject matter jurisdiction. Instead, it held that Title VII plaintiffs are entitled to a trial de novo following a state administrative proceeding. The Court also held that if a state agency,  'acting in a judicial capacity ... resolves disputed issues of fact properly before it which the parties have had an adequate opportunity to litigate,'  its findings of fact would be given preclusive effect in a subsequent Sec. 1983 action. 478 U.S. at 797-98, 106 S.Ct. at 3225-26 (quoting United States v. Utah Constr. & Mining Co., 384 U.S. 394, 422, 86 S.Ct. 1545, 1560, 16 L.Ed.2d 642 (1966)). Elliott establishes that, contrary to the defendants' position, federal courts do have jurisdiction to entertain challenges to unreviewed state administrative agency decisions. 23 We therefore hold that the Rooker- Feldman doctrine does not apply to the unreviewed decision of the Personnel Board. Because, as we discuss in the next section, Narey's due process claim for pretextual demotion must fail on the merits, we need not determine whether his claim is barred by res judicata --that is, whether the Personnel Board's findings on pretext are entitled to preclusive effect. That is a non-jurisdictional question, the answer to which will not affect the result of this appeal.