Opinion ID: 798769
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to provide a prompt postdeprivation hearing.

Text: Buckwalter additionally argues that the Board Members should not be absolutely immune from liability for failing to provide him a prompt postdeprivation hearing. Buckwalter points out that to this day, he has still received no postdeprivation due process. The obvious objection is that Buckwalter voluntarily stipulated to postpone the hearing that the Board was prepared to afford him. Buckwalter makes three responses. First, he again asserts that the hearing was intended to address the merits of the malpractice claims, not the merits of the Board Members' judgment that he was an imminent danger to the citizens of Nevada. He insists that by stipulating to vacate the postdeprivation hearing he did not relinquish his right to a hearing on the merits of the summary suspension. As we have already explained, the question of whether the allegations in the administrative complaint were true is intertwined with the question of whether Buckwalter was a threat to public safety. Buckwalter was entitled to one postdeprivation hearing, not two. Second, Buckwalter argues that the Board did not promptly institute a hearing when it unilaterally set a hearing date more than four months after the deprivation. Buckwalter is confusing the issue of whether the Board Members are entitled to absolute immunity with whether the Board Members deprived him of due process. If the Board Members were not immune from suit, we would face the question of whether the postdeprivation hearing the Board provided was sufficiently prompt to provide due process. See, e.g., Spiegel v. Ryan, 946 F.2d 1435, 1442 (9th Cir.1991). But, having decided that the Board Members are absolutely immune, it is clear that they were acting in a judicial capacity when they set the hearing date. See Curry v. Castillo (In re Castillo), 297 F.3d 940, 951-53 (9th Cir.2002) (holding that the scheduling of hearings by a bankruptcy trustee is a discretionary function protected by absolute immunity). The manner in which they set the hearing date is therefore irrelevant. See Mishler, 191 F.3d at 1006(The acts of the Nevada Board are no less judicial or prosecutorial because they may have been committed in error. It is the available procedures, not the manner in which they are exercised in a particular case, that is the critical inquiry....) (internal citation omitted). Once we have decided that an official enjoys absolute immunity from liability for a particular statutorily authorized action, any inquiry into the adequacy of the official's performance is foreclosed. See Olsen v. Idaho State Bd. of Med., 363 F.3d 916, 928 (9th Cir.2004). Third, Buckwalter argues that he could not request a hearing because he was forced to continue to negotiate a settlement with the Board, lest he anger[] them and risk[] draconian penalties. The record shows that Buckwalter was free to withdraw from the stipulation at any time. No evidence suggests that the Board would have refused to reinstate the hearing date. Buckwalter may now regret the months he spent in fruitless settlement negotiations, but it was his choice not to proceed to hearing. The Board should not bear the burden of Buckwalter's litigation decisions. The Board Members were acting within the scope of their judicial function when they set a hearing date following the summary suspension and when they stipulated with Buckwalter to postpone the hearing. They are absolutely immune from liability for those actions.