Court Opinion

ID: 9467956
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:00:41.431858+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:36.652838
License: Public Domain

PHILLIPS, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I would affirm the dismissal of the action on the ground that the district court did not have subject matter jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or § 1985. The majority opinion expressly reserves a decision of this question.
I
In their answer to the complaint the defendants included the following affirmative defense: “Plaintiff has failed to state a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 42 U.S.C. § 1985 or State law.”
On July 20, 1979, the defendants, City of Royal Oak, Max La Valley, the city’s tax assessor, and Thomas Sommerville, the city’s deputy tax assessor, filed a motion to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Fed.R. Civ.P. 12(b)(1) on the ground that “this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.”
On September 12, 1979, the district court entered the following order:
This matter having come before the Court on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure briefs having been submitted by the parties and all parties having had the opportunity to be heard, and it appearing to the Court that it should abstain from asserting jurisdiction over this action:
WHEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendants’ Motion To Dismiss For Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction is granted, with prejudice.
As the majority opinion points out, the oral decision of the district court, announced from the bench, is not clear as to whether the action was dismissed (1) as precluded by the Tax Injunction Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1341, (2) or on the ground that the court did not have subject matter jurisdiction, or (3) as barred by the doctrine of abstention. The majority opinion reverses on the abstention and Tax Injunction Act issues and reserves a decision on the question of whether the district court had subject matter jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 or 1985. I prefer to decide the appeal on the ground that the district court did not have subject matter jurisdiction.
Even if the majority opinion is correct in holding that the issue of subject matter jurisdiction is not before this court, we are required to consider that question independently and on our own motion. Mansfield, Coldwater & Lake Michigan Railway Co. v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379, 382, 4 S.Ct. 510, 511, 28 L.Ed. 462 (1884); Brown v. Keene, 33 U.S. (8 Peters) 112, 8 L.Ed. 885 (1834); Capron v. Van Noorden, 6 U.S. (2 Cranch) 126, 2 L.Ed. 229 (1804); Jones v. Perrigan, 459 F.2d 81, 83 (6th Cir. 1972).
I would hold that §§ 1983 and 1985 do not confer subject matter jurisdiction to decide an action by a taxpayer against a local tax assessor for damages on the ground that the assessment of the taxpayer has been increased because the taxpayer sought review of prior assessments. I do not believe that an increased tax assessment, even if made in bad faith by a state or local tax official, is a constitutional violation within the contemplation of the civil rights statutes.
In the present case the taxpayer has an adequate remedy under state law. The remedies provided by the laws of Michigan are set forth in detail in the comprehensive opinion of District Judge Charles W. Joiner in Kistner v. Milliken, 432 F.Supp. 1001 (E.D.Mich.1977), holding that Michigan provides a plain, speedy and efficient remedy for taxpayers complaining of tax assessments.
*409It is a well established principle that the federal courts will not interfere in the assessment and collection of state and local taxes where an adequate remedy is available in the state courts. It, therefore, is inconceivable to me that, by the enactment of §§ 1983 or 1985, Congress intended to subject tax assessors to actions for damages for excessive tax assessments, even if made in bad faith.
In Matthews v. Rodgers, 284 U.S. 521, 525-26, 52 S.Ct. 217, 219-20, 76 L.Ed. 447 (1932), Mr. Justice Stone wrote for a unanimous court:
The scrupulous regard for the rightful independence of state governments which should at all times actuate the federal courts, and a proper reluctance to interfere by injunction with their fiscal operations, require that such relief should be denied in every case where the asserted federal right may be preserved without it. Whenever the question has been presented, this Court has uniformly held that the mere illegality or unconstitutionality of a state or municipal tax is not in itself a ground for equitable relief in the courts of the United States. If the remedy at law is plain, adequate, and complete, the aggrieved party is left to that remedy in the state courts, from which the cause may be brought to this Court for review if any federal questions be involved, Jud.Code § 237, or to his suit at law in the federal courts if the essential elements of federal jurisdiction are present. See Boise Water Co. v. Boise City, 213 U.S. 276, 29 S.Ct. 426, 53 L.Ed. 796; Shelton v. Platt, 139 U.S. 591, 11 S.Ct. 646, 35 L.Ed. 273; Dows v. Chicago, 11 Wall. 108, 110, 112, 20 L.Ed. 65.
To like effect see Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. v. Huffman, 319 U.S. 293, 298, 63 S.Ct. 1070, 1073, 87 L.Ed. 1407 (1943); Helmsley v. City of Detroit, 320 F.2d 476 (6th Cir. 1963). See, also, Rosewell v. LaSalle National Bank, - U.S. -, -, 101 S.Ct. 1221, 1235, 67 L.Ed.2d - (1981).
I would follow Dillon v. State of Montana, 634 F.2d 463 (9th Cir. 1980), and A. Bonding Co. v. Sunnuck, 629 F.2d 1127 (5th Cir. 1980) and hold that state and local tax assessments cannot be attacked, directly or indirectly, under §§ 1983 or 1985, where there is an adequate remedy under State law. See also Ludwin v. City of Cambridge, 592 F.2d 606 (1st Cir. 1979); Bland v. McHann, 463 F.2d 21 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 966, 93 S.Ct. 1438, 35 L.Ed.2d 700 (1972). To the extent that Fulton Market Cold Storage Co. v. Cullerton, 582 F.2d 1071 (7th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1121, 99 S.Ct. 1033, 59 L.Ed.2d 82 (1979), may be construed to hold to the contrary, I would decline to follow it.
Sections 1983 and 1985 were never intended as a catch-all under which a myriad of suits, traditionally within the exclusive jurisdiction of state courts, can be brought in the federal courts. Under §§ 1983 and 1985 there must be a showing of a clear deprivation of a constitutional right. Ryan v. Aurora City Board of Education, 540 F.2d 222, 225 (6th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1041, 97 S.Ct. 741, 50 L.Ed.2d 753 (1977). Jurisdiction cannot be attained in the federal courts by the procedural device of filing an insubstantial action under §§ 1983 or 1985. Bates v. Dause, 502 F.2d 865, 867 (6th Cir. 1974).
In Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 140, 99 S.Ct. 2689, 2692, 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1979), the Supreme Court said: “The first inquiry in any § 1983 suit, therefore, is whether the plaintiff has been deprived of a right ‘secured by the Constitution and laws’.”
The Supreme Court recently emphasized the limitations on litigation filed under § 1983 in a decision applying the rulés of collateral estoppel to § 1983 actions. In Allen v. McCurry, - U.S. -, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980). The Court wrote:
Moreover, the legislative history of § 1983 does not in any clear way suggest that Congress intended to repeal or restrict the traditional doctrines of preclusion. The main goal of the Act was to override the corrupting influence of the Ku Klux Klan and its sympathizers on the governments and law enforcement agencies of the Southern States, see Mon*410roe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 174, 81 S.Ct. 473, 477, 5 L.Ed.2d 492, and of course the debates show that one strong motive behind its enactment was grave congressional concern that the state courts had been deficient in protecting federal rights, Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U.S. 225, 241-242, 92 S.Ct. 2151, 2161, 32 L.Ed.2d 705, Monroe v. Pape, supra, 365 U.S., at 180, 81 S.Ct. at 480. But in the context of the legislative history as a whole, this congressional concern lends only the most equivocal support to any argument that, in cases where the state courts have recognized the constitutional claims asserted and provided fair procedures for determining them, Congress intended to override § 1738 or the common-law rules of collateral estoppel and res judicata. Since repeals by implication are disfavored, Radzanower v. Touche Ross & Co., 426 U.S. 148, 154, 96 S.Ct. 1989, 1993, 48 L.Ed.2d 540, much clearer support than this would be required to hold that § 1738 and the traditional rules of preclusion are not applicable to § 1983 suits.
As the Court has understood the history of the legislation, Congress realized that in enacting § 1983 it was altering the balance of judicial power between the state and federal courts. See Mitchum v. Foster, supra, 407 U.S., at 241, 92 S.Ct. at 2161. But in doing so, Congress was adding to the jurisdiction of the federal courts, not subtracting from that of the state courts. See Monroe v. Pape, supra, 365 U.S., at 183, 81 S.Ct. at 482 (“The federal remedy is supplementary to the state remedy....”). The debates contain several references to the concurrent jurisdiction of the state courts over federal questions, and numerous suggestions that the state courts would retain their established jurisdiction so that they could, when the then current political passions abated, demonstrate a new sensitivity to federal rights.
To the extent that it did intend to change the balance of power over federal questions between the state and federal courts, the 42d Congress was acting in a way thoroughly consistent with the doctrines of preclusion. In reviewing the legislative history of § 1983 in Monroe v. Pape, supra, the Court inferred that Congress had intended a federal remedy in three circumstances: where state substantive law was facially unconstitutional, where state procedural law was inadequate to allow full litigation of a constitutional claim, and where state procedural law, though adequate in theory, was inadequate in practice. 365 U.S., at 173-174, 81 S.Ct. at 476, 477. In short, the federal courts could step in where the state courts were unable or unwilling to protect federal rights. Id., at 176, 81 S.Ct. at 478. This understanding of § 1983 might well support an exception to res judicata and collateral estoppel where state law did not provide fair procedures for the litigation of constitutional claims, or where a state court failed to even acknowledge the existence of the constitutional principle on which a litigant based his claim. Such an exception, however, would be essentially the same as the important general limit on rules of preclusion that already exists: Collateral estoppel does not apply where the party against whom an earlier court decision is asserted did not have a full and fair opportunity to litigate the claim or issue decided by the first court. See text, at n. 7, supra. But the Court’s view of § 1983 in Monroe lends no strength to any argument that Congress intended to allow re-litigation of federal issues decided after a full and fair hearing in a state court simply because the state court’s decision may have been erroneous.
The actual basis of the Court of Appeals’ holding appears to be a generally framed principle that every person asserting a federal right is entitled to one unencumbered opportunity to litigate that right in a federal district court, regardless of the legal posture in which the federal claim arises. But the authority for this principle is difficult to discern. It cannot lie in the Constitution, which makes no such guarantee, but leaves the *411scope of the jurisdiction of the federal district courts to the wisdom of Congress. And no such authority is to be found in § 1983 itself. For reasons already discussed at length, nothing in the language or legislative history of § 1983 proves any congressional intent to deny binding effect to a state court judgment or decision when the state court, acting within its proper jurisdiction, has given the parties a full and fair opportunity to litigate federal claims, and thereby has shown itself willing and able to protect federal rights. And nothing in the legislative history of § 1983 reveals any purpose to afford less deference to judgments in state criminal proceedings than to those in state civil proceedings. There is, in short, no reason to believe that Congress intended to provide a person claiming a federal right an unrestricted opportunity to relitigate an issue already decided in state court simply because the issue arose in a state proceeding in which he would rather not have been engaged at all. (Footnotes omitted.) - U.S. at-, 101 S.Ct. pp. 417-20.
Among the many other examples of restrictions on jurisdiction under § 1983 or § 1985 are: Martinez v. California, 444 U.S. 277, 100 S.Ct. 553, 62 L.Ed.2d 481 (1980) (state officials not liable for murder committed by paroled sex offender); Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 99 S.Ct. 2689, 61 L.Ed.2d 433 (1979) (false imprisonment pursuant to valid arrest warrant); Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976) (medical malpractice claim by inmate against prison official); Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976) (defamatory flyer of “active shoplifters” distributed by city police); Stevens v. Hunt, 646 F.2d 1168 (6th Cir. 1981) (academic dismissal of medical students by Dean of Medical School for twice failing to pass examination of National Board of Medical Examiners); Studen v. Beebe, 588 F.2d 560 (6th Cir. 1978) (city officials rezoning from three-tiered to single residence zone); Bogard v. Cook, 586 F.2d 399 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 883, 100 S.Ct. 173, 62 L.Ed.2d 113 (1979) (prison inmate stabbed by another inmate due to inadequate search of prisoners); Bonner v. Coughlin, 545 F.2d 565 (7th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 932, 98 S.Ct. 1507, 55 L.Ed.2d 529 (1978) (negligent search of prisoner’s cell resulting in loss of his trial transcript); Ohio Inns, Inc. v. Nye, 542 F.2d 673 (6th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 946, 97 S.Ct. 1583, 51 L.Ed.2d 794 (1977) (state officials’ tortious interference with contract between plaintiff and state); Kelly v. Springett, 527 F.2d 1090 (9th Cir. 1975) (post-arrest seizure of taxpayer’s funds and bank account for unpaid state income taxes); Coe v. Bogart, 519 F.2d 10 (6th Cir. 1975) (transfer of school principal without notice of charges or hearing); Manchester v. Lewis, 507 F.2d 289 (6th Cir. 1974) (discharge of untenured teacher because of unsatisfactory teaching performance); Denman v. Leedy, 479 F.2d 1097 (6th Cir. 1973) (intrafamily child custody battle).
II
Although the majority opinion cites persuasive authority to the contrary, I would hold further that the present action is barred by the Anti-injunction Statute. I agree with the reasoning of A. Bonding Co. v. Sunnuck, supra, 629 F.2d 1127 (1980), involving an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to recover money damages from local tax officials for tortious enforcement of an allegedly unconstitutional tax. The Fifth Circuit, holding that the action was barred by the Anti-injunction Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1341, wrote:
Section 1341 has been construed to be much broader than its words initially suggest. As we noted in United Gas Pipe Line Co. v. Whitman, 595 F.2d 323, 326 (5th Cir. 1979): “The concept that section 1341 is not a narrow statute aimed only at injunctive interference with tax collection, but is rather a broad restriction on federal jurisdiction in suits that impede state tax administration, has continued to gain credence in the federal courts.” The purpose of section 1341 is “to protect the integrity of the state treasury .... ” Hargrave v. McKinney, 413 F.2d 320, 326 *412(5th Cir. 1969). “[T]he history of section 1341, from its precursor federal equity practice to its most current judicial construction, evidences that it is meant to be a broad jurisdictional impediment to federal court interference with the administration of state tax systems.” United Gas, 595 F.2d at 326.
A federal court suit for damages against a state tax administrator, based on the theory that the administrator tortiously enforced an unconstitutional tax, would have many of the same detrimental effects that actions for tax refund, declaratory, or injunctive relief would have. Although the federal court’s decision in such a case technically would bind only the immediate parties, as a practical matter it would undoubtedly dampen future state collection efforts. Once a tax provision has been found invalid, and a state official has been held liable for its application, collecting officials will “doubtless stop asserting rights to taxes under that section, as surely as if collection under it had been formally enjoined.” United Gas, 595 F.2d at 329-30. As with refund actions, there is no way to predict the full impact of such litigation, but as we held in United Gas,
the threat exists that any such litigation could put substantial portions of a state’s revenue or broadly applicable sections of a state’s tax code in jeopardy. The policy of section 1341 is that such judicial threats should come only from state courts when the state provides taxpayers a remedy that is plain, speedy and efficient. Review of such state court decisions in the United States Supreme Court remains available to preserve whatever substantial federal rights may be implicated.
595 F.2d at 330.
The district court’s award of damages is especially disruptive in this case, since the court expressly reserved jurisdiction to assess further damages in the future should the defendants persist in enforcing the one-percent tax. The effect of this ongoing jurisdiction is virtually the same as that of an injunction. Further, the district court’s imposition of one-cent nominal damages indicates that the plaintiff was unable to show real damage at the time of the suit. The claim for damages was plainly an attempt to circumvent the prohibitions of section 1341; it did not change the true nature of the case. See 28 East Jackson Enterprises, Inc. v. Cullerton, 523 F.2d 439, 440-41 n. 2 (7th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1073, 96 S.Ct. 856, 47 L.Ed.2d 83 (1976).
629 F.2d at 1133-34.
If local tax assessors must live under threat of an action for damages pursuant to § 1983 or § 1985 every time they increase the tax assessment of a disgruntled taxpayer, the consequences on state and local tax revenues could be even more disastrous than a federal court injunction against increases in local tax assessments. I believe the present action is barred by the Anti-injunction Statute.
I agree with the majority opinion that abstention by the district court is not appropriate in the present case.
For the reasons indicated, I would affirm the decision of the district court dismissing the complaint.