Court Opinion

ID: 9704428
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:35:05.963534+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:02.424800
License: Public Domain

Skoglund, J.,
¶ 13. dissenting in part and concurring in part. I agree with the majority that we should affirm the trial court’s dismissal of plaintiffs claims for assault, battery, false and wrongful imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Plaintiffs claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 was equally deficient, and it too was properly dismissed. I dissent from the majority’s conclusion to the contrary.
¶ 14. Our pleading requirements are minimal, but they are not nonexistent. A complaint must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” V.R.C.P. 8(a). To meet this requirement, a party need not provide a specific and detailed statement of the facts which constitute a cause of action, but simply “a statement clear enough ‘to give the defendant fair notice of what the plaintiffs claim is and the grounds on which it rests.’ ” Reporter’s Notes, V.R.C.P. 8 (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41 (1957)). This allows the opposing party to answer the complaint and prepare for trial. See, e.g., Salahuddin v. Cuomo, 861 F.2d 40, 42 (2d Cir. 1988) (pleading rules require a “plain” statement of claim because principal function of pleadings is to give the adverse party fair notice of the claim asserted so as to enable him to answer and prepare for trial).
¶ 15. In reviewing the sufficiency of a complaint, this Court accepts as true all well-pled factual allegations, but need not accept conclusory allegations or legal conclusions masquerading as factual conclusions. See Colby v. Umbrella, Inc., 2008 VT 20, ¶¶ 5, 10, 184 Vt. 1, 955 A.2d 1082. By refusing to accept “bald assertions, unsupportable conclusions, and opprobrious epithets,” the Court is not applying a heightened pleading standard; it is merely adhering to the notice pleading requirements set forth in Rule 8(a). Educadores Puertorriquenos en Accion v. Hernandez, 367 F.3d 61, 68 (1st Cir. 2004) (citation omitted) (expressing similar sentiment). The majority indicates that dismissal is appropriate only when it is “beyond doubt that there exist no facts or circumstances . . . that would entitle the plaintiff to relief.” Ante, ¶ 4. The United States Supreme Court has clarified that this phrase, taken from Conley, 355 U.S. at 45-46, was intended to describe “the breadth of opportunity to prove what an adequate complaint claims, not the minimum standard of adequate pleading to govern a complaint’s survival.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 563, 127 S. Ct. 1955, 1969 (2007) (cited in Colby, 2008 VT 20, ¶ 19 (Burgess, J., dissenting)). Thus, the phrase should not be applied to allow “a wholly conclusory statement of claim” to survive a motion to dismiss “whenever the pleadings le[ave] open the possibility that a plaintiff might later establish some ‘set of [undisclosed] facts’ to support recovery.” Id. at 561, 127 S. Ct. at 1968.
¶ 16. In this case, plaintiff alleged no facts whatsoever that would support a *579claim under § 1983. His entire claim is stated as follows. “Defendants by the actions they took, or failed to take, as enumerated supra, did thus commit numerous violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 through repeated and flagrant abrogation of Plaintiffs civil rights” under the federal and state constitutions “by ordering and continuing [his] false and wrongful imprisonment. For their breach the Defendants should be held accountable. The Defendants through a confluence of their actions in abusing discretion as public officials did repeatedly and flagrantly abrogate Plaintiffs civil rights” under the federal and state constitutions. The actions “enumerated supra” apparently refer to all of plaintiffs related claims against defendants, which were dismissed by the trial court and not specifically challenged on appeal by plaintiff.
¶ 17. Plaintiffs general and eonelusory allegations do not provide defendants with fair notice of his claim or the grounds on which the claim rests. See Beaulieu v. IRS, 865 F.2d 1351, 1352 (1st Cir. 1989) (“Simply to state that a claim is made under a named statute is not a short and plain statement of what the claim is. Even less is it a showing of entitlement to relief.” (citations omitted)). Plaintiff does not describe when, where, or how, the named defendants allegedly violated his federal constitutional rights. See 5 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1202, at 94-95 (3d ed. 2004) (notice-pleading standard “contemplatefs] the statement of circumstances, occurrences, and events in support of the claim presented,” and it does not authorize as sufficient a pleader’s “bare averment that he wants relief and is entitled to it”). There can be no doubt that any defendant seeking to respond to such generalized allegations “would have little idea where to begin.” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 565 n.10, 127 S. Ct. at 1971 n.10. This type of pleading does not satisfy Rule 8(a) or advance the goals that the rule is designed to serve.
¶ 18. This is particularly true when one considers the defendants named here. Plaintiff offers no suggestion, for example, as to how, when, or why, the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections or his deputy violated his constitutional rights, or how members of his treatment team deprived him of his federal rights. See, e.g., Hendricks v. Coughlin, 114 F.3d 390, 394 (2d Cir. 1997) (Section 1983 requires “personal involvement in (rather than mere respondeat superior responsibility for) any alleged constitutional deprivation.”). As the Hernandez court explained, “in a civil rights action as in any other action subject to notice pleading standards, the complaint should at least set forth minimal facts as to who did what to whom, when, where, and why ....” 367 F.3d at 68. In fact, plaintiffs amended complaint indicates that his claims against defendants are based on his allegation that he was “false[ly] and wrongfull[y] imprisoned,” a claim that was dismissed by the trial court and not appealed by plaintiff. With his concrete claims dismissed, there is no articulated basis for plaintiffs claim that his due-process rights were violated in the discretionary decision to revoke his furlough.
¶ 19. According to the majority, the reasonable inference to be drawn from plaintiffs amended complaint is that he intended to challenge the process afforded him by defendants before his furlough was revoked. Ante, ¶ 8. Putting aside questions of what process, if any, the majority of these defendants owed plaintiff, and assuming arguendo that plaintiff has a protected liberty interest in remaining on furlough, cf. Conway v. Cummings, 161 Vt. 113, 118, 636 A.2d 735, 738 (1993) (holding that “[t]he United States Constitution not only fails to provide a liberty interest in furlough status directly, but [federal case law] instructs us that it would not recognize such right under existing Vermont law as a state-*580created liberty interest.”), plaintiff still has not identified any specific facts to show that his rights were violated. Our rules do not require that a complaint be a “model of legal clarity,” ante, ¶ 8, but they do require that a plaintiff comply with the minimal pleading standard set forth in Rule 8(a). Plaintiff failed to provide defendants with fair notice of his § 1983 claim and the grounds on which it rests, and this claim was therefore properly dismissed.
¶ 20. I am authorized to state that Justice Burgess joins in this dissent.