Court Opinion

ID: 9927974
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-01-30 17:01:16.70543+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:44:39.086653
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION                           FILED
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                        JAN 30 2024
                                                                      MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                       U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

PEYMAN ROSHAN, an individual on                 No.    21-15771
behalf of himself and others similarly
situated,                                       D.C. No. 3:20-cv-04770-AGT

                Plaintiff-Appellant,
                                                MEMORANDUM*
 v.

MELANIE J LAWRENCE, in her official
capacity as Chief Trial Counsel, and in her
personal capacity; OFFICE OF CHIEF
TRIAL COUNSEL,

                Defendants-Appellees.

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                     for the Northern District of California
                    Alex G. Tse, Magistrate Judge, Presiding

CYRUS MARK SANAI,                               No.    22-56215

                Plaintiff-Appellant,            D.C. No.
                                                2:21-cv-07745-JFW-KES
 v.

MELANIE J LAWRENCE, sued in her
individual and official capacities; CYNTHIA
VALENZUELA, sued in her individual and
official capacities; GEORGE CARDONA,

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
sued in his individual and official capacities;
RICHARD A. HONN, sued in his official
capacity; W. KEARSE MCGILL, an
individual sued in his official capacity;
DOES, 1 through 10, inclusive,

                Defendants-Appellees.

                    Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Central District of California
                     John F. Walter, District Judge, Presiding

CYRUS MARK SANAI,                                 No.   23-15618

                Plaintiff-Appellant,              D.C. No. 4:22-cv-01818-JST

 v.

GEORGE CARDONA; LEAH WILSON,

                Defendants-Appellees.

                    Appeal from the United States District Court
                      for the Northern District of California
                      Jon S. Tigar, District Judge, Presiding

CYRUS MARK SANAI,                                 No.   23-16104

                Plaintiff-Appellant,              D.C. No. 3:23-cv-01057-AMO

 v.

LEONDRA KRUGER, Judge; JOSHUA P.
GROBAN; MARTIN J. JENKINS; KELLI
M. EVANS; CAROL A. CORRIGAN;
GOODWIN H. LIU; PATRICIA
GUERRERO,

                                           2
                Defendants-Appellees.

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Northern District of California
                 Araceli Martinez-Olguin, District Judge, Presiding

                       Argued and Submitted January 8, 2024
                            San Francisco, California

Before: SILER,** TASHIMA, and BRESS, Circuit Judges.

      Appellants Cyrus Sanai and Peyman Roshan are California attorneys who, at

relevant times, were subject to California State Bar disciplinary proceedings.1 They

filed these four lawsuits under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against officials of the California

State Bar and the Justices of the California Supreme Court, alleging that the

California State Bar disciplinary process is constitutionally defective. In each case,

appellants asked the district court to enjoin State Bar proceedings. The district courts

concluded that Younger abstention applied. See Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37

(1971).    We review dismissals on the basis of Younger abstention de novo.

Canatella v. California, 304 F.3d 843, 850 (9th Cir. 2002). We have jurisdiction

under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 1292, and we affirm.

      **
            The Honorable Eugene E. Siler, United States Circuit Judge for the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, sitting by designation.
      1
        The four above-captioned cases (three filed by the same plaintiff) present
nearly identical questions about the applicability of Younger abstention to California
State Bar proceedings. Having previously consolidated these matters for oral
argument, we now consolidate them for all purposes.

                                           3
      1.     Younger and its progeny direct that “[a]bsent ‘extraordinary

circumstances,’ abstention in favor of state judicial proceedings is required if the

state proceedings (1) are ongoing, (2) implicate important state interests, and (3)

provide the plaintiff an adequate opportunity to litigate federal claims.” Hirsh v.

Justices of Supreme Ct. of Cal., 67 F.3d 708, 712 (9th Cir. 1995) (per curiam) (citing

Middlesex Cnty. Ethics Comm. v. Garden State Bar Ass’n, 457 U.S. 423, 432

(1982)); see generally Gilbertson v. Albright, 381 F.3d 965, 969 (9th Cir. 2004)

(noting that the “Middlesex factors . . . guide consideration of whether Younger

extends to noncriminal proceedings”). In addition, “[t]he requested relief must seek

to enjoin or have the practical effect of enjoining—ongoing state proceedings.”

ReadyLink Healthcare, Inc. v. State Comp. Ins. Fund, 754 F.3d 754, 758 (9th Cir.

2014) (citing AmerisourceBergen Corp. v. Roden, 495 F.3d 1143, 1149 (9th Cir.

2007)). If each of these conditions is met, Younger abstention is appropriate unless

“there is a ‘showing of bad faith, harassment, or some other extraordinary

circumstance that would make abstention inappropriate.’” Arevalo v. Hennessy, 882

F.3d 763, 765–66 (9th Cir. 2018) (quoting Middlesex, 457 U.S. at 435).

      As an initial matter, we reject appellants’ contention that our prior decision in

Hirsh should not apply to these cases. “[W]e are bound by circuit precedent except

‘where the reasoning or theory of our prior circuit authority is clearly irreconcilable

with the reasoning or theory of intervening higher authority.’” Lambert v. Saul, 980

                                          4
F.3d 1266, 1274 (9th Cir. 2020) (quoting Miller v. Gammie, 335 F.3d 889, 893 (9th

Cir. 2003) (en banc)). Appellants have not identified intervening authority that is

“clearly irreconcilable” with Hirsh, and so Hirsh still governs here.

      Applying Hirsh, we conclude that the district courts properly abstained under

Younger in each of the four cases. Under Hirsh, for purposes of Younger abstention,

California State Bar proceedings are judicial in nature and implicate important state

interests. Hirsh, 67 F.3d at 712, 713. In addition, like the plaintiffs in Hirsh,

Appellants asked federal courts to enjoin their ongoing State Bar disciplinary

proceedings.2 Id. at 712.

      On the third Middlesex factor, our precedents indicate that attorneys subject

to California State Bar disciplinary matters have an adequate opportunity to raise

their federal constitutional claims in the State Bar proceedings. Id. at 713; see also

Rosenthal v. Justices of the Supreme Ct. of Cal., 910 F.2d 561 (9th Cir. 1990).

Appellants raise several arguments about the alleged insufficiency of the State Bar

      2
        In Sanai v. Cardona, No. 23-15618, Sanai filed his lawsuit before the State
Bar initiated the relevant disciplinary proceedings. Nevertheless, the district court
properly concluded that Younger abstention applied because the state proceedings
were “initiated ‘before any proceedings of substance on the merits ha[d] taken place
in federal court.’” Polykoff v. Collins, 816 F.2d 1326, 1332 (9th Cir. 1987) (quoting
Hawaii Housing Auth. v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229, 238 (1984)); cf. Credit One Bank,
N.A. v. Hestrin, 60 F.4th 1220, 1226 (9th Cir. 2023) (concluding that state
proceedings were ongoing for Younger purposes when “the only significant
proceeding that had occurred in the federal action” at the time the state action was
filed “was the denial of [a] motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction”).

                                          5
process, each of which fails. Contrary to appellants’ arguments, the California

Supreme Court follows In re Ruffalo, 390 U.S. 544 (1968). See, e.g., Van Sloten v.

State Bar, 771 P.2d 1323, 1326 (Cal. 1989). And even assuming that appellants are

correct that the State Bar owed some duty to provide attorneys in disciplinary

proceedings with exculpatory material, appellants have not identified any plausible

violation of that obligation.

      Appellants relatedly argue that the State Bar proceedings provide an

inadequate opportunity to litigate because appellants are precluded from raising

claims of judicial bias or obtaining discovery related to suspected bias, as allegedly

allowed under Bracy v. Gramley, 520 U.S. 899 (1994) and Gacho v. Wills, 986 F.3d

1067 (7th Cir. 2021). But in alleging bias by State Bar officials and state judges in

favor of Thomas Girardi, appellants have not plausibly explained the relationship

between Girardi and their State Bar proceedings. Appellants’ wholly conjectural

bias claims fail to “overcome [the] presumption of honesty and integrity in those

serving as adjudicators.” Hirsh, 67 F.3d at 713 (quoting Kenneally v. Lungren, 967

F.2d 329, 333 (9th Cir. 1992)).

      Nor have appellants demonstrated that the “extraordinary circumstances”

exception for Younger abstention should apply. See Arevalo, 882 F.3d at 765–66.

Appellants have not demonstrated judicial bias in the State Bar proceedings. See

Hirsch, 67 F.3d at 713–14. Nor have they demonstrated any other “extraordinary

                                          6
circumstances” justifying an exception to Younger.

      2.     In three of these cases, appellants argue that the district courts erred by

denying their post-judgment motions under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 59 and

60(b). We review the district courts’ denial of these motions for abuse of discretion.

See Kaufmann v. Kijakazi, 32 F.4th 843, 847 (9th Cir. 2022) (Rule 59 motion

standard of review); Flores v. Rosen, 984 F.3d 720, 731 (9th Cir. 2020) (Rule 60(b)

motion standard of review).

      Appellants’ arguments are based on their mistaken view that the Supreme

Court’s decisions in Banister v. Davis, 140 S. Ct. 1698 (2020) and Kemp v. United

States, 142 S. Ct. 1856 (2022) abrogated our precedent governing post-judgment

motions under Rules 59 and 60(b). That is not correct. The district court applied

the proper legal standards in denying these motions, and appellants do not identify

any other basis for concluding that the district courts abused their discretion in

denying the motions.

      We have reviewed appellants’ other assignments of error and find them

without merit. Costs are taxed to appellants. The judgments of the district courts

are

      AFFIRMED in Case Nos. 21-15771, 23-15619, and 23-16104, and

                                           7
AFFIRMED IN PART AND DISMISED IN PART in Case No. 22-56215.3

      3
         In Sanai v. Lawrence, No. 22-56215, Sanai did not timely appeal the district
court’s dismissal of the case because he filed his notice of appeal more than 30 days
after the district court entered judgment on that order. See Fed. R. App. P.
4(a)(1)(A). The timely filing of a notice of appeal is jurisdictional. Sanai’s motion
for reconsideration under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) did not extend the
time for appeal of that order, Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(1)(A)(vi), because it was a
successive motion for reconsideration and the district court did not alter its judgment
in response. See Wages v. IRS, 915 F.2d 1230, 1233 n.3 (9th Cir. 1990). In Case
No. 22-56215, we therefore dismiss for lack of jurisdiction Sanai’s appeal of the
district court’s orders entered more than 30 days before Sanai filed his notice of
appeal on December 21, 2022. See Evans v. Synopsys, Inc., 34 F.4th 762, 768 (9th
Cir. 2022) (noting that the deadline for filing an appeal is jurisdictional). This partial
dismissal of the appeal did not affect our ability to reach the underlying issues
because the Younger issues are also presented in Sanai’s timely appeal of the district
court’s denial of an injunction pending appeal. As to the district court orders that
Sanai has timely appealed—those entered on November 28, 2022; December 20,
2022; June 20, 2023; and August 21, 2023—we affirm.

                                            8