Court Opinion

ID: 9372163
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-18 11:00:30.930956+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:33.409417
License: Public Domain

Case: 21-30658      Document: 00516649957          Page: 1     Date Filed: 02/17/2023

           United States Court of Appeals
                for the Fifth Circuit                                      United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                    Fifth Circuit

                                                                                  FILED
                                                                           February 17, 2023
                                    No. 21-30658
                                                                             Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                                  Clerk
   Randall Kling,

                                                             Plaintiff—Appellant,

                                        versus

   Troy Hebert; Ernest P. Legier, Jr., in his Official Capacity as the
   Commissioner of the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control of the Louisiana
   Department of Revenue,

                                                           Defendants—Appellees.

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Middle District of Louisiana
                             USDC No. 3:19-CV-671

   Before Stewart, Dennis, and Higginson, Circuit Judges.
   James L. Dennis, Circuit Judge:
          After prevailing in state court on claims that he was fired in retaliation
   for exercising his state constitutional right to freedom of expression, Randall
   Kling filed a federal suit alleging the same set of facts but asserting for the
   first time a First Amendment claim. The district court dismissed Kling’s suit,
   finding that the defendants’ factual attack showed that the only remedy not
   barred by sovereign immunity was impossible to grant, and that Kling’s claim
   was prescribed. On appeal, Kling contends that a factual attack on a district
Case: 21-30658      Document: 00516649957           Page: 2    Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                     No. 21-30658

   court’s subject matter jurisdiction is improper at the pleadings stage, and that
   his state lawsuit interrupted prescription on his newly asserted federal claim
   because both rely on the same set of operative facts. He urges reversal.
          We conclude that the district court did not err in dismissing Kling’s
   official capacity claims as barred by sovereign immunity and accordingly
   affirm that ruling in the district court’s decision. However, because there are
   no clear controlling precedents from the Louisiana Supreme Court as to
   whether prescription on Kling’s federal claim was interrupted by his state
   action, we certify the relevant question to that court.
                        I. Facts and Procedural History
          In 2011, Kling was fired from his position as “Captain in charge” of
   the Licensing and Certification Division of the Louisiana Office of Alcohol
   and Tobacco Control (ATC). Kling filed a lawsuit in the 19th Judicial District
   Court in Baton Rouge, alleging that he was fired in retaliation for submitting
   written complaints describing various workplace and ethics violations
   committed by then-Assistant Secretary of the ATC, Troy Hebert. Kling’s
   petition named the Louisiana Department of Revenue, which includes the
   ATC, as the sole defendant and asserted a single claim of violation of
   Louisiana’s constitutional right to free expression. La. Const. art. 1 § 7.
   He did not allege any federal claims. Kling’s case went to trial, and a jury
   awarded him compensatory damages and lost wages. Kling filed a motion for
   a new trial seeking the additional remedy of reinstatement, which the trial
   court “denied on showing made.” On appeal, the Louisiana First Circuit
   Court of Appeal reversed the lost wages portion of Kling’s judgment. The
   Louisiana Supreme Court denied Kling’s application for a writ of certiorari.
          After the First Circuit partially reversed the jury judgment, Kling filed
   a complaint in federal district court asserting the same set of facts and seeking
   declaratory relief, damages (including lost wages), and reinstatement for

                                          2
Case: 21-30658       Document: 00516649957                Page: 3   Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                           No. 21-30658

   violations of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Kling named the
   Commissioner of the ATC in her official capacity1 and Troy Hebert in his
   individual capacity as defendants. The Commissioner filed a Rule 12(b)(1)
   motion to dismiss, arguing that reinstatement was impossible and attaching
   evidence that Kling’s former position no longer existed, that Kling had let his
   professional license needed for a comparable position lapse, and that Kling
   had moved to Texas. Without the prospective injunctive remedy of
   reinstatement, Kling’s claims did not fall within Ex parte Young’s exception
   to the Commissioner’s sovereign immunity. Hebert also filed a motion to
   dismiss, arguing that Kling’s First Amendment claim had prescribed in 2012,
   more than seven years before he filed his federal suit. The district court
   granted both motions. Kling timely appealed.
                                II. Standard of Review
          “This Court evaluates de novo the district court’s grant of Appellee’s
   Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) motion for dismissal applying the same standard
   used by the district court.” Ramming v. United States, 281 F.3d 158, 161 (5th
   Cir. 2001). In a 12(b)(1) factual attack, the district court’s resolution of
   disputed jurisdictional facts is reviewed for clear error. In re S. Recycling,
   L.L.C., 982 F.3d 374, 379 (5th Cir. 2020).
                                    III.      Discussion
                                  A. Sovereign Immunity
          Kling sued the Commissioner in her official capacity which, in a § 1983
   action, is no different than suing the State itself. Will v. Michigan Dep’t of
   State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 71 (1989). Because Louisiana has not waived
   sovereign immunity from suit in federal court, see La. R.S. 13:5106, claims for

          1
            Juana Marie Lombard was the Commissioner at the time Kling filed his complaint.
   After the district court entered its ruling, Ernest Legier Jr. replaced Lombard.

                                                3
Case: 21-30658      Document: 00516649957           Page: 4   Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                     No. 21-30658

   relief that do not fall within Ex parte Young’s exception for remedies of
   ongoing constitutional violations—that is, claims for damages—are typically
   barred. In cases where someone has been fired in retaliation for exercising his
   First Amendment rights, reinstatement is the kind of prospective injunctive
   relief that Ex parte Young allows against an otherwise immune sovereign.
   Anderson v. Valdez, 913 F.3d 472, 479 (5th Cir. 2019).
          Sovereign immunity “operates like a jurisdictional bar, depriving
   federal courts of the power to adjudicate suits against a state.” Union Pac. R.
   Co. v. Louisiana Pub. Serv. Comm’n, 662 F.3d 336, 340 (5th Cir. 2011). As
   such, a defendant may attack the factual basis for the applicability of Ex parte
   Young through a Rule 12(b)(1) motion, which permits factual challenges to a
   federal court’s jurisdiction. Ramming, 281 F.3d at 161. Unlike a Rule 12(b)(6)
   motion which is confined to evaluating the pleadings, a 12(b)(1) factual attack
   on the court’s subject matter jurisdiction may be based on “(1) the complaint
   alone; (2) the complaint supplemented by undisputed facts evidenced in the
   record; or (3) the complaint supplemented by undisputed facts plus the
   court’s resolution of disputed facts.” Id. “Because at issue in a factual
   12(b)(1) motion is the trial court’s jurisdiction—its very power to hear the
   case—there is substantial authority that the trial court is free to weigh the
   evidence and satisfy itself as to the existence of its power to hear the case.”
   Mortensen v. First Fed. Savings & Loan Assoc., 549 F.2d 884, 891 (3rd Cir.
   1977). When a defendant makes a factual attack, the plaintiff “has the burden
   of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the trial court does have
   subject matter jurisdiction.” Paterson v. Weinberger, 644 F.2d 521, 523 (5th
   Cir. 1981).
          Here, the Commissioner mounted a factual attack on the feasibility of
   Kling’s reinstatement, the only remedy, Kling conceded, that was not barred
   by sovereign immunity. To support this attack, the Commissioner submitted
   evidence showing that: (1) Kling’s former position within the ATC was

                                          4
Case: 21-30658      Document: 00516649957            Page: 5    Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                      No. 21-30658

   abolished; (2) Kling allowed the professional license necessary for a
   comparable agent position—his POST certification—to lapse; and (3) Kling
   had moved to Texas and was no longer a resident of Louisiana. Kling did not
   dispute this evidence before the district court, and he does not now on appeal
   either. Instead, Kling argues that it is improper to consider any evidence
   outside the pleadings at the Rule 12 stage. So long as a plaintiff has pleaded a
   justiciable remedy, there can be no question of the court’s subject matter
   jurisdiction until summary judgment.
          Kling’s broadside ignores the ample precedent in this circuit and
   others supporting factual attacks via Rule 12(b). See, e.g., Ramming, 281 F.3d
   at 161; Paterson, 644 F.2d at 523 (“Our court, others, and textwriters have
   dealt with this subject.”); 5C Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R.
   Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1364 (3d ed.)
   (“There is little difficulty in allowing these motions in conjunction with the
   defenses enumerated in Federal Rules 12(b)(1) to 12(b)(5), and many cases
   have so held.”). Thus, we conclude that the district court committed no legal
   error in considering the Commissioner’s extra-pleadings evidence in this
   factual attack on its subject matter jurisdiction.
          Without any dispute from Kling or evidence submitted in rebuttal, we
   cannot say the district court clearly erred in its jurisdictional fact finding. The
   record, which on this motion consisted entirely of the Commissioner’s
   evidence, showed that Kling’s former position no longer existed, that he was
   not qualified to hold a comparable law enforcement position, and that he was
   no longer a Louisiana resident. And based on these facts, the district court
   committed no error in concluding that it lacked the power to reinstate Kling.
   Precedent supports the conclusion that a court cannot order reinstatement to
   a position that no longer exists, Anderson, 913 F.3d at 479, nor to a comparable
   position when the plaintiff lacks a necessary qualification, Kraemer v.
   Franklin & Marshall Coll., 941 F. Supp. 479, 485 (E.D. Pa. 1996); cf.

                                           5
Case: 21-30658         Document: 00516649957                Page: 6       Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                           No. 21-30658

   Woodhouse v. Magnolia Hosp., 92 F.3d 248, 257 (5th Cir. 1996) (affirming
   reinstatement to different registered nurse position because plaintiff was
   qualified). Courts have also recognized that a plaintiff’s move out-of-state
   can impact the feasibility of reinstatement as a remedy. See E.E.O.C. v. Gen.
   Lines, Inc., 865 F.2d 1555, 1561 (10th Cir. 1989) (reinstatement not feasible
   when plaintiff lives in another state). We thus find no error in the district
   court’s dismissal of Kling’s claims against the Commissioner.2
                                          B. Prescription
           Section 1983 claims brought in Louisiana generally borrow the state’s
   one-year prescriptive period for delictual actions, as well as Louisiana’s rules
   on interruption. Davis v. Louisiana State Univ., 876 F.2d 412, 413 (5th Cir.
   1989). “To determine Louisiana law, we look to the final decisions of the
   Louisiana Supreme Court.” In re Katrina Canal Breaches Litig., 495 F.3d 191,
   206 (5th Cir. 2007). If there is no “clear and controlling precedent” from
   that court on a determinative question of law, then we may certify the
   question to the court. La. R.S. 13:72.1; La. Sup. Ct. R. XII § 1. However, “[a]s
   a general proposition we are chary about certifying questions of law absent a
   compelling reason to do so; the availability of certification is such an
   important resource to this court that we will not risk its continued availability
   by going to that well too often.” Jefferson v. Lead Indus. Ass’n, Inc., 106 F.3d
   1245, 1247 (5th Cir. 1997). We have decided before when “intermediate

           2
              In his reply brief, Kling argues that whether reinstatement is feasible is too deeply
   intertwined with the merits of his action for it to be settled on a 12(b)(1) factual attack.
   Kling is right that where the jurisdictional question is sufficiently intertwined with the
   merits, determination at the 12(b)(1) stage is inappropriate. See, e.g., Arbaugh v. Y & H
   Corp., 546 U.S. 500, 510–12 (2006). But Kling failed to raise this argument in his opening
   brief, so the defendants did not address it in their reply. We therefore treat the argument
   as waived and do not consider it here. See Procter & Gamble Co. v. Amway Corp., 376 F.3d
   496, 499 n.1 (5th Cir. 2004) (“[Kling] has waived this argument by failing to raise it in its
   opening brief.”).

                                                  6
Case: 21-30658       Document: 00516649957           Page: 7    Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                      No. 21-30658

   Louisiana appellate court decisions cast some doubt on how the Louisiana
   Supreme Court would resolve this issue” that the imposition of certification
   was warranted. Grubbs v. Gulf Int’l Marine, Inc., 985 F.2d 762, 763 (5th Cir.
   1993).
            Kling was fired on March 30, 2011. But he did not file his federal
   complaint or assert a federal cause of action until October 3, 2019, more than
   eight years after the accrual of his First Amendment retaliation claim. Kling
   argues that his action in state court, whose certiorari application was still
   pending before the Louisiana Supreme Court when Kling initiated his federal
   action, interrupted prescription on his federal claim even though that state
   action never asserted a First Amendment claim. This is so, says Kling,
   because under Louisiana law filing a lawsuit interrupts prescription as to any
   other lawsuit based on the same “cause of action,” and “cause of action” is
   peculiarly defined in Louisiana as “the operative facts at issue,” as opposed
   to a claim for legal relief that one may make from those facts. Therefore, even
   though Kling’s state action did not assert any federal claims, its filing
   interrupted prescription on Kling’s First Amendment claim because the state
   lawsuit and federal lawsuit allege identical facts or the same “cause of
   action.”
            Kling attributes his definition of “cause of action,” and thereby also
   the major premise of his argument, to Ramey v. DeCaire, 869 So. 2d 114, 118
   (La. 2004). But that case does not even define “cause of action.” Rather, it
   defines the peremptory exception of no cause of action, a pleadings-stage
   challenge to the legal sufficiency of a plaintiff’s petition. See id. (“A cause of
   action, when used in the context of the peremptory exception, is defined as . . .”)
   (emphasis added). Nonetheless, though Kling’s argument fails to persuade,
   his contention that his pending state action interrupted prescription as to his
   federal claim is not without merit.

                                           7
Case: 21-30658      Document: 00516649957            Page: 8    Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                      No. 21-30658

          As the district court here noted, this issue Kling presents is “not a
   novel one.” Every federal district court in Louisiana, as well as our court in
   an unpublished opinion, has held that a pending state action does not
   interrupt prescription as to unasserted federal causes of action. See Joseph v.
   City of New Orleans, 122 F.3d 1067 (5th Cir. 1997) (unpublished); Ford v.
   Stone, 599 F. Supp. 693, 695–96 (M.D. La. 1984), aff’d, 774 F.2d 1158 (5th
   Cir. 1985); Vincent v. Munster, No. 17-1129, 2018 WL 1875851, at *2 (E.D. La.
   Apr. 19, 2018); Giles v. Ackal, No. 6:11-1774, 2012 WL 1458117, at *3 (W.D.
   La. Mar. 27, 2012), report and recommendation adopted, 2012 WL 1458110
   (W.D. La. Apr. 26, 2012). However, Louisiana’s courts have been less
   uniform in their decisions. In Velazquez v. Landcoast Insulation, Inc., 999 So.
   2d 318, 322–23 (La. App. 3 Cir. 2008), the Louisiana Third Circuit held that
   the filing of a federal action interrupted prescription as to unasserted, and
   substantively different state law claims. Without defining “cause of action,”
   the court stated that the federal complaint “interrupted prescription against
   all the claims arising out of the cause of action described in it.” Id. at 323; see
   also id. (“Prescriptive statutes are construed liberally, in favor of the
   obligation sought to be extinguished.”); Taylor v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 579
   So. 2d 443, 445 (La. 1991) (“Prescription is interrupted when the obligee
   commences action against the obligor, in a court of competent jurisdiction
   and venue . . . . [S]uch a suit has the same interruptive effect whether it is
   filed in a federal, Louisiana, or another state’s forum.”). But in Illes v. State
   ex rel. Division of Administration, 168 So. 3d 646, 648–49 (La. App. 1 Cir.
   2014), the Louisiana First Circuit held that a claim for damages and a claim
   for loss of consortium, though both arising from the same act of negligence,
   were separate and different causes of action and interruption did not run
   between them. See also Cook v. La. Dep’t of Public Safety & Corr., 267 So. 3d
   1175, 1177 (La. App. 1 Cir. 2018) (dismissing an inmate’s state tort petition

                                           8
Case: 21-30658      Document: 00516649957            Page: 9    Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                      No. 21-30658

   as prescribed without interruption despite his federal action asserting the
   same facts).
          Conflicting intermediate appellate court decisions would not preclude
   our making an Erie guess if we found the Louisiana Supreme Court to have
   spoken clearly on the issue. In re Katrina Canal Breaches Litig., 495 F.3d at
   206. But the court has never precisely said if, or when, asserting one cause of
   action interrupts prescription as to another. In its broadest statements on the
   matter, the court has declared that “[a] petition’s cause of action is irrelevant
   to interruption of prescription.” Montiville v. City of Westwego, 592 So. 2d
   390, 391 (La. 1992) (citing Batson v. Cherokee Beach & Campgrounds, 530
   So.2d 1128 (La.1988)); see Batson, 530 So. 2d at 1130 (“Whether a pleading
   sets forth a cause of action is irrelevant to the issue of interruption of
   prescription. A civil action is commenced by the filing of a pleading
   presenting the demand. Therefore, if what is filed can be classified as a
   ‘pleading presenting the demand,’ prescription will be interrupted whether
   or not the original pleading sets forth a cause of action.”) (cleaned up).
          But in other cases, the court has held that “when a suit by a second
   party states a different cause of action than the suit by the first party, although
   each cause of action is based in part on common facts, the first suit does not
   interrupt prescription as to the subsequent cause of action.” Louviere v. Shell
   Oil Co., 440 So. 2d 93, 96 (La. 1983); see also Guidry v. Theriot, 377 So. 2d 319,
   326 (La. 1979); Nini v. Sanford Bros., 276 So. 2d 262, 264–65 (La. 1973) (“In
   Louisiana, the essence of interruption of prescription by suit has been notice
   to the defendant of the legal proceedings based on the claim involved.”)
   (emphasis added). And in another instance, the court appears to have taken
   an intermediate view, requiring that the two causes of action share both
   common factual bases and common legal elements in order for interruption
   to run as to both. See Parker v. S. Am. Ins. Co., 590 So. 2d 55, 56 (La. 1991).

                                           9
Case: 21-30658     Document: 00516649957            Page: 10   Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                     No. 21-30658

   We note finally that the Code, which is primary law in Louisiana, is silent as
   to this particular aspect of interruption’s scope. See La. Civ. Code art. 3462.
          In sum, we find there is both a lack of clear controlling precedent and,
   given the frequency with which the issue is litigated in both federal and
   Louisiana courts, reason to impose our request for guidance upon the
   Louisiana Supreme Court.
                            IV.     Question Certified
          CERTIFICATE FROM THE UNITED STATES
          COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
          TO THE SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA,
          PURSUANT TO RULE XII, LOUISIANA SUPREME
          COURT RULES.

          TO THE SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA AND
          THE HONORABLE JUSTICES THEREOF:
                                  A. Style of the Case
          The style of the case in which this certification is made is Randall
   Kling v. Troy Hebert; Ernest P. Legier, Jr., in his official capacity as
   Commissioner of the Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control of the Louisiana
   Department of Revenue, No. 21-30658, in the United States Court of Appeals
   for the Fifth Circuit. The case is on appeal from the United States District
   Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.
                              B. Statement of the Facts
          The statement of facts, showing the nature of the cause and the
   circumstances out of which the question or proposition of law arises, is
   provided above.

                                         10
Case: 21-30658     Document: 00516649957            Page: 11   Date Filed: 02/17/2023

                                     No. 21-30658

                         C. Question of Law to be Answered
          We certify the following question to the Louisiana Supreme Court:
          In Louisiana, under what circumstances, if any, does the
   commencement of a suit in a court of competent jurisdiction and venue
   interrupt prescription as to causes of action, understood as legal claims rather
   than the facts giving rise to them, not asserted in that suit?
                                   V. Conclusion
          For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM the district court’s dismissal
   of Kling’s claims against the Commissioner as barred by sovereign immunity.
   As to whether prescription on Kling’s individual capacity claims against
   Hebert was interrupted, we CERTIFY the question to the Louisiana
   Supreme Court. We disclaim any intent that the Louisiana Supreme Court
   confine its reply to the precise form or scope of the legal question we certify.
   We transfer to the Supreme Court of Louisiana the record and appellate
   briefs in this case with our certification. This panel retains cognizance of this
   appeal pending response from the Supreme Court of Louisiana.

                                          11