Court Opinion

ID: 9492284
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:37:22.306234+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:13.842970
License: Public Domain

FERGUSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent from the majority’s disposition of this case for one simple reason: Donald Meek was not constructively fired. Therefore, he cannot maintain a § 1983 action in federal district court, and we must dismiss his case.
In § 1983 actions, the preliminary focus must be whether or not the alleged wrongful act involved state action. Ouzts v. Maryland Nat’l Ins. Co., 505 F.2d 547, 550 (1974) (en banc). If it does not, then we as federal courts do not have jurisdiction, see 28 U.S.C. § 1343(a)(3), and we need not even pass on the immunity issues reached in the majority’s opinion.
In § 1983 claims, we look to state law to determine if there in fact has been state action. Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 937, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982) (“[T]he deprivation must be caused by the exercise of some right or privilege created by the State.”). California law clearly states that a majority of the twenty-one municipal court judges in Riverside are the only people who have the authority to hire and fire court commissioners such as Meek. Cal. Gov’t Code § 72192 (providing that the commissioner “shall be appointed by and hold office at the pleasure of a majority of the judges ... ”). Individual judges may become upset with a commissioner for personal reasons, such as the politics in this case. But the state has decreed that individual judges do not have the right to terminate the commissioners; rather, state action must come from the body of judges as a whole. District Judge Paez was correct in finding that “Judge Walker had no authority to terminate plaintiff solely on his own vote because plaintiff served at the pleasure of a majority of the judges of the municipal courts in Riverside County.” See Meek v. County of Riverside, 982 F.Supp. 1410, 1418 (C.D.Cal.1997). Without any action here by the entire body of municipal court judges, there is no state action, and we need not even address the immunity issues.
Donald Meek’s resignation is not material in this case and cannot form the basis of a constructive discharge claim under § 1983 because no rational juror could conclude that Meek acted reasonably in resigning when only one of the eleven people needed to fire him had acted. See Watson v. Nationwide Ins. Co., 823 F.2d 360, 361 (9th Cir.1987) (requiring resignation to be *970reasonable in order to prove a constructive firing claim). Meek’s unreasonable resignation and lack of understanding of his rights under California law do not create state action or a constitutional tort, and he has no § 1983 claim. I therefore respectfully dissent.