MORRISON C. ENGLAND, JR., District Judge.
Plaintiff Lillie Earnest brings this action against Defendants San Joaquin General Hospital ("SJGH"), San Joaquin County ("County"), Ann Mooney and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 ("SEIU"), and Defendants Jackie Bagatta, Roberta Schramek, Lynn McClain, Marshay McKnight, Conrad Uy, Doug Peterson, Rolando Cabrerea, Vandana Goswani, Adam Arroyo, and Doe Defendants (the "Individual Defendants") (collectively, "Defendants") alleging the following causes of action: (1) civil conspiracy, (2) denial of appeal rights/due process, (3) wrongful termination, (4) breach of a memorandum of understanding ("MOU"), (5) age discrimination, (6) failure to prevent discrimination and harassment in violation of Government Code § 12920 et seq. and 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., (7) interference of business contractual relation, (8) disability discrimination, (9) institutional racism, and (10) intentional infliction of emotional distress. These allegations stem from Plaintiff's termination from SJGH, where she was a nursing assistant. In a Memorandum and Order dated March 30, 2017 ("Order"), this Court granted Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (ECF Nos. 9, 17, and 19), dismissing all ten of Plaintiff's claims, some with leave to amend and some without. Order, ECF No. 35. Plaintiff now moves the Court to reconsider its Order dismissing many of those claims. ECF Nos. 38, 43. For the following reasons, Plaintiff's Motion is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part, as described below.
Plaintiff is a 62-year old African-American woman who worked as a nursing assistant at SJGH. On July 12, 2009, SJGH commenced an investigation into a workplace complaint filed against Plaintiff, who alleges that the investigation was mishandled in various ways. On April 17, 2013, Plaintiff was terminated from her nursing assistant position. At the time, Plaintiff claims she suffered from "a well-documented, bad back and neck," had undergone two previous knee surgeries, and had at some point been given a "Lifetime Medical" settlement from a Worker's Compensation claim. According to Plaintiff, Defendants conspired to terminate her. Specifically, she alleges that she was terminated without receiving any offer of services from the local Employee Assistance Program, any job training, or any "Progressive Discipline Techniques." She also alleges that she was forced to work out of class, that accommodations were not made for her age, that she was discriminated against because of her age, disability, and race, and that she was denied due process in the course of her termination. Plaintiff further alleges that the County and the SEIU entered into an MOU that failed to provide adequate safeguards to part-time employees, who are disproportionately African-American.
In May 2013, Plaintiff received notice of a serious discipline hearing informing her of the reasons for her termination. Plaintiff claims the discovery packet she received was incomplete. At the hearing, Defendant Mooney, an SEIU union representative, represented Plaintiff, but Plaintiff claims she was denied the right to have a representative "of her choice." Ultimately, Plaintiff claims the investigation leading to her termination was not impartial and that the Individual Defendants stereotyped her based on her age, disability, and race, and made statements during the investigation to get her fired.
On March 30, 2017, this Court dismissed all ten of Plaintiff's causes of action ("COAs"), for a variety of reasons and with various conditions, some with leave to amend, and some without.
Presently before the Court is Plaintiff's Motion for Reconsideration. ECF Nos. 38, 43.
A court should not revisit its own decisions unless extraordinary circumstances show that its prior decision was wrong.
The Local Rules for the Eastern District indicate that a motion for reconsideration of a court's order may also be made upon facts or evidence which, although they may have been known, were not presented to the court upon the prior motion. E.D. Cal. Local Rule 230(k). The moving party is required to explain to the Court's satisfaction the reason these facts or other evidence were not submitted to the court at the time of the prior motion.
Plaintiff first requests reconsideration of the Court's dismissal of COAs 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The basis for this motion is Plaintiff's discovery of a Right to Sue letter (ECF No. 43-2) dated February 22, 2016. Previously, Plaintiff had stated that she received a "letter of determination," which the Court presumed to be a right to sue letter, from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") on February 18, 2016. Order, ECF No. 35, 6:22-24. Plaintiff's Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth COAs, brought under Title VII, the ADEA, and the ADA, are all subject to a 90-day statute of limitations. Plaintiff filed her initial complaint on May 19, 2016, 91 days after February 18, 2016. Accordingly, this Court dismissed those COAs brought under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), and the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") with prejudice as untimely.
Although Plaintiff requests that the Court reconsider eight of the ten COAs it dismissed, the basis for such request, the newly discovered Right to Sue letter, is relevant only to those COAs that the Court dismissed for failing to file within 90 days: The Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth COAs. In other words, the new evidence does not change the Court's analysis of the First, Third, Seventh, and Tenth COAs.
With respect to the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth COAs, as Defendants concede, the newly discovered Right to Sue letter extends Plaintiff's deadline to file her suit. Def.'s Opp. Mot. Recon., ECF No. 45, 3:23-28. With the 90-day statute of limitations beginning on February 22, 2016 instead of February 18, 2016, Plaintiff had until May 22, 2016 to file. Plaintiff met this deadline when she filed her initial complaint on May 19, 2016.
Nonetheless, this new evidence provides the Court a basis to grant Plaintiff's request only with respect to her Ninth COA under Title VII for race discrimination. On the EEOC Charge of Discrimination form (ECF No. 43-3, at 5), Plaintiff checked only the "RACE" box under the section titled "DISCRIMINATION BASED ON." Moreover, under the section titled "THE PARTICULARS ARE" Plaintiff states: "I believe that I have been discriminated against on the basis of my race (Black) in violation [of] Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended."
The Order also dismissed the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth COAs with leave to amend to allege exhaustion under the Fair Employment and Housing Act. Plaintiff had and still has the opportunity to amend these claims within those parameters.
The Order dismissed Plaintiff's Third, Fourth, and Seventh COAs with leave to amend for failure to allege exhaustion with the PERB.
Plaintiff has not amended her complaint consistent with either of the Court's options as outlined above. Instead, Plaintiff argues that because other courts have carved out exceptions to the exhaustion requirements in general, this Court should do so here with respect to the PERB exhaustion requirement. Pl.'s Mot. Recon., ECF No. 43, 8:15-15:25. The Court takes this as an implicit acknowledgement of the accuracy of the Court's initial understanding of Plaintiff's allegations, that Defendants conspired to terminate Plaintiff and represented her in bad faith. As the Court stated in its Order, under the Meyer-Milias-Brown Act ("MMBA") "unions owe a duty of fair representation of their members, and this requires them to refrain from representing their members arbitrarily, discriminatorily, or in bad faith." Order, ECF No. 35, 8:20-25 (citing
The crux of Plaintiff's argument for exception from this requirement appears to be that "nobody told [her] that she had to file with PERB." Pl.'s Mot. Recon., ECF No. 43, 8:17-20. But Plaintiff cites no authority for the proposition that someone had an affirmative duty to inform her of this requirement. The argument, therefore, holds no weight. In addition, Plaintiff makes the following arguments: (1) that "[t]he Statute of Limitation under PERB is [sic] does not require filing with them nor is it jurisdictional;" and (2) that "filing with PERB is futile for many reasons, we shall lists [sic] below."
As to the first contention, Plaintiff argues that the PERB exhaustion requirement is not jurisdictional and that exhaustion is therefore "not required when the interests in the petition in prompt review outweigh the government's prudential interests."
With respect to her second argument, Plaintiff contends that where the administrative process is insufficient to fully and satisfactorily protect the constitutional rights in question, exhaustion is not required. She also explains that exhaustion is not required where there is a constitutional claim collateral to the substantive claim of entitlement. Further still, Plaintiff argues exhaustion is not required where an agency ordinance or rule is attacked as unconstitutional on its face. But even assuming these are all correct statements of the law, Plaintiff fails to show how the administrative process here is insufficient. And she does not appear to have a collateral constitutional claim or to be attacking the administrative process as unconstitutional on its face. She claims that SEIU "acted out of their statutory duties" and "as a prosecutor" of Plaintiff,
Plaintiff cites to
The second situation in which "exhaustion is not required [is] when the administrative remedy is shown to be inadequate or would be futile." Pl.'s Mot. Recon., ECF No. 43, 12:20-21 (citing
The third situation
In addition, Plaintiff cites to
Finally, Plaintiff notes that "the exhaustion requirement is not applied rigorously when its application would deprive a criminal defendant of his defense." Pl.'s Mot. Recon., ECF No. 43, 15:1-2 (citing
In sum, despite providing an exhaustive list of authorities exploring the details of exhaustion jurisprudence, Plaintiff fails to provide this Court with a legitimate basis for finding that she should not have gone to PERB first. As stated above, the major grounds that justify reconsideration involve an intervening change of controlling law, the availability of new evidence, or the need to correct a clear error or prevent manifest injustice.
Like her first three requests, Plaintiff's fourth and final request is a poor example of clarity, but she appears to request leave to add a claim for conspiracy to interfere with civil rights. The basis for this request appears to be Plaintiff's allegation that the County and SEIU "deliberately [withheld] information regarding due process rights and training/guidance to perform Plaintiff's duties at her workplace which [delayed] Plaintiffs [sic] ability to incorporate her civil rights." Pl.'s Mot. Recon., ECF No. 43, 15:26-28. Although styled as a Motion for Reconsideration, Plaintiff really seeks leave to amend her complaint, which requires evaluation under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15. Under Rule 15, "the court should freely give leave when justice so requires." This is a lenient standard, but it is nonetheless not met here. Again, it is not perfectly clear what exactly the proposed additional COA will consist of, but Plaintiff's brief, as the Court currently understands it, offers nothing to suggest that this new COA is any different than Plaintiff's First COA for civil conspiracy. In other words, Plaintiff's proposed COA appears to duplicate Plaintiff's First COA, and is therefore unwarranted. In her FAC, Plaintiff's First COA alleges that Defendants engaged in a civil conspiracy to terminate Plaintiff. FAC., ECF No. 6, 12:7-14 ("members of this Civil Conspiracy . . . acted in concert . . . to terminate Plaintiff Lillie Earnest. The other purpose of the Civil Conspiracy was to hide illegal nursing practices . . . and unlawful investigative techniques used against Plaintiff"). The primary means of accomplishing the goal of the conspiracy, according to Plaintiff, appears to be Defendants' investigation of Plaintiff, which was allegedly subject to a variety of improprieties.
For the reasons stated above, Plaintiff's Motion for Reconsideration, ECF No. 43, is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.
IT IS SO ORDERED.