Filed: May 24, 1999
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAY 24 1999 TENTH CIRCUIT PATRICK FISHER Clerk QUINTERO and KANSAS ADVOCACY AND PROTECTIVE SERVICES, INC., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. No. 98-3129 ENCARNACION, ROCHELLE (D.C. No. 96-1205-MLB) CHRONISTER, as the SECRETARY (Kansas) OF SOCIAL AND REHABILITATION SERVICES OF KANSAS, and MANI LEE, as the SUPERINTENDENT of LARNED STATE HOSPITAL, et al., Defendants-Appellants. ORDER AND JUDGMENT * Before SEYMOUR,
Summary: F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAY 24 1999 TENTH CIRCUIT PATRICK FISHER Clerk QUINTERO and KANSAS ADVOCACY AND PROTECTIVE SERVICES, INC., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. No. 98-3129 ENCARNACION, ROCHELLE (D.C. No. 96-1205-MLB) CHRONISTER, as the SECRETARY (Kansas) OF SOCIAL AND REHABILITATION SERVICES OF KANSAS, and MANI LEE, as the SUPERINTENDENT of LARNED STATE HOSPITAL, et al., Defendants-Appellants. ORDER AND JUDGMENT * Before SEYMOUR, C..
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F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAY 24 1999
TENTH CIRCUIT PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
QUINTERO and KANSAS
ADVOCACY AND PROTECTIVE
SERVICES, INC., et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
No. 98-3129
ENCARNACION, ROCHELLE (D.C. No. 96-1205-MLB)
CHRONISTER, as the SECRETARY (Kansas)
OF SOCIAL AND
REHABILITATION SERVICES OF
KANSAS, and MANI LEE, as the
SUPERINTENDENT of LARNED
STATE HOSPITAL, et al.,
Defendants-Appellants.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before SEYMOUR, Chief Judge, MAGILL, ** and EBEL, Circuit Judges.
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
The Honorable Frank J. Magill, Senior Circuit Judge, United States Court
**
of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, sitting by designation.
At issue in this interlocutory appeal is whether the Eleventh Amendment
bars an action by Kansas Advocacy and Protection Services, Inc. (KAPS) against
Rochelle Chronister, Secretary of the Department of Social and Rehabilitation
Services, and Mani Lee, Superintendent of Larned State Hospital. Because we
conclude that defendants failed to object to the portion of the magistrate judge’s
Report and Recommendations which concluded the Eleventh Amendment does not
preclude KAPS’s action against Ms. Chronister and Mr. Lee, we dismiss the
appeal.
KAPS and Rita Quintero, a former patient at Larned State Hospital, brought
suit against numerous state employees, in their individual and official capacities,
who were involved with Ms. Quintero’s commitment and treatment. Ms. Quintero
sought monetary damages for alleged violations of her constitutional rights;
KAPS sought prospective injunctive and declaratory relief. Defendants responded
by filing a motion to dismiss, asserting inter alia that the Eleventh Amendment
barred all of the official capacity actions against them. The case was referred to a
magistrate judge who determined Ms. Chronister and Mr. Lee “are the only
defendants in a position to carry out injunctive relief,” Aplt. App. at 83, and so
were amenable to suit notwithstanding the Eleventh Amendment. The magistrate
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judge recommended that the official-capacity claims against all the other
defendants be dismissed.
The district court set page limits for memoranda seeking review of the
magistrate judge’s report and required a consolidated brief. Various defendants
stated their objections in a memorandum brief several pages short of the page
limit. While raising a number of other issues, the only discussion of the Eleventh
Amendment in that brief was as follows:
The defendants do not challenge the Report’s recommendation in
their favor on the Eleventh Amendment bars, but do respectfully
reserve their right of response to any briefing of the plaintiffs on this
issue.
Id. at 103. 1 After considering the parties’ objection to the report, the district
court adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendations on Eleventh Amendment
immunity in their entirety.
Id. at 125-26. This interlocutory appeal followed.
See
id. at 171.
1
Not surprisingly, plaintiffs did not object to the Report’s recommendation
that the Eleventh Amendment does not preclude suit against Ms. Chronister and
Mr. Lee. Instead, they objected to the magistrate judge’s recommendation that all
other defendants be dismissed in their official capacities. In their response to
plaintiffs’ objections, defendants cited Idaho v. Coeur D’Alene Tribe of Idaho,
521 U.S. 261 (1997), and noted that it “adds considerable restrictions on Ex Parte
Young,
209 U.S. 123 (1908) injunction applications.” Aplt. App. at 115.
However, there is not even a sentence arguing that Coeur D’Alene (or any other
authority for that matter) established Eleventh Amendment immunity as to Ms.
Chronister and Mr. Lee.
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“This circuit has adopted a firm waiver rule under which a party who fails
to make timely objection to the magistrate’s findings and recommendations
waives appellate review of both factual and legal questions.” Talley v. Hesse,
91
F.3d 1411, 1412 (10 th Cir. 1996); see also Frontier Refining Inc. v. Gorman-Rupp
Co.,
136 F.3d 695, 706 (10 th Cir. 1998); Pippinger v. Rubin,
129 F.3d 519, 533-
34 (10 th Cir. 1997); Niehaus v. Kansas Bar Assn’n,
793 F.2d 1159, 1164-65 (10 th
Cir. 1986). There is an exception “when the ends of justice dictate otherwise or
when the magistrate’s order does not clearly apprise a pro se litigant of the
consequences of a failure to object.”
Talley, 91 F.3d at 1413; see also Moore v.
United States,
950 F.2d 656, 659 (10th Cir. 1991).
Ms. Chronister and Mr. Lee failed to object to the magistrate judge’s
conclusion that the Eleventh Amendment does not preclude actions against them
in their official capacities. There is simply nothing in defendants’ memorandum
brief to the district court to indicate otherwise. Defendants contend that their
“brevity” was mandated by the district court’s imposition of strict page limits.
However, they did not briefly object to this portion of the report, they failed to
object at all. Their decision to use only seven of the ten pages allocated to them
further undercuts this argument. Surely, they could have fit in a paragraph or two
articulating this objection in the extra three pages. Their failure to do so
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constitutes waiver for the purposes of this interlocutory appeal. 2 See
Pippinger,
129 F.3d at 533-34.
Having no issue before us, we DISMISS this appeal. 3
ENTERED FOR THE COURT
Stephanie K. Seymour
Chief Judge
2
We are not persuaded by defendants’ belated attempt to transmogrify the
Eleventh Amendment issue into one of standing.
3
Of course, nothing in this decision precludes Ms. Chronister and Mr. Lee
from raising before the district court the issue of Eleventh Amendment immunity
at a later time in the trial proceedings.
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