CLAIRE V. EAGAN, Chief Judge.
Now before the Court are Plaintiff's Motion for New Trial And/Or Motion to Re-Consider Order Denying Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. # 142), Plaintiff's Motion to Impose Sanctions Against Defendant's Attorneys Pursuant to Rule 11 (Dkt. # 146), plaintiff's Motion to Re-Consider Previous Court Order Failing to Acknowledge Cause of Action for Retalaiton [sic] for the Exercise of Constitutional Rights (Dkt. # 147), Plaintiff's Amended Motion for New Trial (Dkt. # 150), and plaintiff's Amended Motion to Cite and Sanction Defendant Ray Willard for Perjury (Dkt. # 152), and various briefs in support.
Plaintiff David L. Brown, appearing pro se, initially brought suit against defendants J.D. Eppler, Ray Willard, Jane Doe, Janet Doe (collectively, "employee defendants"), Metropolitan Tulsa Transit Authority (MTTA), Paul T. Boudreaux, and Richardson Richardson Boudreaux, alleging that they violated and conspired to violate his rights under the United States Constitution, federal civil rights laws, and Oklahoma law. Dkt. # 1, at 1. Brown previously filed a similar action in state court, which was dismissed. Id. at 9-10.
Plaintiff's complaint alleges numerous claims for relief against the MTTA and employee defendants, including violations of: the equal protection, due process, and "privileges and immunities" clauses of the United States Constitution; 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985; U.S. Department of Transportation regulations; and Oklahoma law.
The Court initially dismissed all of plaintiff's claims except those against MTTA and the employee defendants for violations of the equal protection and due process clauses of the United States Constitution. Dkt. # 18. The Court denied plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction, as well as the remaining defendants' first motion for summary judgment. Dkt. ## 25, 47. Plaintiff then filed a motion for partial summary judgment (Dkt. # 93), as well as a motion to sanction defendants for perjury (Dkt. # 115) and several motions regarding the discovery process (Dkt. ## 125, 127). The remaining defendants
Despite their varying titles and requests for relief, the Court considers all of plaintiff's motions, other than the motion for sanctions against defense counsel, as part of his motions for new trial (Dkt. ## 142, 150), which seek relief under Fed. R.Civ.P. 59(e). Plaintiff's first motion for new trial was filed within 28 days of entry of judgment, Adams v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 225 F.3d 1179, 1186 n. 5 (10th Cir.2000), and the Court granted permission for plaintiff to file an amended motion for new trial (Dkt. # 145). Therefore, plaintiff's motions are timely. Under Rule 59(e), a party may ask a district court to reconsider a summary judgment ruling when the district court has "misapprehended the facts, a party's position, or the controlling law." Barber ex rel. Barber v. Colo. Dep't of Revenue, 562 F.3d 1222, 1228 (10th Cir.2009). "Grounds warranting a motion to reconsider include (1) an intervening change in the controlling law, (2) new evidence previously unavailable, and (3) the need to correct clear error or prevent manifest injustice." Servants of Paraclete v. Does, 204 F.3d 1005, 1012 (10th Cir.2000). Reconsideration is "not available to allow a party to reargue an issue previously addressed by the court when the reargument merely advances new arguments or supporting facts which were available for presentation at the time of the original argument." FDIC v. United Pac. Ins. Co., 152 F.3d 1266, 1272 (10th Cir.1998) (quoting Cashner v. Freedom Stores, Inc., 98 F.3d 572, 577 (10th Cir. 1996)).
Brown's motions set out a litany of grounds that he claims justify a new trial. He states that because the "Court committed numerous errors of law and further applied the wrong legal standard in denying [his] request for a partial summary judgment, and dismissing this case," the judgment should be reconsidered and set aside. Dkt. # 142, at 1. Specifically, Brown argues that the Court erred by: concluding that Willard did not commit perjury; making erroneous factual findings; failing to consider facts alleged in his "motion to deem admitted"; failing to consider his claim for retaliation; erroneously concluding that he did not have a protected liberty interest in access to public transportation; relying in part on century-old decisions of the Oklahoma Supreme Court for its denial of his due process claims; and granting summary judgment in favor of defendants on his equal protection claim.
Brown reiterates his argument made on summary judgment that Willard gave false testimony at the preliminary injunction hearing, and that he should be sanctioned. Dkt. ## 143, at 10; 153. Brown claims that his former attorney inaccurately argued at the summary judgment phase that either Willard or Eppler committed perjury, when in fact it was only Willard who did so, and cites inconsistencies in the record as evidence. Dkt. # 153. The Court already determined that plaintiff failed to show that any statements by Willard made at the preliminary injunction hearing, if incorrect or untrue, were willfully made with the intent to provide false testimony, and were not merely the result of confusion or mistake. Therefore, it concluded that charges of perjury were not warranted. Dkt. # 136, at 17-18. Plaintiff has not pointed to any new facts or law in support of his argument, but instead merely reiterates the arguments made at the summary judgment stage. Plaintiff's motion to sanction Willard for perjury is not a proper use of Rule 59(e) relief, and his motion for sanctions and a new trial based on the Court's prior failure to cite and sanction Willard is denied.
Plaintiff also claims that the Court made erroneous factual findings. He argues that all factual findings based on Willard's testimony were improper, because Willard, the alleged perjurer, lacked credibility. Brown's other objections to the Court's factual findings appear to center on the timing of the imposition of his ban from MTTA buses, the details regarding his removal from MTTA buses, and the parties responsible for the decision to ban him from the buses. Dkt. # 143, at 5-9. Brown concludes by stating that the "Court's conclusion [that] defendants['] ban of [p]laintiff was justified is not established in the Record." Id. at 9.
The Court does not find that plaintiff's allegations of error warrant any change to its prior opinion and order. Plaintiff does not raise "new evidence previously unavailable." Instead, he simply reargues his position on the facts as they existed in the summary judgment record.
Brown claims that the Court erred in failing to consider facts alleged in plaintiff's "motion to deem admitted" (Dkt. # 121). The parties engaged in numerous discovery disputes, and Brown has not presented any new evidence regarding those disputes. Instead, he apparently requests that the Court revisit its prior decision. That is an improper use of Rule 59, and the Court does not find that its failure to grant plaintiff's "motion to deem admitted" constituted manifest error, or that it warrants a new trial.
Brown also argues that the Court erred in not recognizing a separate claim for relief in his complaint for retaliation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and asks the Court to reconsider its decision on the motion to dismiss that dismissed all but plaintiff's due process and equal protection claims. Dkt. ## 147, 149. Brown's complaint was filed July 17, 2009. Dkt. # 1. In it, he made a number of allegations, including that after he filed a verbal complaint with MTTA, he "was harassed and retaliated against by the said J.D. Eppler and Ray Willard and again within seven days after his initial wrongful removal from said bus was again wrongfully removed from another city bus ... [and] defendant Ray Willard thereafter engaged in conduct to have [p]laintiff wrongfully banned from riding all public buses within the City of Tulsa...." Dkt. # 1, at 4. He further alleged that "defendant Willard's sole reason for acting in a wrongful, illegal, discriminatory, and conspiratorial manner in having [p]laintiff banned from riding all buses within the City of Tulsa was in retaliation for [p]laintiff having filed a verbal complaint over the telephone regarding the boorish and arrogant actions of the said Jane and Janet Doe...." Id. at 5. He then claimed that the defendants' action in banning plaintiff from the use and access to city buses was "an arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory action which violated [p]laintiff's rights to due process of law, equal protection of law, and the privileges and immunities clause of the United States Constitution." Id. He did not state directly that he intended to assert a cause of action based on retaliation.
On October 14, 2009, the Court entered an Opinion and Order granting in part and denying in part defendants' motion to dismiss. Dkt. # 18. The Court granted the motion to dismiss as to Brown's claims against MTTA and the employee defendants based on the privileges and immunities clauses of the U.S. Constitution, 42 U.S.C. § 1985, violations of Department of Transportation regulations, and Oklahoma state law claims, and as to all claims against defendants Boudreaux and Richardson
In January 2011, the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Dkt. ## 93, 94. In response to defendants' motion, Brown stated that he "anticipate[d] filing in this ca[se] a request that this Court acknowledge a cause of action alleged in the Original Complaint for retaliation for the exercise of constitutional rights. Said pleading will likely be filed within ten or fewer days from the filing of this instant Response." Dkt. # 108, at 9. And in response to defendants' asserted defense of qualified immunity, Brown asked that the Court "defer any ruling on the issue ... pending the filing of [p]laintiff[']s motion requesting the court acknowledge an over-looked stated claim of `retaliation for the exercise of constitutional rights' against both defendants Eppler and Willard." Id. at 14. However, Brown never filed a request to amend to state a retaliation claim, and the Court did not consider any alleged retaliation issue on summary judgment. Dkt. # 136, at 6 n. 1.
Brown has had nearly two years in which to raise the Court's allegedly improper oversight of the retaliation claim in his complaint. However, he now claims that the allegations in his complaint and the undisputed facts in the record "clearly set forth and establish a separate and distinct cause of action against defendants for retaliation for the exercise of a constitutional right," in violation of his substantive Due Process rights. Dkt. # 147, at 1-2. Plaintiff's argument is untimely. "A Rule 59(e) motion `cannot be used to expand a judgment to encompass new issues which could have been raised prior to issuance of the judgment.'" Jordan v. Wiley, 411 Fed. Appx. 201, 212 n. 9 (10th Cir.2011) (unpublished).
"Any form of official retaliation for exercising one's freedom of speech ... constitutes an infringement of that freedom." Rocky Mountain Rogues, Inc. v. Town of Alpine, 375 Fed.Appx. 887, 896-97 (10th Cir.2010) (unpublished)
However, even assuming that plaintiff's telephone complaint to MTTA was constitutionally protected activity and that a temporary or permanent ban from public transportation would chill a person of ordinary firmness from making such complaints, there is no genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendants' actions were "substantially motivated to respond to his exercise of the constitutionally protected activity." Id. Defendants could have been substantially motivated by Brown's telephone complaint only if they knew it had been made. See Duran v. City of Corpus Christi, 160 Fed.Appx. 363, 366 (5th Cir.2005) (unpublished).
In support of his motion to reconsider, Brown argues that "[t]he evidence in this cause is clear said complaint/grievance was pending and unacted upon at the time Willard and Eppler began their retaliatory actions against [p]laintiff—which actions occurred immediately after the lodging of said complaint. Thus there is no issue of causation in regards to the claim of retaliation, as it is clear that `but for' [p]laintiff having filed a complaint against Jane and Janet Doe, Willard would not have begun his conspiratorial actions to have [p]laintiff banned from having access to MTTA buses." Dkt. # 149, at 8. However, beyond his blanket assertion of a causal link between his complaint and subsequent ban, Brown has neither alleged nor provided any evidence of knowledge on the part of Willard or Eppler
Excerpts of Brown's deposition transcript were provided in support of defendants' motion for summary judgment. Dkt. # 94-1. In that deposition, Brown testified about complaints he made to MTTA prior to April 5, 2007, about the oral complaint he made the day after his removal from a bus on April 5, 2007, and about his familiarity with MTTA's grievance policy. Dkt. ## 94, at 6-9; 94-1, at 8-9, 11, 20; 94-5, at 4-5. Brown says he made the complaint of April 6, 2007 to Keith Cone, an MTTA employee and Brown's cousin. Nowhere in the excerpted transcript does Brown state that knowledge of his complaint reached Willard or Eppler. And in response to a question about the basis for his suit, Brown stated that he "was banned from riding the bus because of [his] race," an allegation he made based on "information [he] received saying that Mr. Willard and a Bill Cartwright are prejudiced against black people." Dkt. # 94-1, at 33. When asked if he had "any other proof or evidence" that he was "banned from the bus based upon [his] race and not for any other reason," Brown responded "yes," and cited the failure of the MTTA to follow Federal Transit Administration guidelines and regulations. Id. at 33-34. He stated that those guidelines required the MTTA to "set forth a procedure for an individual to file a grievance or complaint of discrimination against transit employees," and said that, according to Willard, the MTTA had not set up such a procedure. Id. at 34. When asked if he had "any other facts or information or
Brown also described the complaint to MTTA at the hearing on plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction. Dkt. # 94-5, at 4. He said that he gave a recorded statement to Cone, and that when, "[a] couple of days later[,][he] was not allowed to ride" a bus, he "knew then that they had beg[un] to attempt to have [him] banned...." Id. at 8. When asked about Eppler's involvement, Brown stated that Eppler was made a defendant to the lawsuit "[b]ecause he and Mr. Willard subsequently removed me from a bus at the Denver Avenue bus terminal [in May 2007] after I had filed a grievance." Id. at 9. Brown called Willard as a witness, and asked him whether he was "aware ... that [Brown] filed a grievance against the MTTA." Willard responded, "no, sir."
The Tulsa Transit Feedback Policy appears to outline the procedure used by MTTA to process complaints. Dkt. # 94-8. The policy states that once a complaint is made, it is reviewed by a Quality Assurance Supervisor, and, if follow-up is requested, the Operations Quality Assurance Supervisor contacts the individual. Id. at 1-2. It also states that "[t]he Director of Operations and/or General Manager will review the feedback, responses, and timeliness of the completion of feedback on a periodic basis." Id. at 2. A separate process exists for claims based on discrimination, and such claims are responded to by the Quality Assurance Supervisor or Operations Dispatch Department, as well as the Title VI Officer. Id. at 3-4. On a monthly basis, complaints are reported to the General Manager, Assistant General Manager, Director of Operations, and Title VI Officer. Id. at 4. Willard is the Manager of Security for MTTA. Dkt. # 94-4, at 1. He testified that his responsibilities include supervision of the security staff, video documentations, detours for Tulsa Transit buses, and "[j]ust about anything [his] supervisor wants [him] to do." Dkt. # 94-5, at 15. Eppler is a Security Officer for MTTA. Dkt. # 94-3, at 1. Neither Eppler nor Willard holds a position in the reporting chain described in the Tulsa Transit Feedback Policy.
In Brown's response in opposition to defendants' motion for summary judgment,
Brown's assertions of a causal connection between his telephone complaint and his ban from MTTA buses are not supported on the record, and the Court does not find a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the telephone complaint "substantially motivated" his ban from the bus. Brown does not allege facts upon which a reasonable factfinder could determine that Willard or Eppler were aware of the complaint Brown made to MTTA on April 6, 2007. See Duran, 160 Fed.Appx. at 366. Moreover, nowhere in the summary judgment record does Brown ever claim that Willard or Eppler knew of his complaint, or provide an explanation for how they would have come by such knowledge.
Although, on a motion for summary judgment, the facts are construed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, the nonmoving party still has an obligation to put forth evidence on which the trier of fact could reasonably find for the plaintiff. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). On the summary judgment record, there are factual issues as to the circumstances surrounding the ban of Brown from MTTA buses. And it is undisputed that he made a complaint to MTTA by telephone following his removal from an MTTA bus on April 5, 2007. Dkt. ## 94, at 7; 109, at 2. However, Brown proffered no evidence beyond conclusory statements of a causal connection between the two. Thus, the Court does not find evidence in the record from which a reasonable factfinder could find that the ban of Brown from MTTA buses was based on retaliatory motive. Worrell, 219 F.3d at 1213-14. Even if Brown had properly placed this issue before the Court on summary judgment, the Court would have resolved the question in favor of defendants.
Brown also argues that the Court erred in finding that he did not have a constitutional right to intrastate travel under the substantive component of the Due Process Clause. Dkt. # 151, at 6-9. "Procedural due process ensures that a state will not deprive a person of life, liberty or property unless fair procedures are used in making that decision; substantive due process, on the other hand, guarantees that the state will not deprive a person of those rights for an arbitrary reason regardless of how fair the procedures are that are used in making the decision." Hennigh v. City of Shawnee, 155 F.3d 1249, 1253 (10th Cir.1998). Brown has not previously characterized his claim as one based on substantive due process.
However, even if he had properly raised the argument that his ban from
Plaintiff also argues that:
Dkt. # 142, at 4. At the outset, the Court notes that no decisions of the Oklahoma Supreme Court were used in determining that plaintiff did not have a liberty interest in access to public transportation. However, "[p]roperty interests ... are created and their dimensions are defined by existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law...." Dkt. # 136, at 9 (citing Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972)). Thus, courts look to state law to determine the proper scope of an individual's property interests, if any. Oklahoma has not explicitly created a property right to public transportation. And where state law does not explicitly create such a right, the Court must look to the degree to which the state has restrained an entity's discretion to withhold
Brown also argues that, beyond reliance on "archaic" decisions, the Court erroneously interpreted Oklahoma law to conclude that he did not have a protected property interest in access to public transportation.
Brown claims that the Court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants on his equal protection claim was "contrary to law as all evidence submitted by
In addition to his motions for new trial, Brown filed a motion to sanction defense counsel. Dkt. ## 146, 148. Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 11(c)(2), a party may move for sanctions. However, before doing so, the party must comply with the Rule's "safe harbor" provision, which requires that a motion for sanctions be served on the proposed target of sanctions, but that the motion not be filed or presented to the court "if the challenged paper, claim, defense, contention, or denial is withdrawn or appropriately corrected within 21 days after service or within another time the court sets." Fed.R.Civ.P. 11(c)(2); see also Roth v. Green, 466 F.3d 1179, 1191-92 (10th Cir.2006). There is no evidence that Brown complied with the safe harbor provision. He claims that he complied with the requirements of Rule 11 prior to filing his motion because he sent several warning letters to defense counsel. Dkt. # 146, at 1. However, the Tenth Circuit
Moreover, because Rule 11(c) "requires that the party submitting the challenged pleading be given an opportunity to withdraw the pleading, sanctions cannot be sought after summary judgment has been granted," and, therefore, "service of a sanctions motion after the district court has dismissed the claim or entered judgment... will be rejected." Id. (internal quotations omitted); see also Barber v. Miller, 146 F.3d 707, 710 (9th Cir.1998) (holding that a party cannot wait until after summary judgment to move for sanctions, even if that party informally warned the offending party about the potential for Rule 11 sanctions). Because there is no evidence that Brown complied with the procedural requirements of Rule 11, and because his motion is untimely, the Court has no discretion to consider the motion for sanctions. See Roth, 466 F.3d at 1193.