Capp v. County of San Diego, No. 18-55119 (9th Cir. 2019)
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The Ninth Circuit withdrew its previous opinion and filed this superseding opinion affirming in part and reversing in part the district court's dismissal of plaintiffs' claims as insufficiently pled. Plaintiff and his two minor children filed suit alleging that a child welfare investigation brought by county social workers violated their First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
In this case, plaintiff alleged that social workers retaliated against him in violation of the First Amendment after he questioned abuse allegations against him and criticized the county. Plaintiff was placed on the Child Abuse Central Index and a social worker coerced his ex-wife to file an ex parte custody application.
The panel held that plaintiff's first amended complaint (FAC) failed to plausibly allege Fourth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, and Monell claims. However, the court held that plaintiff pleaded a viable First Amendment retaliation claim, and that the social worker was not entitled to qualified immunity on this claim. The court held that a reasonable official would have known that taking the serious step of threatening to terminate a parent's custody of his children, when the official would not have taken this step absent her retaliatory intent, violated the First Amendment.
Court Description: Civil Rights. The panel withdrew its opinion filed August 30, 2019, and filed a superseding opinion that affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s dismissal of plaintiffs’ claims as insufficiently pled in an action brought by Jonathan Capp and his two minor children arising from a child welfare investigation undertaken by County of San Diego social workers that allegedly violated plaintiffs’ First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Plaintiffs asserted, in part, that social workers retaliated against Capp in violation of the First Amendment after he questioned abuse allegations against him and criticized the County. Plaintiffs asserted that defendants placed Capp on the Child Abuse Central Index and coerced his ex-wife to file an ex parte custody application. * The Honorable Stanley A. Bastian, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Washington, sitting by designation. CAPP V. COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO 3 The panel first rejected the retaliation claim premised on the Child Abuse Central Index listing. The panel held that taking the allegations as a whole, the first amended complaint did not plausibly allege that Capp was placed on the Index as intentional retaliation. Focusing on plaintiffs’ allegation that defendant social worker coerced Capp’s former wife to file the ex parte custody application, the panel found that pursuant to the liberal pleading standard afforded pro se litigants, plaintiffs plausibly alleged that Capp engaged in protected activity, that the alleged retaliation would objectively have had a chilling effect and that retaliation was the but-for motive for the social worker’s actions. Plaintiffs therefore pleaded a plausible First Amendment retaliation claim. The panel further concluded that the accused defendant social worker was not entitled to qualified immunity. The panel held that a reasonable official would have known that taking the serious step of threatening to terminate a parent’s custody of his children, when the official would not have taken this step absent her retaliatory intent, violates the First Amendment. The panel held that because plaintiffs alleged that retaliatory animus was the but-for cause of defendant’s conduct, defendant was not entitled to qualified immunity. The panel held that the district court properly dismissed plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment claims, and claims brought pursuant to Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), which alleged that defendants interviewed the minor children while they were at school without Capp’s consent. The panel held that the first amended complaint contained no facts as to whether the interviews were conducted without either parent’s permission, the length of the interviews, or the specific circumstances of the interviews. Moreover, the panel held that even if plaintiffs had pleaded a plausible 4 CAPP V. COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO Fourth Amendment claim, defendants would be entitled to qualified immunity because the right of minor children to be free from unconstitutional seizures and interrogations by social workers had not been clearly established. Rejecting the Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process claim, the panel held that although Capp might have been subjected to an investigation by the County’s Health and Human Services Agency, that alone was not cognizable as a violation of the liberty interest in familial relations. The panel rejected the Monell claim, concluding that plaintiffs failed to plead a plausible constitutional violation stemming from defendants’ interviews with the children. Moreover, even if plaintiffs had pleaded a plausible Fourth Amendment claim, the first amended complaint ascribed defendants’ alleged misconduct to official policy in a conclusory fashion that was insufficient to state a viable claim.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on August 30, 2019.
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