Platt v. Moore, No. 19-15610 (9th Cir. 2021)
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Plaintiffs filed suit alleging that the seizure of their car and the deprivation of its use for five months violated their rights to due process under the federal and state constitutions. In this case, the police stopped plaintiffs' son while he was driving their car, found marijuana in the car, and arrested the son. The car was then seized pursuant to Arizona state law and eventually returned five months later. The district court dismissed all claims.
The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's determination that plaintiffs' claims were barred because they did not file a notice of claim under A.R.S. 12-821.01, concluding that this statute does not apply to claims for declaratory judgment or for injunctive relief. The panel confidently predicted that the Arizona Supreme Court would hold that where only nominal damages are sought, no claim must be filed under section 12-821.01 before filing suit. In regard to the district court's alternative basis for dismissal, the panel reversed the dismissal of plaintiffs' biased adjudicator claims. The panel explained that the saving construction adopted by the district court cannot be reconciled with the statutory language, and that on the facts as recited in the complaint, Deputy Navajo County Attorney Moore's undisclosed, unreviewable determination that plaintiffs' petition was untimely denied them a meaningful opportunity to be heard by an unbiased adjudicator.
In regard to the biased enforcer claims, the panel agreed with the district court that the Navajo County Drug Task Force was not amenable to suit under Arizona law, and thus dismissal was proper. However, both the biased adjudicator and biased enforcer nominal damages claims against Moore and Moore's supervisor for violations of Arizona due process could proceed. Finally, the panel rejected Arizona's invitation on cross-appeal to issue an advisory ruling that its civil forfeiture scheme is facially constitutional. Accordingly, the panel reversed in part, affirmed in part, and remanded for further proceedings.
Court Description: Civil Rights. The panel affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s dismissal of plaintiffs’ state law claims, and remanded, in an action alleging that the seizure of plaintiffs’ car pursuant to Arizona’s civil forfeiture statutes and the deprivation of its use for five months violated plaintiffs’ right to due process under the federal and state constitutions. Plaintiffs loaned their vehicle to their son who was subsequently arrested during a traffic stop for the presence of marijuana in the vehicle. Jason Moore, a Deputy Navajo County Attorney and the “asset forfeiture attorney” for Navajo County, directed that the car be seized and impounded. He then mailed to plaintiffs a notice of pending forfeiture. The Arizona statutes at the time provided two avenues for contesting forfeiture: filing a claim with the court or filing with the attorney for the state a petition for remission or mitigation of forfeiture within thirty days of notice. The statute explicitly made these options mutually exclusive; those who choose to file petitions for remission or mitigation could not file a claim against the property with PLATT V. MOORE 5 the court until after the state’s attorney issued a written declaration of forfeiture in response to the petition. Plaintiffs contested the forfeiture by filing a petition for remission or mitigation. Moore unilaterally determined that the petition was defective, and without notifying plaintiffs of any defect or affording an opportunity to correct it, he proceeded as though the forfeiture was uncontested. When a forfeiture is uncontested, the state need only establish probable cause to believe that the property is subject to forfeiture; it need not prove the factual basis for forfeiture by clear and convincing evidence, as required for contested forfeiture proceedings. Moore represented to the Superior Court in his application for forfeiture that no timely claim or petition for remission had been filed. When plaintiffs learned that Moore had applied for uncontested forfeiture, they filed a claim against the property in Arizona state court and also filed a civil rights action against Moore and various co-defendants. Two weeks later, Moore withdrew his application for forfeiture and the car was returned to the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs’ civil rights action alleged that Arizona’s uncontested forfeiture regime denied them due process because it: (1) allows attorneys for the state to adjudicate, without meaningful review, forfeiture proceedings in which the state’s attorney, in his official capacity, has a pecuniary interest (the “biased adjudicator” claims); and (2) awards all interests in property forfeited to the agency responsible for seizing it, impairing the ability of law enforcement to administer justice impartially (the “biased enforcer” claims). The district court dismissed both the federal and state law claims, and plaintiffs appealed the dismissal of their state law nominal damages claims only. 6 PLATT V. MOORE The panel first addressed the district court’s determination that plaintiffs’ claims were barred because they did not file a notice of claim pursuant to Arizona Revised Statute § 12-821.01, which requires, in part, that those asserting claims against a public entity or public employee file a notice of claim before filing suit. The panel noted that, as interpreted by the courts of Arizona, this statute does not apply to claims for declaratory judgment, Martineau v. Maricopa County, 86 P.3d 912, 915 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2004), or for injunctive relief, State v. Mabery Ranch, Co., 165 P.3d 211, 222-23 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2007). The panel predicted that, based on the reasoning in Martineau and Mabery, Arizona would not apply its notice of claim statute to claims for nominal damages, and the panel accordingly reversed the district court’s dismissal to the degree it rested on this basis. The panel held that like claims for declaratory or injunctive relief, claims for nominal damages have no direct effect upon a public entity’s financial planning or budgeting. And, like claims for declaratory or injunctive relief, it would be nonsensical to require nominal damages claimants for $1 in damages to disclose, as a prerequisite for filing suit, a reasonable estimate of the amount for which the claim may be settled, for such claims are ordinarily not amenable to settlement for a sum certain. The panel next addressed the district court’s alternate bases for dismissal of the claims on appeal. Addressing plaintiffs’ biased adjudicator claims, the panel determined that the gravamen of the claim was that the statute improperly permitted Moore full authority to determine whether plaintiffs’ petition for remission was validly filed, without notifying them when he determined that it was not. The panel held that on the facts as recited in the complaint, Moore’s undisclosed, unreviewable determination that plaintiffs’ petition was untimely denied them a meaningful PLATT V. MOORE 7 opportunity to be heard by an unbiased adjudicator. The panel held that the state’s regime on its face permitted the state’s attorney unilaterally to deny to those who chose to contest forfeiture by filing a petition the procedural protections applicable in contested forfeiture proceedings. The panel held that plaintiffs had standing to bring their biased adjudicator claim because their complaint alleged that they were subject to a constitutionally deficient forfeiture process, which itself constituted an injury. The panel agreed with the district court that, as to the “biased enforcer” claims, the Navajo County Drug Task Force was not amenable to suit under Arizona law. Dismissal of the claims against the Task Force was therefore proper. The panel held that ordinarily it would consider substituting a proper party in the Task Force’s place, but here, the conduct alleged to be unconstitutional was undertaken exclusively by Moore and his supervisor, Brad Carlyon. The panel concluded that both the biased adjudicator and biased enforcer nominal damages claims against Moore and Carlyon for violations of Arizona due process could proceed. On remand, the panel advised the district court to consider anew whether to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining claims or instead to remand the case to Arizona’s courts. Finally, the panel rejected Arizona’s invitation on cross-appeal to issue an advisory ruling that its civil forfeiture scheme was facially constitutional. Concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, Judge Collins stated that he would affirm the district court’s judgment in its entirety. As a threshold matter, Judge Collins agreed with the majority’s holding that the Navajo County Drug Task Force lacked the capacity to be sued under Arizona law and that the proper defendants for the relevant claims asserted against the Task Force were Moore and 8 PLATT V. MOORE Carlyon, in their official capacities as representatives of the State of Arizona. Judge Collins stated that on this record, plaintiffs lacked Article III standing to assert the so-called “biased-adjudicator” claim. Because Moore’s actions neither lengthened the proceedings nor prevented the return of the car, there simply was no sense in which plaintiffs suffered any loss of the car that could be said to be fairly traceable to Moore’s decision not to serve a written declaration of forfeiture. As to the biased-enforcer claim, Judge Collins agreed with the district court that Arizona’s notice-of-claim statute barred plaintiffs’ due process claims for nominal damages. Judge Collins stated that plaintiffs’ claims for damages were not exempt from the statute simply because, rather than seeking the full compensatory damages to which they otherwise might have been entitled, they elected to seek only nominal damages.
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