Baillargeon v. Drug Enforcement Administration

638 F. Supp. 2d 235, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65316, 2009 WL 2243968
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedJuly 23, 2009
DocketC.A. 07-271 S
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 638 F. Supp. 2d 235 (Baillargeon v. Drug Enforcement Administration) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baillargeon v. Drug Enforcement Administration, 638 F. Supp. 2d 235, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65316, 2009 WL 2243968 (D.R.I. 2009).

Opinion

*236 MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

WILLIAM E. SMITH, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiffs Objection to the Report and Recommendation of Magistrate Judge Almond to dismiss her First Amended Complaint in its entirety. Plaintiff has brought a seven-count Complaint alleging that the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) and its employees and agents violated her constitutional rights, as well as federal and state laws when their revocation of her security clearance resulted in the termination of her employment. For the reasons explained below, the Court accepts the Report and Recommendation (“R & R”) as to Counts II, IV, V and VI, but rejects it as to Counts I and III. Count VII is also dismissed for the reasons stated herein.

I. Background

In October 2004, Plaintiff was hired to work as an Asset Forfeiture Specialist for Forfeiture Support Associates (“FSA”), a private Virginia-based company contracted to perform services for the DEA. Plaintiff was assigned to the company’s Warwick, Rhode Island field office. A condition for her employment was a government security clearance, which she received from the DEA. This clearance authorized her access to sensitive but unclassified materials. In February 2005, Plaintiffs security clearance was revoked at the request of the DEA, and she was then terminated by her employer. 1 Plaintiff states that she “was provided no notice as to the basis of the decision nor offered an opportunity to be heard regarding the merits of the revocation of her Security Clearance.” (First Am. Compl. ¶ 20.) FSA did not offer her any alternative employment, and she was unable to find other work in her field. According to Plaintiff, she was forced to leave the asset forfeiture profession and now works as a paralegal.

II. Standard of Review

Defendants’ motion to dismiss is a dis-positive one, and, consequently, Magistrate Judge Almond’s R & R will be reviewed de novo by this Court, as provided by Fed. R.Civ.P. 72(b)(3). In considering a motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), a court must accept as true the allegations in the complaint and draw all reasonable inferences in the plaintiffs favor. Aulson v. Blanchard, 83 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir.1996). The United States Supreme Court, in abrogating the frequently-cited formulation in Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957), restated the proper pleading standard as follows: “[Ojnce a claim has been stated adequately, it may be supported by showing any set of facts consistent with the allegations in the complaint.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 563, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).

More recently, in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, — U.S. —129 S.Ct. 1937 (2009), the Court further refined the standard, explaining that, while a court must accept the plaintiffs version of the facts as long as those facts are plausible, it need not accept as true formulaic legal conclusions set forth in the complaint. Id. at 1949.

In keeping with these principles a court considering a motion to dismiss can choose to begin by identifying pleadings that, because they are no more than conclusions, are not entitled to the as *237 sumption of truth. While legal conclusions can provide the framework of a complaint, they must be supported by factual allegations. When there are well-pleaded factual allegations, a court should assume their veracity and then determine whether they plausibly give rise to an entitlement to relief.

Id., at 1950.

III. The Dismissed Counts

Magistrate Judge Almond recommends the dismissal of Counts II, IV, V and VI. This Court adopts the R & R as to the dismissal of these Counts, and concurs with the rationale for their dismissal as set forth therein.

A.Count II

In Count II, Plaintiff alleges that Defendant DEA deprived her of her right to due process under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution by violating its own rules and regulations when it revoked her security clearance without: 1) providing her with the details and circumstances of any complaints about her performance; 2) affording her an opportunity to rebut any allegations; and 3) affording her any opportunity to be heard before or after the revocation.

Plaintiff has failed to cite any regulation, rule, statute or procedure which she alleges the DEA has violated. As Judge Almond notes, “Even under the liberal standards of notice pleading, such conjecture is not sufficient to survive a properly supported Rule 12(b)(6) motion.” (R & R 8.) The Court agrees with this conclusion. It is not the responsibility of the Court to fill in the blanks for Plaintiff. As the First Circuit has held: “Judges are not expected to be mindreaders. Consequently, a litigant has an obligation ‘to spell out its arguments squarely and distinctly,’ or else forever hold its peace.” United States v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir.1990) (quoting Rivera-Gomez v. de Castro, 843 F.2d 631, 635 (1st Cir.1988)).

B. Count IV

In this Count, Plaintiff again claims that unspecified DEA regulations were violated by Defendant Susan Ashcraft, Chief of the Asset Forfeiture Section of the DEA, and by the two John Doe Defendants, who are employees or agents of the DEA. Judge Almond recommends the dismissal of this Count based on the same reasoning as applied to Count II, and the Court agrees.

C. Count V

This Count asserts a Rhode Island common law claim for the intentional infliction of emotional distress, against all Defendants: the DEA, the United States, and the three DEA employees/agents in their individual capacities. Plaintiff alleges that their extreme and outrageous conduct caused her mental anguish accompanied by physical manifestations.

Judge Almond recommends dismissal of this Count on its merits because it fails to meet the test established by the Rhode Island Supreme Court that “the conduct has been so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.” Hoffman v. Davenport-Metcalf, 851 A.2d 1083, 1090 (R.I.2004) (internal quotation and citation omitted). This recommendation is proper.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
638 F. Supp. 2d 235, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65316, 2009 WL 2243968, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baillargeon-v-drug-enforcement-administration-rid-2009.