Coates v. Brazoria County Texas

919 F. Supp. 2d 863, 2013 WL 321616
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedJanuary 28, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 3:10-CV-00071
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 919 F. Supp. 2d 863 (Coates v. Brazoria County Texas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coates v. Brazoria County Texas, 919 F. Supp. 2d 863, 2013 WL 321616 (S.D. Tex. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

GREGG COSTA, District Judge.

In a December 11, 2012 Order, this Court granted in part and denied in part Defendant Brazoria County’s motion for summary judgment on the section 1983 claim asserted against it. The County now seeks certification to file an interlocutory appeal challenging the portions of that ruling on which it did not prevail. Having reviewed the parties’ briefing and the governing law on certification of interlocutory appeals, the Court DENIES the County’s request because it fails to meet at least two of the statutory requirements for certification. First, an interlocutory appeal would delay, rather than materially advance, the ultimate termination of this litigation. Second, although the Order addresses complex questions of section 1983 law, the County does not identify the type of contrary authority that amounts to the “substantial grounds for a difference of opinion” required to depart from the ordinary rule against piecemeal appeals. Accordingly, the County’s motion is DENIED.

I. Background1

This is a Title VII and section 1983 case. It arises out of allegations that James Blackstock, a former elected court-at-law judge for Brazoria County, sexually harassed and assaulted two Brazoria County Juvenile Probation Department employees while the County acquiesced and ultimately retaliated against those employees for blowing the whistle. Plaintiffs originally sued Blackstock and the County.

A. First Round of Dispositive Motions

In January 2012, the County filed two separate motions for summary judgment— one regarding Plaintiffs’ section 1983 claims, Docket Entry No. 69, and one regarding Plaintiffs’ Title VII claims, Docket Entry No. 73. Judge Hoyt “provisionally” denied the section 1983-related motion, noting that it “should be carried with the trial of the case.” Docket Entry No. 83. Given that other procedures exist for obtaining judgment as a matter of law during trial, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 50, this effectively amounted to denial of the summary judgment motion. Yet the County did not seek an interlocutory appeal on the section 1983 issues raised in that motion — which are similar to those addressed in the recent Order — at that much earlier stage in the litigation when any efficiency gains from an appeal would have been greater.

Judge Hoyt denied the Title VH-related motion outright. Docket Entry No. 89. Again, the County did not seek interlocutory review of that ruling.

B. Second Round of Dispositive Motions

After obtaining leave from the Court, Plaintiffs amended their complaint on April 24, 2012 to add the Brazoria County Juvenile Board as a defendant. On May 21, 2012, the Juvenile Board responded with a motion to dismiss, and the County reasserted its previously-raised arguments in a motion to dismiss or, alternatively, motion for summary judgment. Three days later, the case was reassigned. This Court dismissed the claims against the Juvenile Board, holding that the Board had not been vested with the statutory [866]*866authority to sue or be sued. See Coates v. Brazoria County, 894 F.Supp.2d 966, 969-70 (S.D.Tex.2012).

After dismissing the Juvenile Board, the Court next addressed the County’s motion. The Plaintiffs’ Title VII claims and section 1983 claims relating to the Juvenile Board’s conduct survived that motion, but the section 1983 claims relating to the district attorney’s conduct did not.2 Coates v. Brazoria County, No. 3-10-71, 2012 WL 6160678, at *1 n. 1, *11 (S.D.Tex. Dec. 11, 2012). Accordingly, at this stage of the litigation, Plaintiffs have claims pending against Blackstock under section 1983 and against the County under section 1983 and Title VII. The County’s instant motion only seeks to appeal this Court’s treatment of the section 1983 claims against the County. A brief explanation of those section 1983 claims follows.

C. The Remaining Section 1983 Claims Against the County

Plaintiffs advance two separate claims under section 1983. First, they claim that the County violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. Specifically, they argue that the Juvenile Board’s acquiescence to the “clear and persistent pattern of sexual harassment established a custom and practice of Brazoria County to allow sexual harassment of their employees by defendant Blackstock.” Docket Entry No. 129 ¶ 118. Second, Plaintiffs claim that the County retaliated against them for engaging in constitutionally protected free speech by terminating them after they reported the harassment.

The County now seeks certification on three of the issues the Court addressed in its Order, which they characterize as “controlling questions of law”:

• Whether the Juvenile Board is a county agency whose members can fairly be characterized as county officials;
• Whether Texas law vests the Juvenile Board or the Commissioners Court with final policymaking authority to set the County’s policies against sexual harassment and retaliation against juvenile probation department employees; and
• Whether the County may be held liable for alleged actions by the Juvenile Board in failing to prevent sexual harassment by an elected county court-at-law judge.

II. Section 1292(b) Standard

The procedure allowing certification of interlocutory appeals in limited circumstances injects an “element of flexibility into the technical rules of appellate jurisdiction established for final-judgment appeals under § 1291 and for interlocutory appeals under § 1292(a).” 16 Charles Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 3930 (3d ed. 2012). Section 1292(b) is intended to “minimize[e] the total burdens of litigation on parties and the judicial system by accelerating or at least simplifying trial court proceedings.” Id. But such appeals “represent a rarely used exception to the strong judicial policy disfavoring piecemeal appeals.” In re L.L.P. & D. Marine, Inc., Civ. Nos. 97-1668, 97-2992, 97-3349, 1998 WL 66100, at *1 (E.D.La. Feb. 13, 1998) (citing Clark-Dietz & Assoc.-Eng’rs, Inc. v. Basic Constr. Co., 702 F.2d 67, 69 (5th Cir.1983)).

[867]*867Certification of an interlocutory appeal under section 1292(b) is only appropriate when: (1) the order from which the appeal is taken involves a “controlling question of law”; (2) there is a “substantial ground for difference of opinion” concerning the issue; and (3) “an immediate appeal from the order may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation.” 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). The decision to permit such an appeal is within the district court’s sound discretion. See Swint v. Chambers Cnty. Comm’n, 514 U.S. 35, 47, 115 S.Ct. 1203, 131 L.Ed.2d 60 (1995). Even if the district court certifies a section 1292(b) appeal, the court of appeals must determine that the certification requirements of the statute have been met. See Castellanos-Contreras v. Decatur Hotels, LLC,

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919 F. Supp. 2d 863, 2013 WL 321616, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coates-v-brazoria-county-texas-txsd-2013.