Drevaleva v. DOVA

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedJuly 11, 2022
Docket21-2139
StatusUnpublished

This text of Drevaleva v. DOVA (Drevaleva v. DOVA) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Drevaleva v. DOVA, (10th Cir. 2022).

Opinion

Appellate Case: 21-2139 Document: 010110708480 Date Filed: 07/11/2022 Page: 1 FILED United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT July 11, 2022 _________________________________ Christopher M. Wolpert Clerk of Court TATYANA EVGENIEVNA DREVALEVA,

Plaintiff - Appellant,

v. No. 21-2139 (D.C. No. 1:21-CV-00761-WJ-JFR) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF (D. N.M.) VETERANS AFFAIRS; DENIS RICHARD McDONOUGH, United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs; ROBERT WILKIE,

Defendants - Appellees. _________________________________

ORDER AND JUDGMENT * _________________________________

Before HARTZ, HOLMES, and McHUGH, Circuit Judges. _________________________________

Tatyana Evgenievna Drevaleva appeals the district court’s order dismissing

her employment discrimination lawsuit against her former employer and several

individual defendants as a sanction for not following the court’s orders and rules.

Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

* After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist in the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1. Appellate Case: 21-2139 Document: 010110708480 Date Filed: 07/11/2022 Page: 2

BACKGROUND

Ms. Drevaleva worked as a medical instrument technician at the Veterans

Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in New Mexico. After working there for about six

weeks and while still in the probationary period of her employment, she asked her

supervisor for leave without pay (LWOP) for six weeks to travel to Russia, where she

planned to undergo in-vitro fertilization and search for a surrogate mother. Her

supervisor informed her that to qualify for unpaid leave under the Family Medical

Leave Act (FMLA), she had to be employed by VAMC for at least a year. She

submitted a written LWOP request and left for Russia without waiting for approval.

The request was denied and she was terminated for taking leave without permission.

In the meantime, the VAMC hired two younger male technicians.

Ms. Drevaleva moved from New Mexico to California and filed an

employment discrimination complaint against the Department of Veterans Affairs

and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Northern District of California, asserting

claims for (1) gender and pregnancy discrimination; (2) disability discrimination and

failure to accommodate; (3) age discrimination; (4) tort claims for libel and

intentional infliction of emotional distress; and (5) deprivation of liberty and property

without due process. She also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, seeking

reinstatement.

The district court denied the motion for a preliminary injunction. It also

denied her motions to disqualify two assistant U.S. attorneys handling her case,

barred her from filing more motions to disqualify, and denied a motion seeking leave

2 Appellate Case: 21-2139 Document: 010110708480 Date Filed: 07/11/2022 Page: 3

to file another motion to disqualify. The court ultimately dismissed some claims for

lack of subject matter jurisdiction and dismissed the rest for failure to state a claim,

but gave her an opportunity to seek leave to amend the complaint. She appealed the

denial of the preliminary injunction to the Ninth Circuit and filed motions for an

injunction in both district court and the Ninth Circuit. Both courts denied her

motions for injunction pending appeal, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of

her motion for preliminary injunction.

While the appeal was pending, Ms. Drevaleva filed an affidavit claiming the

district court judge was biased against her. The court treated the affidavit as a

motion to disqualify and another district court judge denied it, finding no evidence of

partiality. She also moved to amend her complaint. After the appeal was resolved,

the court denied the motion to amend as futile and entered judgment for defendants.

Ms. Drevaleva appealed the dismissal order to the Ninth Circuit. She filed

another motion for preliminary injunction pending appeal in district court, which was

denied. The Ninth Circuit denied her motions to vacate, for change of venue, and for

injunction. It then reversed the dismissal order in part and remanded for

reinstatement of the sex discrimination and failure-to-accommodate claims.

On remand, Ms. Drevaleva filed another motion for preliminary injunction.

The district court denied it because, as in her previous motions, she did not address

the standard for obtaining a preliminary injunction and failed to show a likelihood of

success on the merits. The court also prohibited her from filing any additional

3 Appellate Case: 21-2139 Document: 010110708480 Date Filed: 07/11/2022 Page: 4

motions for preliminary injunction without leave. She appealed the denial of her

preliminary injunction motion, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed.

Ms. Drevaleva then filed a slew of motions in district court, including for

leave to seek a permanent injunction (since she was barred from seeking a

preliminary injunction), for summary judgment, for default judgment, for judgment

on the pleadings, to file supplemental briefs, to strike defendants’ answer, to

disqualify opposing counsel, and to transfer the case to the District of New Mexico.

The court granted the motion to transfer and denied the other motions.

In the District of New Mexico, Ms. Drevaleva requested an expedited

combined jury trial and hearing on a motion for permanent injunction, which the

court denied because she had not filed a motion for preliminary injunction. She filed

an appeal from that interlocutory order in this court. In the meantime, she filed a

flurry of motions in district court, including motions for electronic case filing (ECF)

privileges, for an expedited jury trial, for court-appointed counsel, to disqualify

opposing counsel, for partial summary judgment, and an application for certification

of her lawsuit as one of general public importance. She also filed a notice that the

local rule governing summary judgment procedures did not apply to her and

numerous filings she characterized as supplemental.

On September 14, 2021, the district court entered an order striking or denying

all of the pending motions, referring the case to a magistrate judge, staying the case

until the magistrate judge’s issuance of a scheduling order, and ordering that any new

filings be stricken. In denying her motions and striking her “rash of repetitive

4 Appellate Case: 21-2139 Document: 010110708480 Date Filed: 07/11/2022 Page: 5

filings,” R. at 556, the court outlined her abusive litigation practices while her case

was pending in the Northern District of California, and it denied her request for ECF

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