Evers v. Outagamie County

24 F. App'x 540
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 9, 2001
DocketNo. 01-1591
StatusPublished

This text of 24 F. App'x 540 (Evers v. Outagamie County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Evers v. Outagamie County, 24 F. App'x 540 (7th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

ORDER

William and Anita Evers owned and operated a chain of brothels in Green Bay and Appeleton, Wisconsin, and eventually were charged with criminal violations and civil racketeering under Wisconsin law. In order to resolve both the criminal and civil cases, Mrs. Evers entered into a plea agreement under which she forfeited her interest in three buildings to Outagamie County, Wisconsin. At sentencing the trial court also ordered Mrs. Evers to forfeit [541]*541her interest in a tavern located at 201 N. Broadway in Green Bay.

In 1994, Mr. and Mrs. Evers filed in the district court a four-count complaint under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that Outagamie County and several county officials and private actors had deprived them of the forfeited realty along with personal property in the tavern building. After extended litigation that has included two appeals to this court, three of the four claims were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. See Evers v. Outagamie County, No. 95-1323 (7th Cir. January 9, 1996); Evers v. Outagamie County, No. 99-1785 (7th Cir. December 10, 1999). We determined, however, that the district court prematurely dismissed the remaining claim and therefore remanded that claim for further proceedings.

The sole surviving claim in Mr. and Mrs. Evers’ complaint is that, when the forfeited tavern building was sold, personal property belonging to them in the building was improperly “sold” along with the structure. At the time of the forfeiture, Mrs. Evers, who owned the building, was leasing it to Dennis Van Camp, who then bought the building (and apparently its contents) from the County. Mr. and Mrs. Evers, who both claim an ownership interest in the personal property released to Van Camp, allege that it was “never subject to any court ordered forfeiture or plea agreement,” and that they were deprived of this property without due process. (Complaint, Claim No. 3.) The County answered that it did not sell any of the items Mr. and Mrs. Evers claimed were sold illegally.

After remand the defendants filed a motion for summary judgment in which they argued that 1) Mr. Evers’ claim was barred by res judicata, 2) Mrs. Evers could not establish that her personal property had been wrongfully sold, and 3) Mrs. Evers’ claim was precluded by the Parratt-Hudson doctrine because the Wisconsin state courts afforded her adequate post-deprivation remedies. The district court agreed that Mr. Evers’ claim was barred by res judicata. The court further concluded that, although genuine issues of fact existed regarding whether the defendants had wrongfully disposed of Mrs. Evers’ personal property, summary judgment was nonetheless appropriate. The court reasoned that Mrs. Evers could not prove a procedural due process violation because she could not overcome the defendants’ evidence that any “sale” of her personal property had been “random and unauthorized” and that the state courts offered adequate post-deprivation remedies.1 Accordingly, the district court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment and dismissed the action. Mr. and Mrs. Evers appeal.

Mr. Evers first challenges the district court’s conclusion that his personal-[542]*542property claim was barred by res judicata, a ruling we review de novo. See Roboserve, Inc. v. Kato Kagaku Co., 121 F.3d 1027, 1034 (7th Cir.1997). Under the “full faith and credit” statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1738, federal courts in a § 1983 action must give state-court judgments the same preclusive effect those judgments would have in the courts of the rendering state. See Remer v. Burlington Area Sch. Dist., 205 F.3d 990, 998 (7th Cir.2000). Accordingly, we look to the law of Wisconsin to determine whether Mr. Evers’ claim is barred.

Under Wisconsin law “the doctrine of claim preclusion, or res judicata, provides that a ‘final judgment on the merits bars parties from relitigating any claim that arises out of the same relevant facts, transactions or occurrences.’ ” Id. at 998-99 (footnote omitted) (quoting Sopha v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., 230 Wis.2d 212, 601 N.W.2d 627, 636 (1999)). Wisconsin courts impose three prerequisites for claim preclusion: “(1) an ‘identity between the parties or their privies in the prior and present suits’; (2) the ‘prior litigation resulted in a final judgment on the merits by a court with jurisdiction’; and (3) an ‘identity of the causes of action in the two suits.’ ” Remer, 205 F.3d at 999 (quoting Sopha, 601 N.W.2d at 637).

The evidence established each of these prerequisites. Mr. Evers had filed a state-court lawsuit in 1992 against all the present defendants. In that suit Mr. Evers alleged, inter alia, that the defendants had wrongfully sold the personal property located in the tavern at 201 N. Broadway, even though they knew that the property had not been transferred to them by Mrs. Evers. The state trial court found that Mr. Evers lacked standing to challenge the criminal court’s forfeiture order because the couple’s marital property agreement gave all interest in that property to Mrs. Evers. Although the court did not specifically address the status of the personal property, the state court granted summary judgment in full to the defendants and dismissed the case on the merits. Mr. Evers unsuccessfully appealed that decision to the Wisconsin appellate court. Accordingly, the district court correctly determined that Mr. Evers’ claim was barred by res judicata.

Mrs. Evers also contests the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the defendants on her procedural due process claim based on the Parrattr-Hudson doctrine. We review this decision de novo, viewing all facts and drawing all reasonable references in favor of the non-moving party. See Berry v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 260 F.3d 803, 808 (7th Cir.2001). “Summary judgment is proper when the record shows that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Id.

To maintain a procedural due process claim, a plaintiff must have been deprived of a constitutionally protected life, liberty, or property interest; if she was, courts must then determine what process was due. See Porter v. DiBlasio, 93 F.3d 301, 305 (7th Cir.1996). We conclude that it is unnecessary to address the defendants’ objection to the district court’s conclusion that a genuine issue of material fact existed regarding whether they wrongfully disposed of Mrs. Evers’ personal property because the second part of our analysis is dispositive here. See Strasburger v. Bd. of Ed., Hardin Cty. Comm. Unit Sch. Dist. No. 1, 143 F.3d 351, 358 (7th Cir.1998).

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Related

Parratt v. Taylor
451 U.S. 527 (Supreme Court, 1981)
Hudson v. Palmer
468 U.S. 517 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Daniels v. Williams
474 U.S. 327 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Charles R. Strasburger v. Board Of Education
143 F.3d 351 (Seventh Circuit, 1998)
Elise N. Berry v. Delta Airlines, Incorporated
260 F.3d 803 (Seventh Circuit, 2001)
Sopha v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp.
601 N.W.2d 627 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1999)
T.W.S., Inc. v. Nelson
440 N.W.2d 833 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 1989)
First National Bank of Glendale v. Sheriff of Milwaukee County
149 N.W.2d 548 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1967)
Roboserve, Inc. v. Kato Kagaku Co.
121 F.3d 1027 (Seventh Circuit, 1997)

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Bluebook (online)
24 F. App'x 540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evers-v-outagamie-county-ca7-2001.