Hill v. Smoot

308 F. Supp. 3d 14
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedMarch 29, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 17–cv–681 (RBW)
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 308 F. Supp. 3d 14 (Hill v. Smoot) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hill v. Smoot, 308 F. Supp. 3d 14 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

Reggie B. Walton, United States District Judge *17The plaintiff, appearing pro se , has sued the Chairperson of the United States Parole Commission ("USPC"), J. Patricia Smoot, and two employees of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency ("CSOSA"), Maria T. Cecala and Akil Walker, for alleged improper disclosures of his personal information and the wrongful use of such information. See Complaint ("Compl.") at 1, ECF No. 1. The plaintiff seeks a total of $200,000 in monetary damages. See id. at 2. The defendants have moved to dismiss this case under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. See Motion to Dismiss ("Defs.' Mot."), ECF No. 8. The plaintiff has filed an opposition, ECF No. 11, and the defendants have filed a reply to the opposition, ECF No. 12. Upon consideration of the parties' submissions, and for the reasons explained below, the defendants' motion will be granted.

I. BACKGROUND

Although CSOSA is established "within the executive branch of the Federal Government," D.C. Code § 24-133(a) (2001), CSOSA supervises "offenders on probation, parole, and supervised release pursuant to the District of Columbia Official Code," D.C. Code § 24-133(c)(1) (2016). CSOSA's "supervision officers ... have and exercise the same powers and authority as are granted by law to United States Probation and Pretrial Officers." Id. § 24-133(d). This action stems from CSOSA's supervision of the plaintiff, who alleges the following.1

On "more than one occasion" between October 2015 and March 2016, Cecala, whom the plaintiff identifies in the caption of the complaint as a Community Supervision Officer ("CSO") for CSOSA, "knowingly and willingly" released information "from the plaintiff's personal and confidential file maintained by [ ]CSOSA[ ] without authorization to known and unknown individuals." Compl. at 1. According to the plaintiff, Cecala (hereafter "CSO Cecala"): (1) "used her office to obtain unverified and misleading unsubstantiated information from [his] former mental health provider (Crawford Consultants), that was wrongfully used against [his] parole status"; (2) "divulged misleading and unsubstantiated information to [his] former mental health care providers' nurse Barney Dank without authorization"; and (3) gave unauthorized and unsubstantiated information to a pretrial services agent attorney, without authorization[.]" Id. The "unverified information obtained by ...[CSO] Cecala was used along with the arrest information to write a violation report to the USPC, which led to a warrant for [the plaintiff's] arrest" and his "commitment to DC jail for approximately one [ ] month of incarceration." Plaintiff's Response to Defendant's Motion to Dismiss Under the Local Rule of the Court at 2 ("Pl.'s Opp'n"), ECF No. 11. The plaintiff also alleges that in March 2016, CSO Cecala "divulge[d] information to an attorney representing [him] in the arrest case." Id.

As a result of CSO Cecala's alleged conduct, the plaintiff concludes that while acting "under color of law of her office," CSO Cecala violated his "right to privacy, without *18authorization, and without consideration for plaintiff's equal protection, or civil rights to due process." Compl. at 1. He also accuses CSO Cecala "of a HIPPA violation." Id.

The plaintiff faults CSO Cecala's supervisor, Akil Walker, for allegedly failing "to take appropriate action or give proper review under agency regulation to investigate plaintiff's complaint after being notified on two or more occasions of agency regulations violations by his [subordinate] Maria T. Cecala." Id. at 2. The plaintiff also faults Chairperson Smoot for allegedly failing "to respond or take any action or make official review of plaintiff's complaint of agency regulations violations" by CSO Cecala and Walker, whom the plaintiff mistakenly describes as "agents of the USPC." Id. See Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support of Defendants' Motion to Dismiss ("Defs.' Mem.") at 10 n.4 (noting that "the USPC and CSOSA are separate agencies, and Chairman Smoot is not a superior of either Cecala or Walker"); see also D.C. Code § 23-133(b) (creating within CSOSA "a Director appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of six years").

II. LEGAL STANDARDS

A. Motion to Dismiss Under Rule 12(b)(1)

A motion for dismissal under 12(b)(1) "presents a threshold challenge to the court's jurisdiction ...." Haase v. Sessions , 835 F.2d 902, 906 (D.C. Cir. 1987) ; see also Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police v. Ashcroft , 185 F.Supp.2d 9, 13 (D.D.C. 2001) (noting that "a Rule 12(b)(1) motion imposes on the court an affirmative obligation to ensure that it is acting within the scope of its jurisdictional authority"). Accordingly, the Court must dismiss a claim if the Court "lack[s] ... subject matter jurisdiction [.]" Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1). Under Rule 12(b)(1), "it is to be presumed that a cause lies outside [a federal court's] limited jurisdiction," Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. ,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
308 F. Supp. 3d 14, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-v-smoot-cadc-2018.