Huemer v. Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter Foundation

District Court, N.D. California·Decided October 11, 2022·No. 5:21-cv-07372·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 6 7 ARIANA HUEMER, et al., Case No. 21-cv-07372-SVK

8 Plaintiffs, ORDER ON DEFENDANTS’ MOTION 9 v. TO DISMISS SECOND AMENDED COMPLAINT; SETTING INITIAL 10 SANTA CRUZ COUNTY ANIMAL CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE SHELTER FOUNDATION, et al., 11 Re: Dkt. No. 36 Defendants. 12 13 Before the Court is the motion of Defendant Santa Cruz Animal Shelter (the “Agency”) 14 and Individual Defendants Melanie Sobel, Todd Stosuy, and Carlos Montes to dismiss the Monell 15 claim in the Second Amended Complaint filed by Plaintiffs Ariana Huemer (“Huemer”) and 16 Eeyore’s Hen Harbor (“Hen Harbor”). Dkt. 36. All Parties have consented to the jurisdiction of a 17 magistrate judge. Dkt. 9, 18, 33. The Court finds this matter suitable for determination without 18 oral argument. Civ. L.R. 7-1(b). For the reasons that follow, the motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ 19 Monell claim is GRANTED WITHOUT LEAVE TO AMEND. 21 This action arises out of two raids on Hen Harbor, an animal rescue and rehabilitation 22 organization founded by Huemer, which were carried out in 2020 by the Agency. See Dkt. 35 (the 23 “Second Amended Complaint” or “SAC”). The relevant procedural and factual background is set 24 forth in the Court’s order on Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiffs First Amended Complaint 25 (“FAC”). Dkt. 34 (the “Order Dismissing FAC”). In the Order Dismissing FAC, the Court 26 granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ causes of action for deprivation of property 27 without due process and for Monell liability, and gave Plaintiffs leave to amend those causes of 1 without leave to amend. Id. The Court otherwise denied Defendants’ motion to dismiss the 2 FAC. Id. 3 Thereafter, Plaintiffs filed the SAC, which contains causes of action for (1) retaliation in 4 violation of the First Amendment; (2) unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment; 5 (3) deprivation of property without procedural due process in violation of the Fourteenth 6 Amendment; (4) Monell liability; (5) violation of the Bane Act; (6) conversion or intentional 7 deprivation of property; and (7) trespass to land. Dkt. 35. The present motion to dismiss is 8 directed solely to the fourth cause of action for Monell liability. Dkt. 36. Defendants also argue 9 that the SAC is untimely because it was filed one day after the deadline set by the Court (id. at 6), 10 but because Plaintiffs have shown excusable neglect for the late filing (see Dkt. 37 at 5-7), the 11 Court will consider the SAC as if timely filed. 13 Defendants argue that the fourth cause of action for Monell liability, which is asserted only 14 against the Agency, should be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) because Plaintiffs have not 15 adequately alleged the existence of an Agency custom or policy that resulted in the deprivation of 16 Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. Dkt. 36 at 6-7. As explained in the Order Dismissing FAC, to 17 hold the Agency liable under section 1983 Plaintiffs must show: (1) they possessed a 18 constitutional right of which they were deprived; (2) the Agency had a policy; (3) the Agency’s 19 policy amounts to deliberate indifference to Plaintiffs’ constitutional right; and (4) the policy is the 20 moving force behind the constitutional violation. Dkt. 34 at 9 (citing Oviatt v. Pearce, 954 F.2d 21 1470, 1474 (9th Cir. 1992) and Tovar v. City of San Jose, No. 5:21-cv-02497-EJD, 2021 WL 22 6126931, at *4 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 28, 2021)). Plaintiffs may show the Agency’s policy by showing 23 that: (1) the Agency had an official policy; (2) the Agency had a pervasive practice or custom; 24 (3) the Agency failed to adequately train, supervise, or discipline; or (4) the violation resulted 25 from a decision or act of a final decisionmaker. Dkt. 34 at 9 (citing Horton by Horton v. City of 26 Santa Maria, 915 F.3d 592, 602-03 (9th Cir. 2019)). The Court dismissed Plaintiffs’ Monell claim 27 in the FAC on the grounds that the FAC failed to allege the substance of the Agency’s alleged 1 show how an allegedly deficient policy or other action of the Agency caused the constitutional 2 injuries Plaintiffs allege, and failed to allege facts showing action or ratification by an Agency 3 decisionmaker. Order Dismissing FAC at 12. 4 Defendants assume for purposes of the present motion that Plaintiffs have adequately 5 alleged a constitutional violation. Dkt. 36 at 7. 6 As a preliminary matter, Defendants argue that the SAC, like the FAC, fails to make clear 7 whether Plaintiffs’ Monell claim is based on the existence of a policy or the absence of a policy. 8 Dkt. 36 at 7; see also Order Dismissing FAC at 11. The Court agrees with Defendants that the 9 SAC remains unclear as to what policies Plaintiffs claim the Agency had, or should have had. The 10 SAC lists policies the Agency “must have.” SAC ¶ 127. The SAC then alleges that the Agency 11 “(a) failed to adopt a required policy, (b) adopted a policy that was not constitutionally sufficient, 12 (c) adopted a constitutionally sufficient policy that it disregarded as a matter of custom as known 13 to its policy maker, and (d) its policy maker made a decision in this case to disregard 14 constitutional requirements with now lawful basis.” Id. ¶ 128. The SAC also alleges that “[i]n 15 addition or in the alternative, considering each of the above-specified policies needed to protect 16 live animals such as those at issue in this case, (e) County Agency failed to train, supervise, and 17 discipline its employees so that they knew when and how to implement the required policies.” Id. 18 Several allegations in the Monell claim allege that the Agency either had or failed to have such 19 policies. See, e.g., id. ¶ 131 (“County Agency enacted … or County Agency [] fail[ed] to enact” 20 policies); ¶ 132 (“The policies or lack of policies that caused Plaintiffs’ injuries”); ¶ 139 (“County 21 Agency adopted and implemented unconstitutional policies or failed to adopt and implement 22 constitutional policies.”). In their opposition to the present motion to dismiss, Plaintiffs “confirm 23 that their claims are based, in significant or total part, on the absence of policies in five areas.” 24 Dkt. 37 at 7. Elsewhere in their opposition, Plaintiffs argue that they have pleaded “four plausible 25 categories of policy failures because one or more of them could be at issue in this case” and “[a]t 26 this stage in the proceedings, Plaintiffs cannot specify which of their injuries were caused by 27 which category of an injurious County Agency policy: one that was needed but not adopted, 1 custom, or disregarded at the hands of the policymaker or decisionmaker.” Id. at 3 (citing SAC ¶¶ 2 127-128). 3 The Court need not decide whether these inexact allegations regarding the existing or 4 absent policies/customs are sufficient because the SAC’s allegations regarding the Agency’s 5 policies/customs do not overcome other deficiencies the Court found in the Order Dismissing 6 FAC. As Defendants note (and Plaintiffs do not dispute), the Monell claim in the SAC (like the 7 Monell claim in the FAC) seeks to establish the required Agency policy/custom by alleging 8 (1) inadequate training and/or supervision; and/or (2) acts of or ratification by a final policy 9 maker. Dkt. 36 at 7; Dkt. 37 at 7; see also SAC ¶¶ 126-139. The Court now addresses 10 Defendants’ arguments that each category of allegations remain deficient. 11 A. Inadequate Training/Supervision 12 In the Order Dismissing FAC, the Court noted that the Monell claim in the FAC focused 13 only on Defendants’ conduct with respect to the raids on Hen Harbor at issue in this case and held 14 that “[w]here, as here, not a single similar incident to those involving the plaintiffs is alleged … 15 the allegations are insufficient to sustain a Monell cause of action.” Order Dismissing FAC at 10 16 (internal punctuation and citations omitted).

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