Latawnya Denise Cowan v. KVC Behavioral Healthcare, Inc.

CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedMarch 31, 2026
Docket5:25-cv-04035
StatusUnknown

This text of Latawnya Denise Cowan v. KVC Behavioral Healthcare, Inc. (Latawnya Denise Cowan v. KVC Behavioral Healthcare, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Latawnya Denise Cowan v. KVC Behavioral Healthcare, Inc., (D. Kan. 2026).

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF KANSAS

LATAWNYA DENISE COWAN,

Plaintiff,

v. Case No. 25-4035-DDC-RES

KVC BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE, INC.,

Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Plaintiff Latawnya Denise Cowan’s Complaint tells the story of a grandmother seeking to serve as the kinship care provider for her grandchildren.1 But a lack of reasonable accommodation for her visual impairment impeded that goal, plaintiff alleges. Specifically, defendant KVC Behavioral Healthcare, Inc. allegedly failed to provide “accessible communication, alternative format forms[,] modifications . . . [and] a qualified neutral scribe” so that plaintiff could participate fully in the kinship-care-provider licensing process. Doc. 1 at 4 (Compl. ¶ III) (quotation cleaned up). Plaintiff thus filed this suit against defendant under the Americans with Disabilities Act—and other federal statutes. Defendant has filed a Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 21). The court grants defendant’s motion. But one claim survives nonetheless— plaintiff’s Title II ADA claim—because defendant never moved to dismiss it. The court explains its reasoning below. But first, it outlines the governing facts and addresses a procedural wrinkle.

1 Plaintiff proceeds pro se. The court construes her filings liberally and holds them to a less stringent standard than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 5201 (1972); Hall v. Bellmon, 935 F.2d 1106, 1110 (10th Cir. 1991). But the court doesn’t assume the role of advocate for the pro se litigant. Hall, 935 F.2d at 1110. I. Factual Background The court “accept[s] as true all well-pleaded factual allegations in the complaint and view[s] them in the light most favorable to [plaintiff], the non-moving party.” Purgatory Recreation I, LLC v. United States, 157 F.4th 1173, 1182 (10th Cir. 2025) (quotation cleaned up).

Plaintiff’s allegations are brief. See Doc. 1 at 4 (Compl. ¶ III). Indeed, they are so brief that the court reproduces them—in full—below. In May 2022 the Boone County [Missouri] Court ordered the Plaintiff’s grandchildren be placed in her care after their mother was arrested for child abuse and neglect. This was after weeks of home visits from the social worker from the state and request from the children to be placed with Plaintiff. Plaintiff is vision impaired and requested effective accessible communication, alternative format forms and modifications that would allow her equal access and full participation in the process to get licensed as a kinship care provider for her grandsons. The Defendants denied the reasonable accommodations, alt format documents and refused to provide a qualified neutral scribe to help with the forms, Plaintiff filed complaint, agency retaliated by cutting all contact with grandchildren refusing services

Id. (quotation cleaned up). Based on these allegations, plaintiff asserts claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and the Civil Rights Act. Id. at 3 (Compl. ¶ II.A).2 The court evaluates each claim. Before it can do so, however, it must rule on a procedural issue that implicates which papers the court

2 The Complaint also lists the “USDHHS ADA and non-discrimination policies” as a federal statute at issue in this case. Doc. 1 at 3 (Compl. ¶ II.A). The court’s not sure what to make of this language. USDHHS is an acronym for the United States Department of Health and Human Services—a federal agency. See Christopherson v. Poutsch, No. 14-00152 JCH/SCY, 2015 WL 13662707, at *12 (D.N.M. Apr. 30, 2015) (identifying the United States Department of Health and Human Services as “USDHHS”). ADA is an acronym for the Americans with Disabilities Act. Tesone v. Empire Mktg. Strategies, 942 F.3d 979, 984 (10th Cir. 2019) (identifying the Americans with Disabilities Act as the ADA). Plaintiff already had listed the ADA separately as a statute at issue. So, the court doesn’t see how prefacing ADA with USDHHS adds a new cause of action to plaintiff’s inventory. In this Order, the court evaluates whether plaintiff states a claim under the ADA. It doesn’t evaluate any additional claims based on the Complaint’s “USDHHS ADA” language. Doc. 1 at 3 (Compl. ¶ II.A). will consider. The court sets the stage for this issue with a brief overview of this case’s procedural background. II. Procedural Background Because plaintiff proceeds in forma pauperis, the court screened her Complaint before service. See Doc 6. At screening, Magistrate Judge Rachel E. Schwartz addressed just

plaintiff’s ADA claim—construing it as a Title II claim—and ordered service of process. Id. at 2–5. Defendant then filed a Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 21). Plaintiff didn’t respond. Nor did plaintiff file anything at all in the case after May 21, 2025. See Doc. 18 (filing notice of appeal asking Circuit to review the court’s denial of plaintiff’s request to appoint counsel). So, the court issued a Show Cause Order on January 26, 2026. Doc. 30. It ordered plaintiff to show cause why the court shouldn’t dismiss the case for failure to prosecute. Id. Plaintiff timely—and repeatedly—responded to the Show Cause Order. See Doc. 31; Doc. 32; Doc. 35. And she filed a Response—albeit a belated one—to defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. Doc. 34. Defendant then filed a Reply, asking the court to grant its Motion to Dismiss as uncontested given the tardiness of plaintiff’s Response. Doc. 38 at 1.

The court addresses this procedural issue before it turns to the merits of defendant’s Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 21). III. Procedural Issue Defendant asks the court to grant its Motion to Dismiss as uncontested. Doc. 38 at 1. It contends the significant untimeliness of plaintiff’s Response warrants such treatment. Id. And it cites D. Kan. Rule 7.1(c), which provides, in relevant part: “If a response is not filed by the applicable deadline, the court will consider and decide the motion as an uncontested motion.” Plaintiff’s Response was late—very late. Defendant filed its Motion to Dismiss on May 30, 2025. Doc. 21. So, plaintiff’s Response was due on June 20, 2025. See D. Kan. Rule 6.1(d)(1) (“Responses to [dispositive] motions must be filed within 21 days after the motion is served.”). Plaintiff didn’t file her Response until February 2, 2026. Doc. 34. That’s more than seven months out-of-time. And plaintiff never moved for an extension of time. Plus, she only filed the Response after the court suggested it might dismiss her case. Doc. 30. Plaintiff’s pro se status doesn’t excuse her untimeliness. See Merrill Scott & Assocs., Ltd. v. Concilium Ins.

Servs., 253 F. App’x 756, 763 (10th Cir. 2007) (affirming—under abuse of discretion standard— district court’s decision to strike a pro se litigant’s summary judgment motion as untimely where he filed the motion “a full three months past the last extension that he requested”); see Kay v. Bemis, 500 F.3d 1214, 1218 (10th Cir. 2007) (explaining that same procedural rules govern pro se and represented litigants alike). But defendant’s proposed course of action—that the court grant its dismissal motion as uncontested—is strong medicine. And it flies in the face of the federal courts’ “‘strong predisposition to resolve cases on their merits[.]’” Allen v. Kay Lang, No. CIV-16-296-RAW, 2017 WL 11578450, at *1 n.1 (E.D. Okla. Mar. 2, 2017) (quoting Miller v. Dep’t of the

Treasury, 934 F.2d 1161 (10th Cir. 1991)).

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