McClellan v. Board of County Commissioners

261 F.R.D. 595, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92761, 2009 WL 3241822
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 2, 2009
DocketNo. 07-CV-36-TCK-FHM
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 261 F.R.D. 595 (McClellan v. Board of County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McClellan v. Board of County Commissioners, 261 F.R.D. 595, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92761, 2009 WL 3241822 (N.D. Okla. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

TERENCE KERN, District Judge.

Before the Court is Motion to Dismiss by Juvenile Bureau of the District Court of Tulsa County (“Motion to Dismiss”) (Doc. 64).

I. Facts and Procedural History

On January 7, 2007, Plaintiff Diahanne McClellan (“Plaintiff’), an African-American female, filed a Complaint naming two Defendants: (1) Juvenile Bureau of District Court of Tulsa County (“Tulsa Juvenile Bureau”); and (2) Tulsa Public Schools (“TPS”). Plaintiff identified Tulsa Juvenile Bureau as her former employer and alleged that Tulsa Juvenile Bureau wrongfully terminated her employment, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) and 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and that TPS wrongfully refused to hire and/or interview her, in violation of Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1981.

On January 17, 2007, Plaintiff served Tulsa Juvenile Bureau with the Complaint at 315 S. Gilcrease Road (“Gilcrease address”) to the attention of “Brent Wolf [sic]” (‘Wolfe”), who [598]*598held the position of “director” of Tulsa Juvenile Bureau. (See Doc. 3.)1 On January 19, 2007, Plaintiff filed a return of service in the form of a certified mail receipt addressed to Wolfe at the Gilcrease address, which contains an illegible signature and is dated January 17, 2007. (See Doc. 5.) Tulsa Juvenile Bureau did not file an answer, a responsive pleading, or otherwise enter an appearance within the time provided in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(a) (“Rule 12(a)”). Plaintiff did not move for an entry of default or default judgment.

On April 10, 2007, Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint (“First Amended Complaint”), dropping Tulsa Juvenile Bureau as a Defendant and naming in its place the Board of County Commissioners of Tulsa County (“Tulsa County”).2 In the First Amended Complaint, Plaintiff identified Tulsa County as her employer and alleged that Tulsa County wrongfully terminated her employment. The allegations against TPS remained the same. On April 26, 2007, the Court entered a scheduling order. (See Doc. 17.)

On June 28, 2007, Tulsa County filed a motion to dismiss, essentially arguing that it was not Plaintiffs employer under Title VII. Tulsa County represented that it, Tulsa Juvenile Bureau, and the State of Oklahoma had “been in legal disagreement concerning the identity(ies) of the employer for the personnel at the [Tulsa Juvenile Bureau] since 2002 when the first complaint of discrimination was lodged against [Tulsa Juvenile Bureau].” (Tulsa County’s Mot. to Dismiss First Am. Compl. 12.) On July 11, 2007, Plaintiff filed an unopposed motion to amend her Complaint for a second time. Plaintiff contended that, in light of Tulsa County’s denial that it was Plaintiffs “employer” and assertion of a “legal disagreement” among various Oklahoma governmental entities on this issue, “[i]t is highly disputed and yet to be determined which entity was specifically in charge of Plaintiffs employment.” (Pl.’s Mot. for Leave to Amend Compl. 1-2.) The Court granted the motion to amend.

On July 26, 2007, Plaintiff filed a Second Amended Complaint (Doc. 29), re-naming Tulsa Juvenile Bureau as a Defendant and naming, for the first time, Tulsa County Juvenile Justice Trust Authority (“Tulsa Juvenile Trust”) and State of Oklahoma, ex rel. the District Judges of the Fourteenth Judicial District (“State”) as additional Defendants to the wrongful termination claim. On July 26, 2007, Tulsa County filed a motion to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint, making similar or identical arguments to those in its motion to dismiss the First Amended Complaint. Specifically, Tulsa County moved to dismiss on three grounds: (1) Plaintiff failed to exhaust administrative remedies because she named only Tulsa Juvenile Bureau and failed to name Tulsa County in her charge filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”); (2) Tulsa County is not Plaintiffs “employer” for Title VII purposes; and (3) assuming Tulsa County is adjudicated as the “employer” of Tulsa Juvenile Bureau, “its status as employer has no legal efficacy” because the statutes creating such relationship are in violation of the Separation of Powers Clause, set forth at Article 4, Section 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution.

On August 29, 2007, a new summons and the Second Amended Complaint were issued to Tulsa Juvenile Bureau at the Tulsa County Courthouse, 500 S. Denver Ave., Rm. 513 (“Tulsa County Courthouse”) to the attention of Judge Deborah Shallcross (“Judge Shall-cross”). (See Doc. 35.) Thus, Plaintiff served Tulsa Juvenile Bureau with the Second Amended Complaint by serving Judge Shallcross at the Tulsa County Courthouse, rather than serving Wolfe at the Gilcrease address, as she had done with the original Complaint. Plaintiff did not promptly file any proof of service as to Tulsa Juvenile Bureau with regard to the Second Amended Complaint,3 and Tulsa Juvenile Bureau failed [599]*599to file a responsive pleading or otherwise enter an appearance within the time required by Rule 12.

On September 21 and 25, 2007, Tulsa Juvenile Trust and State entered appearances and moved to dismiss all claims against them. (See Docs. 37-41.) On October 16, 2007, Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed without prejudice her claims against Tulsa Juvenile Trust and State. Thus, as of October 16, 2007, the remaining Defendants were Tulsa County, Tulsa Juvenile Bureau, and TPS; however, Tulsa Juvenile Bureau had not entered an appearance or otherwise participated in the litigation.

On April 23, 2008, the Court entered an Order denying Tulsa County’s motion to dismiss. The Court held: (1) the EEOC exhaustion analysis was intertwined with a substantive aspect of Plaintiffs Title VII claim— namely, whether Tulsa County does or does not qualify as a Title VII “employer” of Plaintiff — and was not the proper subject of a motion to dismiss; (2) the “joint employer” analysis, even assuming it presented a jurisdictional issue, was also intertwined with the merits of Plaintiffs Title VII case — namely, which of the remaining entities, if any, were her employer for purposes of Title VII — and was not the proper subject of a motion to dismiss; and (3) it was premature to consider the constitutionality of any state statutes. On May 21, 2008, the Court entered a schedule. Plaintiff, Tulsa County, and TPS proceeded with discovery in compliance with the scheduling order.

Approximately five months later, on October 14, 2008, Plaintiff filed a “proof of service” upon Tulsa Juvenile Bureau, which consisted of a certified mail receipt addressed to Tulsa Juvenile Bureau at the Tulsa County Courthouse to the attention of Judge Shall-cross. This receipt reflects a stamped signature of B.K. Ichell. It contains the outer rim of what appears to be a date stamp but does not contain any actual date stamp. (See Doc. 57.)4 On November 21, 2008, Pat Cremin and Johnathan Rogers, of the private law firm of Hall, Estill, Hardwick, Gable, Golden & Nelson (“Hall Estill”), entered their appearances on behalf of Tulsa Juvenile Bureau.5

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
261 F.R.D. 595, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92761, 2009 WL 3241822, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcclellan-v-board-of-county-commissioners-oknd-2009.