North Carolina ex rel. Bishop v. County of Macon

809 F. Supp. 2d 438, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93850, 2011 WL 3667392
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. North Carolina
DecidedAugust 22, 2011
DocketCivil Case No. 2:10cv09
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 809 F. Supp. 2d 438 (North Carolina ex rel. Bishop v. County of Macon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
North Carolina ex rel. Bishop v. County of Macon, 809 F. Supp. 2d 438, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93850, 2011 WL 3667392 (W.D.N.C. 2011).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

MARTIN REIDINGER, District Judge.

THIS MATTER is before the Court on the Notice of Motion and Partial Motion to Dismiss by Defendants Macon County, Macon County Sheriffs Department, Robert L. Holland, Charles J. Lau, and the Ohio Casualty Insurance Company [Doc. 9].

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b) and the Standing Orders of Designation of this Court, United States Magistrate Judge Dennis L. Howell was designated to consider the motion and to submit recommendations for its disposition.

On October 12, 2010, the Magistrate Judge filed a Revised Memorandum and Recommendation in which he recommended granting the motion to dismiss, declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims and dismissing those claims without prejudice. [Doc. 45]. The Plaintiffs timely filed objections to that recommendation. [Doc. 46].

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

By Amended Complaint, filed April 5, 2010, the Plaintiffs brought an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violations of their rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.1 [Doc. 3]. State law claims for negligence, false arrest, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, conversion, and bailment were also alleged. [Id.\ Defendants Macon County, Macon County Sheriffs Department, Robert L. Holland, Charles J. Lau, and the Ohio Casualty Insurance Company (the County Defendants) moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted. [Doc. 9]. Defendant Potts filed an answer which included a motion to dismiss but did not separately so move. [Doc. 8]. Defendant Garner also moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim. [Doc. 23].

On July 9, 2010, the Magistrate Judge issued a Memorandum and Recommendation wherein it was recommended that the County Defendants’ motion to dismiss be granted. [Doc. 18]. The Plaintiffs filed objections to the recommendation that the action be dismissed. [Doc. 22]. Before the recommendation could be acted upon, however, the Magistrate Judge withdrew [441]*441the Memorandum and Recommendation and specifically provided the parties with an opportunity to address the impact of Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 114 S.Ct. 2364, 129 L.Ed.2d 383 (1994). [Doc. 36]. After further briefing, the Magistrate Judge entered the Amended Memorandum and Recommendation which is currently before the Court, recommending that the County Defendants’ motion to dismiss be granted and that the Court decline supplemental jurisdiction as to the state law claims. The Plaintiffs have timely objected.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

A district court reviews specific objections to a Memorandum and Recommendation under a de novo standard. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b). “Parties filing objections must specifically identify those findings objected to.” Battle v. United States Parole Commission, 834 F.2d 419, 421 (5th Cir.1987), overruled on other grounds Douglass v. United Servs. Auto. Ass’n, 79 F.3d 1415 (5th Cir.1996). If a party makes only general objections, de novo review is not required. Wells v. Shriners Hospital, 109 F.3d 198, 200 (4th Cir.1997) (boilerplate objections will not avoid the consequences of failing to object altogether). “Section 636(b)(1) does not countenance a form of generalized objection to cover all issues addressed by the magistrate judge; it contemplates that a party’s objection to a magistrate judge’s report be specific and particularized, as the statute directs the district court to review only those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made.” United States v. Midgette, 478 F.3d 616, 621 (4th Cir.2007), certiorari denied 551 U.S. 1157, 127 S.Ct. 3032, 168 L.Ed.2d 749 (2007) (emphasis in original).

Likewise, merely reiterating the same arguments made in the pleading submitted to the Magistrate Judge does not warrant de novo review. Id.; Veney v. Astrue, 539 F.Supp.2d 841, 846 (W.D.Va.2008). “Allowing a litigant to obtain de novo review of [the] entire case by merely reformatting an earlier brief as an objection ‘mak[es] the initial reference to the magistrate useless.’” Id. In order “to preserve for appeal an issue in a magistrate judge’s report, a party must object to the finding or recommendation on that issue with sufficient specificity so as reasonably to alert the district court of the true ground for the objection.” Midgette, 478 F.3d at 622.

Here, the Plaintiffs have reasserted the same arguments made in previous motions by “incorporation by reference.” [Doc. 46, at 9, 15], As to those portions of the objections, the Court will not conduct a de novo review. Id.

The County Defendants have moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). In order to survive a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), “a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, ‘to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009), quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). To be “plausible on its face,” a plaintiff must demonstrate more than “a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully.” Id. A plaintiff must “articulate facts, when accepted as true, that ‘show’ that the plaintiff has stated a claim entitling him to relief, i.e., the ‘plausibility of entitlement to relief.’ ” Francis v. Giacomelli, 588 F.3d 186, 193 (4th Cir.2009), quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

[T]he Supreme Court has held that a complaint must contain “more than la[442]*442bels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” To discount such unadorned conclusory allegations, “a court considering a motion to dismiss can choose to begin by identifying pleadings that, because they are not more than conclusions, are not entitled to the assumption of truth.” This approach recognizes that “naked assertions” of wrongdoing necessitate some “factual enhancement” within the complaint to cross “the line between possibility and plausibility of entitlement to relief.”

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Bluebook (online)
809 F. Supp. 2d 438, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93850, 2011 WL 3667392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/north-carolina-ex-rel-bishop-v-county-of-macon-ncwd-2011.