Stanko v. South Dakota Highway Patrol

CourtDistrict Court, D. South Dakota
DecidedMarch 28, 2018
Docket5:17-cv-05022
StatusUnknown

This text of Stanko v. South Dakota Highway Patrol (Stanko v. South Dakota Highway Patrol) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. South Dakota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stanko v. South Dakota Highway Patrol, (D.S.D. 2018).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF SOUTH DAKOTA WESTERN DIVISION

RUDY STANKO, CIV. 17-5022-JLV a/k/a “Butch,”

Plaintiff,

vs.

SOUTH DAKOTA HIGHWAY PATROL; ORDER HIGHWAY PATROLMAN KEVIN MOSER, individually and in his official capacity; RYAN TALLEY, individually; MONTE DROPPERS, individually and in his official capacity; DEFENDANTS IX through 3X, individually, will be named after discovery, Defendants.

INTRODUCTION Plaintiff Rudy Stanko filed a multi-count complaint against the defendants under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and state law.1 (Docket 1). The named defendants all filed motions to dismiss pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) or 12(b)(6). (Dockets 9, 12 & 15). For the reasons stated below, defendants’ motions to dismiss are granted.

1Originally included as a plaintiff was Mr. Stanko’s employee, Joshua Kemerling. (Docket 1). Mr. Kemerling was permitted to withdraw as a plaintiff. (Docket 29). Because a number of the counts of the complaint address only Mr. Kemerling’s claims, the court will focus exclusively on those counts potentially remaining in Mr. Stanko’s name. ANALYSIS Defendant South Dakota Highway Patrol seeks dismissal from the complaint pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1). (Docket 9). The remaining defendants seek dismissal on the basis of Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). (Dockets 9, 12 & 15). I. RULE 12(b)(1) MOTION TO DISMISS

Rule 12 provides in part that “a party may assert the following defenses by motion: . . . lack of subject-matter jurisdiction . . . .” Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1). “In order to properly dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1), the complaint must be successfully challenged on its face or on the factual truthfulness of its averments.” Titus v. Sullivan, 4 F.3d 590, 593 (8th Cir. 1993) (internal citation omitted). “In a facial challenge to jurisdiction, all of the factual allegations concerning jurisdiction are presumed to be true and the motion [to dismiss] is successful if the plaintiff fails to allege an element

necessary for subject matter jurisdiction.” Id. (internal citation omitted). While considering a Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction the court must “accept all factual allegations in the pleadings as true and view them in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.” Great Rivers Habitat Alliance v. Federal Emergency Management Agency, 615 F.3d 985, 988 (8th Cir. 2010). “[T]he tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678-79 (2009).

2 “The burden of proving federal jurisdiction, however, is on the party seeking to establish it, and this burden may not be shifted to the other party.” Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, 615 F.3d at 988 (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted). “The burden of establishing that a cause of action lies within the limited jurisdiction of the federal courts is on the party asserting jurisdiction . . . .” Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield v. Little Rock Cardiology Clinic, P.A.,

551 F.3d 812, 816 (8th Cir. 2009). The South Dakota Highway Patrol seeks dismissal because, as a division within the South Dakota Department of Public Safety, it and the State of South Dakota are protected from suit by the Eleventh Amendment. (Docket 10 at pp. 7-8). The Highway Patrol also argues it is not a “ ‘person’ amenable to suit brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983.” Id. at p. 7. Plaintiff’s responsive brief does not specifically address the propriety of the Rule 12(b)(1) motion. (Docket 17).

“Jurisdictional issues, whether they involve questions of law or of fact, are for the court to decide.” Osborn v. United States, 918 F.2d 724, 729 (8th Cir. 1990). “As the [United States] Supreme Court remind[s] us, ‘a State is not a ‘person’ against whom a § 1983 claim for money damages might be asserted.’ ” McLean v. Gordon, 548 F.3d 613, 618 (8th Cir. 2008) (citing Lapides v. Bd. of Regents, 535 U.S. 613, 617 (2002)). “[T]he Eleventh Amendment bars suit against the state or state officials acting in their official capacity.” Morstad v. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 147 F.3d 741, 743 (8th Cir. 1998)

3 (referencing Kentucky v. Graham, 473 U.S. 159, 169 (1985)). A suit will be allowed to proceed, however, if the state has waived immunity. See id. at 744. The State has not waived its immunity to suit under the Eleventh Amendment. The court grants defendants’ motion as it relates to the South Dakota Highway Patrol. (Docket 9). Plaintiff’s complaint against the South Dakota Highway Patrol is dismissed under Rule 12(b)(1).

II. RULE 12(b)(6) MOTION TO DISMISS Rule 12(b)(6) provides for dismissal if the plaintiff fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). In evaluating the defendants’ Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the court accepts as true all of the factual allegations contained in plaintiff’s complaint and grants all reasonable inferences in favor of plaintiff as the nonmoving party. Braden v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 588 F.3d 585, 594 (8th Cir. 2009) (“a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is

plausible on its face.’ ”) (citing Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 663 (2009). See also Crooks v. Lynch, 557 F.3d 846, 848 (8th Cir. 2009) (the court must review “a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, accepting the facts alleged in the complaint as true and granting all reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff, the nonmoving party.”) (brackets omitted). “While a complaint attacked by a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss does not need detailed factual allegations, a plaintiff’s obligation to provide the ‘grounds’ of his ‘entitle[ment] to relief’ requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of

4 the elements of a cause of action will not do[.]” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (citations omitted). “[O]nly a complaint that states a plausible claim for relief survives a motion to dismiss.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679. Courts are not required to accept as true legal conclusions “couched as . . . factual allegation[s]” in the complaint. Id. at 678.

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Stanko v. South Dakota Highway Patrol, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stanko-v-south-dakota-highway-patrol-sdd-2018.