Yeasin v. Durham

224 F. Supp. 3d 1194, 2016 WL 7014027, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166033
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedDecember 1, 2016
DocketCase No. 2:16-CV-02010-JAR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 224 F. Supp. 3d 1194 (Yeasin v. Durham) 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
Yeasin v. Durham, 224 F. Supp. 3d 1194, 2016 WL 7014027, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166033 (D. Kan. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JULIE A. ROBINSON, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Plaintiff Navid Yeasin filed this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that Defendant Tammara Durham, the University of Kansas’s Vice Provost for Student Affairs, retaliated against him in violation of his First Amendment rights and violated his substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. This matter is before the Court on Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim (Doc. 13). The motion to dismiss is fully briefed, and the Court is prepared to rule. For reasons explained more fully below, Defendant’s motion to dismiss is granted.

[1197]*1197I. Legal Standard

To survive a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, a complaint must present factual allegations, assumed to be true, that “raise a right to relief above the speculative level,” and must contain “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.”1 To state a claim for relief under Rule 12(b)(6), “the complaint must give the court reason to believe that this plaintiff has a reasonable likelihood of mustering factual support for these claims.”2 The plausibility standard does not require a showing of probability that a defendant has acted unlawfully, but requires more than “a sheer possibility.”3 “[M]ere ‘labels and conclusions,’ and ‘a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action’ will not suffice; a plaintiff must offer specific factual allegations to support each claim.”4 Finally, the Court must accept the nonmoving party’s factual allegations as true and may not dismiss on the ground that it appears unlikely the allegations can be proven.5

The Supreme Court has explained the analysis as a two-step process. For the purposes of a motion to dismiss, the court “must take all the factual allegations in the complaint as true, [but] we ‘are not bound to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation.’ ”6 Thus, the court must first determine if the allegations are factual and entitled to an assumption of truth, or merely legal conclusions that are not entitled to an assumption of truth.7 Second, the court must determine whether the factual allegations, when assumed true, “plausibly give rise to an entitlement to relief.”8 “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.”9

If the Court on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion looks to matters that were not attached to the complaint or incorporated into the complaint by reference, it generally must convert the motion to a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment.10 However, the court may consider documents which are referred to in the complaint if they are central to the plaintiffs claim and the parties do not dispute their authenticity.11

Defendant attached a number of exhibits to her motion to dismiss. The Tenth Circuit has stated it is within the discretion of the district court whether to consider such materials.12 The Court con[1198]*1198siders some but not all of the exhibits without converting the motion to a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment. First, the Court considers the August 14, 2013 letter from KU’s Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access (“IOA”) (Doc. 13-4) because it was quoted in the Complaint.13 Second, the Court considers the September 6, 2013 email from IOA (Doc. 13-5) because it was also referred to for its content in the Complaint.14 Third, the Court considers Article 20 of the Student Code of Conduct (Doc. 13-8) because both the state district court and court of appeals made findings on the jurisdiction of the Student Code of Conduct based on Article 20.15 Fourth, the Court considers the content of the sanction letter from Defendant to Plaintiff on November 13, 2016 (Doc. 13-7). Courts have considered documents referred to in the complaint and attached to the motion to dismiss where they are central to plaintiffs claims and neither party dispute the authenticity.16 Plaintiff refers to this letter in paragraph 15 of the complaint.17 This letter constitutes Defendant’s decision to expel Plaintiff and ban him from KU—the very decision Plaintiff challenges in this case. It is central to Plaintiff’s First Amendment and substantive due process claims. Plaintiffs Complaint also referenced the letter for its content. Plaintiff did not dispute the authenticity of these documents in his response nor does he object to the Court considering them. The Court did not consider Docs. 13-1, 13-2, 13-3, and 13-6.

The Court may also take judicial notice of certain facts without converting a motion to dismiss into one for summary judgment.18 Under Fed. R. Evid. 201, the Court may take judicial notice at any time of the proceeding of a fact “that is not subject to reasonable dispute because it[ ] can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.”19 Judicially noticed documents “may only be considered to show their contents, not to prove the truth of matters asserted therein.”20 Judicial notice is mandatory when requested by a party and the Court is provided the necessary information.21 Defendant has requested that the Court take judicial notice of the Kansas Court of Appeals’ decision in Yeasin v. University of Kansas.22 The Court will take judicial notice of the ruling in the Kansas Court of Appeals,23

[1199]*1199II. Background

Drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of Plaintiff, the following facts are taken from Plaintiffs Complaint (“Complaint”).24 As discussed above, the Court also considers Doc. 13-4, 13-5, 13-7, 13-8 attached to Defendant’s motion to dismiss because the documents are referenced in the Complaint and are central to Plaintiffs claims.

Plaintiff Navid Yeasin was a student at the University of Kansas (“KU”). While he was a student, he was involved in a romantic relationship with another KU student, A.W. The relationship began in the fall of 2012 and ended in the summer of 2013. On June 28, 2013, an incident occurred between Plaintiff and A.W. in Johnson County, Kansas that resulted in the termination of their relationship, filing of a criminal case against Plaintiff, and a consent protection order in Johnson County, Kansas. The consent protection order prohibited Plaintiff from having any contact, directly or indirectly, with A.W.

In August 2013, when A.W. and Plaintiff returned to the KU campus for the fall semester, A.W. made a complaint to IOA that Plaintiff had sexually harassed her.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
224 F. Supp. 3d 1194, 2016 WL 7014027, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166033, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yeasin-v-durham-ksd-2016.