Dubuc v. City of Tulsa ( 1999 )

F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
AUG 27 1999
TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
BRIAN DALE DUBUC,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v. Case No. 98-5140
CITY OF TULSA, sued as: the City and (D.C. No. 97-CV-650-B)
County of Tulsa, a municipal corporation (N. D. Okla.)
and as county; CLIFFORD E. HOPPER,
final policy maker and enforcement
officer, of Tulsa County; and district
Judge presiding until 1994; SALLEY
SELF, certified shorthand reporter and
official court stenographer and as
individual; EDWARD RANDOLPH
TURNBULL, as individual and county
prosecutor; RON WALLACE, as an
individual and county public defender;
PAULA J. ALFORD, an individual and
county appellate public defender; BILL A.
WARD, as an individual and county
officer for the public; RON MAYFIELD,
as an individual and police officer of city
and county of Tulsa; D ELLIOT, as an
individual and as an officer of city and
county of Tulsa; DERICK CARLOCK, as
an individual and as an officer of city and
county of Tulsa; JEFF CASH, as an
individual and as an officer of city and
county of Tulsa; TIM CLARK, an
individual and manager owner of Silver
Dollar Pawn Shop and as aid to officials
herein; C. SHELBY CUNNINGHAM, an
individual and as aid to officials herein;
LESLIE LUNN, an individual and as aid
to officials herein; PATTY R.
MCKENZIE, as individual and as aid to
official herein,
Defendants-Appellees.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT*
Before SEYMOUR, Chief Judge, BALDOCK, and HENRY, Circuit Judges,
Brian Dale Dubuc, proceeding pro se, appeals the district court’s order dismissing
his civil rights complaint sua sponte for failure to state a claim. For the reasons set forth
below, we grant Mr. Dubuc’s motion to proceed in forma pauperis, but on the merits, we
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court generally
disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order and judgment may
be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
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affirm the district court’s decision.1
Mr. Dubuc filed this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C § 1983 against the City and
County of Tulsa, and a number of city and county officials, including a state court judge,
several police officers, a prosecutor, and two public defenders. He also named several
private citizens as defendants. He alleged that all of these defendants conspired to
deprive him of his constitutional rights by engineering his wrongful prosecution and
conviction in an Oklahoma state court.
Applying 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g), the district court dismissed Mr. Dubuc’s complaint
sua sponte for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. The court relied
primarily on the doctrine of res judicata, reasoning that Mr. Dubuc had filed similar claims
in a prior lawsuit in the same federal district. The court noted that the judge in the prior
lawsuit had dismissed some of Mr. Dubuc’s claims for failure to state a claim and had
granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on the remaining claims. See Rec.
doc. 9, at 4 (citing Dubuc v. Tulsa County District Ct. No. 94-C-207-H, aff’d, No. 96-
5158, 1997 WL 158168 (10th Cir. Apr. 2, 1997). As to the private citizen defendants in
the present case, the district court concluded that Mr. Dubuc’s conclusory allegations that
these citizens acted under color of law were insufficient to state a claim.
1
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of this
appeal. Fed. R. App. P. 34(a); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered
submitted without oral argument.
3
The district court then denied Mr. Dubuc’s motion for leave to proceed in forma
pauperis on appeal on the grounds that, under 28 U.S.C.§ 1915(g), Mr. Dubuc had filed
actions or appeals that had been dismissed as frivolous or malicious or for failure to state a
claim on three prior occasions. For the first two “prior occasions,” the district court cited
two cases from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma that
had been dismissed as frivolous (Dubuc v. Boone, No. CIV-93-192-B (E.D. Okla. Jan. 30,
1995) and Dubuc v. Boone, No. CIV-94-501-S (E.D. Okla. Sept. 26, 1995)). The court
counted the dismissal for failure to state a claim in the instant case as the third “prior
occasion” under § 1915(g).
Mr. Dubuc has now filed a motion to proceed in forma pauperis in this court, and
we grant it. In Jennings v. Natrona County Dentention Ctr. Med. Facility, 175 F.3d 775,
780 (10th Cir. 1999), we ruled that a district court’s dismissal of a claim does not count as
a “prior occasion” under § 1915(g) until the defendant has waived or exhausted his right to
appeal the dismissal order. Because Mr. Dubuc had not waived or exhausted his right to
appeal when the district court dismissed his complaint, the district court’s dismissal should
not have been counted as a “prior occasion.” Because Mr. Dubuc did not have three “prior
occasions” when he filed his appeal, he may proceed without payment of the full filing fee.
In his appellate brief, Mr. Dubuc advances several arguments as to why the district
court should not have applied the doctrine of res judicata to bar his claims. He contends
that the dismissal of his complaint in the earlier case was not a determination on the
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merits. He adds that he did not receive a full and fair opportunity to litigate his claims in
the earlier case because he was not allowed to amend his complaint. Finally, he argues
that the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477(1994) establishes that he should be allowed to litigate his civil rights conspiracy claim
now. We are persuaded by none of these arguments.
As a general rule, res judicata requires the satisfaction of four elements: (1) the
prior suit must have ended with a judgment on the merits; (2) the parties must be identical
or in privity; (3) the suit must be based on the same cause of action; and (4) the party
against whom the doctrine is asserted must have had a full and fair opportunity to litigate
the claim in the prior suit. See Nwosum v. General Mills Restaurants, Inc., 124 F.3d 1255,
1257 (10th Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 118 S. Ct. 1396 (1998). As to the third element--that
the two suits must be based on the same cause of action--this circuit has applied a
transactional approach. See Petromanagement Corp. v. Acme-Thomas Joint Venture, 835
F.2d 1329, 1335 (10th Cir. 1988) (citing Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 24 (1980)).
“Under this approach, a cause of action includes all claims or legal theories of recovery
that arise from the same transaction, event, or occurrence. All claims arising out of the
transaction must therefore be presented in one suit or be barred from subsequent
litigation.” Nwosun, 124 F.3d at 1257.
Applying this analysis, we conclude that in light of Mr. Dubuc’s prior action in the
Northern District of Oklahoma ( Dubuc v. Tulsa County District Ct., No. 94-C-207-H,
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aff’d, No. 96-5158, 1997 WL 158168 (10th Cir. Apr. 2, 1997)), the instant action is barred
by the doctrine of res judicata. The instant action, like the previous one, involves the same
alleged conspiracy leading to a purportedly wrongful prosecution, conviction, and
sentence. The fact that Mr. Dubuc has added some additional defendants and some new
allegations does not affect the res judicata analysis. See Nwosun, 124 F.3d at 1257 (“It is
immaterial that the legal basis for the relief sought in the two complaints is different; it is
the occurrence from which the claims arose that is central to the ‘cause of action’
analysis.”). Moreover, Mr. Dubuc’s contention that a dismissal for failure to state a claim
is not a judgment on the merits is not correct. See State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Dyer,
19 F.3d 514, 518 n.8 (10th Cir. 1994) (“‘A ruling that a party has failed to state a claim on
which relief may be granted is a decision on the merits with full res judicata effect.’”
(quoting Winslow v. Walters, 815 F.2d 1114, 1116 (7th Cir. 1987)). The arguments in his
brief do not establish that he was denied a full and fair opportunity to litigate his claims in
the prior case. Finally, contrary to Mr. Dubuc’s contention, Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S.
477 (1994), although holding that certain § 1983 claims are not ripe until convictions are
overturned in habeas proceedings, does not affect the finality of judgments already
rendered in civil rights actions like Mr. Dubuc’s.
Accordingly, we AFFIRM the district court’s dismissal of Mr. Dubuc’s § 1983
claim. In light of our affirmance, we note that the district court’s dismissal of Mr.
Dubuc’s complaint for failure to state a claim now counts as a strike under 28 U.S.C. §
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1915(g).2 See Jennings, 175 F.3d at 780.
Entered for the Court,
Robert H. Henry
Circuit Judge
2
Mr. Dubuc has filed a Request to Supplement Record on Appeal, which we
deny. He seeks to add to the record the district court’s order denying his constitutional
challenge to the three strikes provision of § 1915(g). Because we have granted Mr.
Dubuc’s motion to proceed in forma pauperis in this appeal, we need not address Mr.
Dubuc’s constitutional challenge here. Moreover, as the district court noted, in White v.
Colorado, 157 F.3d 1226, 1232-35 (10th Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 1150 (1999),
this circuit concluded that § 1915(g) violated neither inmates’ equal protection rights nor
their right to access to the courts.
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