Christina Brinson v. Providence Community Corrections ( 2019 )


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  •               Case: 18-13699     Date Filed: 08/30/2019   Page: 1 of 6
    [DO NOT PUBLISH]
    IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
    ________________________
    No. 18-13699
    ________________________
    D.C. Docket No. 2:15-cv-00099-LGW-RSB
    CHRISTINA BRINSON,
    and all other persons similarly situated,
    Plaintiff-Appellant,
    versus
    PROVIDENCE COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS,
    Defendant-Appellee.
    ________________________
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Southern District of Georgia
    ________________________
    (August 30, 2019)
    Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, TJOFLAT, and BRANCH, Circuit Judges.
    ED CARNES, Chief Judge:
    Case: 18-13699     Date Filed: 08/30/2019    Page: 2 of 6
    Christina Brinson filed a class action lawsuit in the district court against
    Providence Community Corrections. She raised a state law claim for money had
    and received, which the district court dismissed for failure to state a claim under
    Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). The court later denied Brinson’s motion to amend her
    complaint and reaffirmed its order dismissing the complaint. This is Brinson’s
    appeal.
    I.
    We “review de novo the district court’s grant of a motion to dismiss under
    12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim, accepting the allegations in the complaint as
    true and construing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Butler v.
    Sheriff of Palm Beach Cty., 
    685 F.3d 1261
    , 1265 (11th Cir. 2012) (quotation
    marks omitted). “The plaintiff’s ‘[f]actual allegations must be enough to raise a
    right to relief above the speculative level, on the assumption that all the allegations
    in the complaint are true (even if doubtful in fact).’” 
    Id. (alteration in
    original)
    (quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 
    550 U.S. 544
    , 555 (2007)). We may affirm
    the district court’s judgment on any ground supported by the record, even if the
    court did not rely on or consider that ground. Thomas v. Cooper Lighting, Inc.,
    
    506 F.3d 1361
    , 1364 (11th Cir. 2007).
    The Georgia Supreme Court set out the elements of a money had and
    received claim in City of Atlanta v. Hotels.com, 
    710 S.E.2d 766
    (Ga. 2011). To
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    state a claim for money had and received, “a party must show, in addition to
    showing that an entity has received money justly belonging to another, that it made
    a demand for payment and was refused.” 
    Id. at 770
    (affirming grant of summary
    judgment to defendants because the plaintiff did not make a demand for payment).
    In her complaint Brinson alleged that Providence unlawfully and without valid
    contracts collected probation supervision fees. But she did not allege that she had
    made a demand for payment, or that such a demand was refused. As a result, her
    complaint failed to state a claim for money had and received. See 
    id. Brinson contends
    that City of Atlanta was implicitly overruled by Sentinel
    Offender SVCS., LLC v. Glover, 
    766 S.E.2d 456
    (Ga. 2014). She argues that the
    Georgia Supreme Court in Glover “decide[d] not to include a requirement of a pre-
    suit demand” when it set out “[t]he elements of an action to recover money paid
    under a void contract.” But that is not what Glover did. Instead, Glover addressed
    the issue of whether, as a general matter, probationers could bring an action for
    money had and received against a private probation company. See 
    id. at 470–72.
    In concluding that probationers could bring such an action, the Georgia Supreme
    Court noted that “[a]n action for money had and received is founded upon the
    equitable principle that no one ought to unjustly enrich himself at the expense of
    another.” 
    Id. at 471
    (quoting Jasper School Dist. v. Gormley, 
    193 S.E. 248
    , 250
    (Ga. 1937)). The Georgia Supreme Court in Glover did not address the specific
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    Case: 18-13699      Date Filed: 08/30/2019   Page: 4 of 6
    elements of a money had and received claim, much less contradict its holding just
    three years earlier about what those elements are. Glover did not implicitly
    overrule City of Atlanta.
    Brinson protests that the Georgia Supreme Court got it wrong in City of
    Atlanta and urges us to reexamine that holding. Impossible. As the United States
    Supreme Court has instructed us, “the views of the state’s highest court with
    respect to state law are binding on the federal courts.” Wainwright v. Goode, 
    464 U.S. 78
    , 84 (1983); accord, Riley v. Kennedy, 
    553 U.S. 406
    , 425 (2008) (“A
    State’s highest court is unquestionably the ultimate expositor of state law.”)
    (alteration and quotation marks omitted); Estelle v. McGuire, 
    502 U.S. 62
    , 67−68
    (1991) (“[I]t is not the province of a federal [] court to reexamine state-court
    determinations on state-law questions.”).
    As a fallback, Brinson asks us to certify to the Georgia Supreme Court the
    question of what the elements are for a claim of money had and received. That, she
    says, would give it the chance to correct (with the helpful guidance of her counsel)
    what she views as its mistake in answering that identical question in City of
    Atlanta. We can only imagine how surprised the Georgia Supreme Court would be
    if we were presumptuous enough to do that. We aren’t.
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    II.
    “We review the denial of leave to amend for clear abuse of discretion.”
    Carruthers v. BSA Advert., Inc., 
    357 F.3d 1213
    , 1217 (11th Cir. 2004). Generally,
    a “court should freely give leave [to amend] when justice so requires.” Fed. R.
    Civ. P. 15(a)(2). But “a motion to amend may be denied on numerous grounds,
    such as . . . futility of the amendment.” 
    Carruthers, 357 F.3d at 1218
    (quotation
    marks omitted).
    The district court did not clearly err in denying Brinson’s motion to amend
    her complaint because doing so would have been futile. As the district court noted
    the proposed amended complaint mostly repackaged the constitutional claims
    asserted in Brinson’s initial complaint, which the district court had dismissed. The
    only new legal theory raised in the amended complaint was that the contracts with
    Providence are void because of its failure to file the contracts with the County and
    Municipal Probation Advisory Council as required by Chapter 503-1 of the Rules
    and Regulations of the State of Georgia. But the regulation does not say what
    Brinson asserts. As the district court explained, the regulation lays out specific
    adverse consequences that can be imposed on violators and those consequences do
    not include voiding the underlying contract. The court was correct to “refuse[] to
    read that requirement into the Regulation.” Because the proposed amendment was
    futile the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to amend.
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    III.
    The dismissal of the complaint and denial of the motion to amend are
    AFFIRMED. The motion to certify questions of state law to the Georgia Supreme
    Court is DENIED.
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