Pickard-Aguilar v. Washington State Employment Security Department ( 2021 )

1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 7 AT SEATTLE 8 EMANUEL ENOCH PICKARD-AGUILAR, CASE NO. C20-1248 RSM 9 Plaintiff, ORDER ADOPTING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION 10 v. 11 WASHINGTON STATE EMPLOYMENT SECURITY DEPARTMENT, 12 Defendant. 13 14 This matter is before the Court on the Report and Recommendation (R&R) of the 15 Honorable United States Magistrate Judge David W. Christel. Dkt. #25. Plaintiff has not 16 objected to the R&R. The Court adopts the R&R in whole and writes only to clarify one portion 17 of the R&R. 18 One possible reading of the R&R is that to the extent Plaintiff made claims under 42 19 U.S.C. § 1983 those claims are subject to Washington’s claim filing statute, RCW 4.92.110, and 20 are barred by Plaintiff’s failure to file a claim prior to pursuing this action. See Dkt. #25 at 4 (not 21 specifying whether discussion applies to all claims or only to state law claims). The Court does 22 not read the R&R as reaching that conclusion because § 1983 claims are not subject to the claim 23 filing statute. See Joshua v. Newell, 871 F.2d 884, 886 (9th Cir. 1989) (“We hold that the 24 Washington notice of claims statute does not apply to section 1983 claims brought in federal 1 court.”). Accordingly, Plaintiff’s failure to comply with the claim filing statute bars only his 2 state law claims and not potential § 1983 claims. Regardless, any § 1983 claims are barred by 3 the Eleventh Amendment for the reasons laid out in the R&R and summary judgment is 4 appropriate on that basis. 5 Having made this clarification and having reviewed the R&R and the remainder of the 6 record, the Court finds and ORDERS: 7 1. The Report and Recommendation (Dkt. #25) is ADOPTED. 8 2. Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. #18) is GRANTED. 9 3. Plaintiff’s claims are DISMISSED without prejudice. 10 Dated this 13th day of January, 2021. 11 12 A 13 RICARDO S. MARTINEZ 14 CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24