“We may, of course, affirm the district court’s decision on any ground urged below, regardless of whether it was relied on by the district court.”
How later courts described this case
- “We may, of course, affirm the district court’s decision on any ground urged below, regardless of whether it was relied on by the district court.”
- dismissing claim against state judges because there was no way of knowing how they would rule on a matter
- affirmative defense of statute of limitations clearly apparent on face of complaint
- Louisiana tolling provisions considered in section 1983 action
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
CLARK, Chief Judge,
concurring:
While my analysis differs from that of the majority, I reach the same result.
The plaintiffs brought this suit under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985(3). These statutes provide a federal right of action to persons whose federally guaranteed rights are violated. The right of action conferred is expressly limited. It can only be brought against the person who was the violator. 1 *160 This action does not assert that any named defendant violated federally protected rights of any plaintiff. For me, this is enough to affirm the district court’s 12(b)(6) dismissal.
Section 1988 teaches that we should look to state law in determining whether a cause of action under the civil rights statutes survives the death of a plaintiff or defendant. 2 See Robertson v. Wegmann, 436 U.S. 584 , 98 S.Ct. 1991 , 56 L.Ed.2d 554 (1978); Brazier v. Cherry, 293 F.2d 401 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 921 , 82 S.Ct. 243 , 7 L.Ed.2d 136 (1961); Pritchard v. Smith, 289 F.2d 153 (8th Cir.1961). See also Moor v. County of Alameda, 411 U.S. 693 , 702 n. 14, 93 S.Ct. 1785 , 1792 n. 14, 36 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973). This principle has not been extended, however, to cases such as this, 3 and in my view it could not be. Here the alleged wrongdoer has been dead for decades. The defendants named in this suit are not here as survivor-representatives of the deceased violator but only because they happen to be successors-in-title to the only person the statutes allow to be sued. If they were complete strangers to the original R.J. Lucius and just happened to have purchased the property, the claim would be the same: R.J. Lucius acted under color of law to deprive our ancestors of this land, we are the rightful owners of title, give us back our land. Allowing the plaintiffs to proceed against these parties under sections 1983 and 1985(3) would create a right of action which these statutes do not grant. If those who hold the property that person acquired are to be made accountable, it must be under state property law, not these statutes. I agree with the district court: There is no room in these civil rights statutes for the sins of the father to be visited upon his children.
This view is consistent with Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 , 98 S.Ct. 2018 , 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), which held the doctrine of respondeat superior inapplicable to actions brought under section 1983. In reaching this conclusion, the Monell Court emphasized that the language of section 1983 imposes liability only on the wrongdoer. Id. at 691-92 , 98 S.Ct. at 2036. Therefore, for a city to be held liable under section 1983, the city itself, rather than a city employee, must have subjected the plaintiff to a deprivation of a federally secured right. Monell thus makes clear that a plaintiff who brings a civil rights action that is analogous to a state claim may not utilize concepts of state law applicable to that claim (such as respondeat superior) that are inconsistent with the plain words of the civil rights statute under which he brings his claim.
The majority finds hidden in the plaintiffs’ inartfully-drawn complaint “an action analogous to the Louisiana petitory action,” ante, at 155, the Louisiana civil-law version of an action to try title. I am not certain whether the majority means this is a civil rights claim that is analogous to a petitory action or a pendent state claim under the Louisiana petitory statute. If the former is intended, I would follow the analysis above instead of that relied on by the majority. If the latter is what is *161 meant, I would construe the district court’s action as an exercise of its broad discretion to dismiss a pendent state claim where the underlying federal claim is resolved before trial. See Hondo Nat. Bank v. Gill Saw. Assn., 696 F.2d 1095, 1102 (5th Cir.1983).
Because either analysis would require dismissal without delving into the Louisiana law of prescription, I, like the majority, find it unnecessary to resolve the question whether application of the prescription statutes to the plaintiffs is unconstitutional.
. Section 1983 provides:
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an
action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
(Emphasis added.)
Section 1985(3) provides:
If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire or go in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another, for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws; or for the purpose of preventing or hindering the constituted authorities of any State or Territory from giving or securing to all persons within such State or Territory the equal *160 protection of the laws; or if two or more persons conspire to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for President or Vice President, or as a Member of Congress of the United States; or to injure any citizen in person or property on account of such support or advocacy; in any case of conspiracy set forth in this section, if one or more persons engaged therein do, or cause to be done, any act in furtherance of the object of such conspiracy, whereby another is injured in his person or property, or deprived of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, the party so injured or deprived may have an action for the recovery of damages occasioned by such injury or deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators.
(Emphasis added.)
. 42 U.S.C. § 1986 contains a limited survivability provision applicable only to actions under section 1985.
. The cases have applied state survivorship rules where the person whose rights were violated died before or after suit was filed or where the violator died after suit was filed.