Padilla-Ruiz, et al v. US, et al

Filing

OPINION issued by Juan R. Torruella, Appellate Judge; Kermit V. Lipez, Appellate Judge and David J. Barron, Appellate Judge. Unpublished. [12-2368]

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 1

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

Not for Publication in West's Federal Reporter

United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 12-2368
RAÚL PADILLA-RUIZ; VIVIAN J. FRANCESCHINI-RODRÍGUEZ; and
CONJUGAL PARTNERSHIP PADILLA-FRANCESCHINI,
Plaintiffs, Appellants,
v.
UNITED STATES; ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., U.S. Attorney General; ROSA
E. RODRÍGUEZ-VÉLEZ, U.S. Attorney for Puerto Rico; DEPARTMENT OF
THE ARMY; JOHN MCHUGH, Secretary of the Army; LTC FRANCISCO
BETANCOURT, Commander of the U.S. Army Cadet Command, ROTC
Mayagüez; LTC JOSE PLAZA, Commander of the U.S. Army Cadet, ROTC
Mayagüez; LTC ISMAEL REYES-BETANCOURT, Commander of the U.S. Army
Cadet Command, ROTC Mayagüez; COMTEK COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES,
INC.; JOHN CRAY; JOHN DOE; RICHARD ROE, and their respective
insurance companies,
Defendants, Appellees.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO
[Hon. Francisco A. Besosa, U.S. District Judge]

Before
Torruella, Lipez and Barron,
Circuit Judges.

Juan R. Rodríguez, with whom Rodríguez López Law Offices,
P.S.C. was on brief, for appellants.
Rebecca E. Ausprung, Trial Attorney, Chief, Civilian Personnel
Branch, U.S. Army Litigation Division, with whom Rosa Emilia

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 2

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

Rodriguez-Velez, U.S. Attorney, and Nelson Pérez-Sosa, Assistant
U.S. Attorney, Chief, Appellate Division, were on brief, for
appellees United States; Eric H. Holder, Jr., U.S. Attorney
General; Rosa E. Rodríguez-Vélez, U.S. Attorney for the District of
Puerto Rico; Department of the Army; John McHugh, Secretary of the
Army; LTC Francisco Betancourt, Commander of the U.S. Army Cadet
Command, ROTC Mayagüez; LTC Jose Plaza, Commander of the U.S. Army
Cadet, ROTC, Mayagüez.
Eugene F. Hestres, with whom Bird Bird & Hestres, P.S.C. was
on brief, for appellees LTC Israel Reyes-Betancourt and COMTek
Communication Technologies, Inc.

January 30, 2015

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 3

BARRON, Circuit Judge.

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

Raúl Padilla-Ruiz1 lost his job

with a private defense contractor retained by the Army Cadet
Command.

Padilla contends the contractor fired him for leaving at

various times to fulfill his obligations as a Lieutenant Colonel in
the Army Reserve. Padilla sued the contractor, as well as a number
of federal governmental defendants, under a number of federal
statutes as well as Puerto Rico law.
The District Court dismissed all of these claims with
prejudice, many for having been filed too late, the rest for
otherwise failing to state a claim or for lack of jurisdiction.
The defendants ask us to affirm on the same grounds and, with one
exception, we do.

The exception is this:

The District Court

directly discussed only the claims against the federal defendants.
But the claims against the defense contractor under the Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 ("USERRA"),
38 U.S.C. §§ 4301-4335, and Puerto Rico law do not suffer from the
same infirmities as the other claims.

Thus, we may not affirm

their dismissal on that same basis.
Still, the contractor argues we may affirm the dismissal
of those claims for the separate reason that the federal district

1

Padilla's wife and their "conjugal partnership" -- a
legal entity that holds a married couple's community property as a
matter of Puerto Rico law, see P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 31, §§ 3622,
3641, 3661 -- joined Padilla as co-plaintiffs below and join his
brief in this Court. That brief, however, fails to distinguish
their claims from Padilla's own in any respect. To simplify our
discussion, we therefore refer only to Padilla.
-3-

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 4

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

court in Puerto Rico was an improper venue for their resolution,
and that Padilla cannot argue otherwise because he did not appeal
the venue-based dismissal of an earlier lawsuit he had brought.
Rather than address that venue issue for the first time on appeal,
however,

we

remand

these

claims

to

the

District

Court.

We

therefore affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand the surviving
USERRA and Puerto Rico law claims for the District Court to
consider the venue issue.
I.
The District Court opinion provides a detailed factual
and procedural history of this case.

See Padilla-Ruiz v. United

States, 893 F. Supp. 2d 301, 303-04 (D.P.R. 2012).

In short form,

Padilla alleges that, until 2008, he worked for a private defense
contractor called COMTek at a Reserve Officers' Training Corps
(ROTC)2 office at a university in Puerto Rico.

Paddilla claims

COMTek is a private company that contracted with the Army to
"provide [the] labor force for the US Army Cadet Command," which
runs the federal ROTC program.
Padilla also claims that, as a Lieutenant Colonel in the
Army

Reserve,

he

was

called

up

at

various

times

during

employment at COMTek for training or to active duty.
alleges COMTek fired him on August 13, 2008.

2

his

Padilla

Padilla further

The ROTC is a federal government program that "prepar[es]
selected students" at civilian universities for "commissioned
service" in the armed forces. 10 U.S.C. § 2102.
-4-

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 5

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

alleges that his military service prompted this firing, contrary to
USERRA's

prohibition

of

discrimination

in

employment

against

members of the armed services based on their military service.

38

U.S.C. § 4311(b).
Padilla first filed a lawsuit against COMTek and a person
he alleges was one of its managers, John Cray, on July 22, 2009.
Padilla brought that challenge in the federal district court in
Puerto Rico.

Padilla claimed his employer violated USERRA and

Puerto Rico law.
April 26, 2010.

The District Court dismissed that lawsuit on
The District Court ruled a forum selection clause

in Padilla's contract with COMTek required Padilla to file suit in
the Eastern District of Virginia.

Padilla never appealed that

dismissal.

Nor did he re-file his suit in the Eastern District of

Virginia.

Instead, Padilla filed a new lawsuit in the federal

district court in Puerto Rico on April 25, 2011.
one at issue in this appeal.
one again names COMTek.
entities

and

employees,

That suit is the

Like Padilla's initial lawsuit, this

It also names various federal government
who

we

will

call,

collectively,

the

"federal defendants."3

3

Specifically, Padilla sued the United States, the
Attorney General, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto
Rico, the Department of the Army, the Secretary of the Army, and
three Army officers with the U.S. Army Cadet Command -- Lieutenant
Colonels Betancourt, Plaza, and Reyes-Betancourt.
Padilla also
named John Cray -- COMTek's alleged manager -- in this second suit,
but Padilla never served Cray with process, and Cray never appeared
below, so Cray is not a party before us. See S. Express, Inc. v.
White, 240 F.2d 682, 683 n.1 (10th Cir. 1957).
-5-

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 6

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

The defendants moved to dismiss for failure to state a
claim, lack of jurisdiction, and improper venue.

The District

Court dismissed the suit in its entirety on September 27, 2012.
The District Court, however, discussed only Padilla's failure to
state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)6) and the
lack of jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1)
over some claims, and limited its analysis to Padilla's claims
against the federal defendants. This Court stayed Padilla's appeal
for

almost

Afghanistan.

a

year

while

Padilla

served

on

active

duty

in

The parties agree the appeal is now ready for

decision.
II.
We review de novo the District Court's dismissal of
Padilla's claims.

See González-Maldonado v. MMM Healthcare, Inc.,

693 F.3d 244, 247 (1st Cir. 2012); Fothergill v. United States, 566
F.3d 248, 251 (1st Cir. 2009).

We start with the ones Padilla

brings against the federal defendants.
A.
Padilla sued the federal defendants under the Federal
Tort Claims Act ("FTCA"), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(b), 2671-2680.

The

District Court ruled Padilla did so too late, and rejected his
argument for equitable tolling.

We agree.

Padilla waited to sue

for almost a year after the Army had denied his FTCA claim.
the statute gave him only six months in which to do so.

-6-

But

See id.

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

§ 2401(b).

Page: 7

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

Padilla seeks equitable tolling of the statute of

limitations.

But even if tolling is available under the FTCA, see

Sanchez v. United States, 740 F.3d 47, 53-54 (1st Cir. 2014),
Padilla has not shown he should benefit from it, see Padilla-Ruiz,
893 F. Supp. 2d at 306.
We also agree that Padilla's claims against the federal
defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (which has no application to
federal defendants) and Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of
Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), (which does), are
time-barred.

See Padilla-Ruiz, 893 F. Supp. 2d at 307.

Padilla

waited over two-and-a-half years from the time of firing to file
suit.
so.

That is well more than the one year the law gave him to do
See Santana-Castro v. Toledo-Dávila, 579 F.3d 109, 114 (1st

Cir. 2009) (§ 1983); Roman v. Townsend, 224 F.3d 24, 29 (1st Cir.
2000) (Bivens). We also agree Padilla is not entitled to equitable
tolling.

See Padilla-Ruiz, 893 F. Supp. 2d at 307.
The

District

Court

next

dismissed

Padilla's

claims

against the federal defendants under the Posse Comitatus Act, 18
U.S.C.

§

1385,

and

the

Health

Insurance

Portability

and

Accountability Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-191, 110 Stat. 1936
(codified in scattered sections of 26, 29, and 42 U.S.C.).

The

District Court ruled that those statutes do not create private
rights of action.

Padilla-Ruiz, 893 F. Supp. 2d at 308-310.

The

District Court further ruled that Padilla's claim under the Privacy

-7-

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 8

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, was time-barred as to Padilla's
claims against federal agencies and that there was no private right
of action under the Act as to the other defendants.
893 F. Supp. 2d at 309.

Padilla-Ruiz,

Padilla makes no meaningful argument

against any of those conclusions on appeal.
has waived any such argument.
F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir. 1990).

We thus conclude he

See United States v. Zannino, 895
And while Padilla asserted a claim

under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. app. §§ 501597b, he abandoned that claim below and offers no argument for
reviving it here.

See Padilla-Ruiz, 893 F. Supp. 2d at 308.

Padilla's USERRA claims, by contrast, are timely. USERRA
provides that "there shall be no limit on the period for filing" a
claim under its provisions.

38 U.S.C. § 4327(b).

The District

Court concluded, however, that Padilla should have brought his
USERRA claims before the Merit Systems Protection Board ("MSPB"),
a

federal

administrative

tribunal

that

generally

adjudicates

employment disputes between federal employees and the federal
government.

Padilla-Ruiz, 893 F. Supp. 2d at 308;

see also 38

U.S.C. § 4324(b) ("A person may submit a complaint against a
Federal executive agency . . . directly to the Merit Systems
Protection Board . . . .").
Padilla does not argue on appeal that the District Court
was wrong to rule that, if Padilla could have brought his claims
against the federal agencies before the MSPB, he was required to do

-8-

Case: 12-2368

so.

Document: 00116793476

Page: 9

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

We thus treat any such argument as waived.

Entry ID: 5883435

See Exec. Leasing

Corp. v. Banco Popular de P.R., 48 F.3d 66, 67 (1st Cir. 1995)
("'If counsel desires our consideration of a particular argument,
the argument must appear within the four corners of the brief filed
in this court.'" (quoting Katz v. King, 627 F.2d 568, 575 (1st Cir.
1980)).
Instead, Padilla argues on appeal only that he is an
employee of COMTek, instead of a government employee, and so he
could not have brought his claims against the federal agencies to
the MSPB.

But if Padilla means to argue that the federal agencies

were not his "employer[s]" as USERRA uses that term, that would
mean he would have no meritorious USERRA claim to bring against
them, as the Act prohibits discrimination only by "employer[s]."
See 38 U.S.C. § 4311. And conversely, if Padilla contends that the
federal agencies were his "employer[s]" within USERRA's use of that
term, even though he was an employee of a private government
contractor,

then

he

would

be

conceding

the

MSPB

would

have

jurisdiction over his claims. See Silva v. Dep't of Homeland
Security, 2009 M.S.P.B. 189, ¶ 19 (affirming its jurisdiction over
a claim by an employee of a government contractor where the
employee had "made a non-frivolous allegation that DHS exercised
control over his reemployment to such an extent that it should be
considered his 'employer' under USERRA").

-9-

Any meritorious USERRA

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 10

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

claim that Padilla may have against the federal agencies is thus
necessarily one that he could have brought before the MSPB.
That

leaves

Padilla's

individual federal employees.

USERRA

claims

against

the

The District Court dismissed those

claims, like the other USERRA claims, for lack of jurisdiction.
And Padilla's brief makes no argument for why Padilla's USERRA
claims against the federal employees were within the District
Court's jurisdiction.
waived.

And thus, we treat this argument, too, as

See Zannino, 895 F.2d at 17.
B.
We come finally to the claims the District Court did not

directly discuss in ordering the blanket dismissal: Padilla's
claims against the private defendant, COMTek.4 COMTek contends the
District Court's omission does not matter.

COMTek argues first

that the District Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to hear
the USERRA claim against it.

And while COMTek no longer presses

the argument that the Puerto Rico law claims are time barred,
COMTek

does

available.

contend

an

alternative

ground

for

dismissal

is

COMTek further argues this other ground also prevents

the USERRA claim from going forward, even if a federal district
court did have subject-matter jurisdiction to resolve that claim.

4

If, indeed, the District Court overlooked these claims,
the error is understandable. Padilla's complaint and motion papers
in the District Court bordered on inscrutable, and his briefing in
this Court is no better.
-10-

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 11

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

In particular, COMTek argues the federal district court in Puerto
Rico is an improper venue for the resolution of these claims.

We

take these arguments in the order that COMTek presents them.
1.
USERRA provides that "[i]n the case of an action against
a private employer by a person, the district courts of the United
States

shall

have

§ 4323(b)(3).
private

of

the

action."

38

U.S.C.

Nothing in the statute changes that rule when the

employer

contractor.

jurisdiction

happens

to

be

an

employee

of

a

government

See id.; Silva, 2009 M.S.P.B. 189, ¶ 10.

Thus,

Padilla's USERRA claims against COMTek were within the subjectmatter jurisdiction of the District Court.
2.
That brings us, finally, to COMTek's alternative argument
for affirmance.

COMTek points out that Padilla filed a previous

suit against it in 2009.

See Padilla-Ruiz v. COMTek Commc'ns

Techs., No. 09-1695 (SEC), 2010 WL 1728311 (D.P.R. Apr. 26, 2010).
That suit, like this one, concerned COMTek's 2008 decision to
relieve Padilla of his duties.

See id. at *1.

That suit, too,

included claims under USERRA and Puerto Rico law challenging
Padilla's 2008 firing.
The
improper

District

venue.

The

See id.
Court

dismissed

District

Court

that

earlier

concluded

that

suit
a

for

forum

selection clause in Padilla's employment agreement with COMTek

-11-

Case: 12-2368

Document: 00116793476

Page: 12

Date Filed: 01/30/2015

Entry ID: 5883435

allowed suit only in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia.
judgment.

See id. at *5.

Padilla never appealed that

COMTek thus argues under the doctrine of collateral

estoppel that Padilla's claims against it -- both under USERRA and
under Puerto Rico law -- should be dismissed for improper venue.
COMTek raised this argument in a motion to dismiss for
improper venue in the District Court. But the District Court never
addressed it. We therefore remand Padilla's USERRA and Puerto Rico
law claims against COMTek for the District Court to address
COMTek's venue challenge.
III.
For the reasons discussed above, we affirm the District
Court's dismissal of all claims except for the USERRA and Puerto
Rico law claims that Padilla brings against COMTek.

With respect

to those latter claims, we vacate and remand to the District Court
for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. No costs are
awarded.

-12-