Ronald Bass, Sr. v. State of New Jersey, et al

Filing

NOT PRECEDENTIAL PER CURIAM OPINION Coram: RESTREPO, SCIRICA and FISHER, Circuit Judges. Total Pages: 7. Bass's motion for appointment of counsel on appeal is denied. Bass's letters docketed as "documents in support of the appeal," to the extent that they can be construed as motions to expand the record, are denied. To the extent that Bass's filings request any other form of relief, they are denied as well.

Case: 16-4335

Document: 003112617402

Page: 1

Date Filed: 05/09/2017

NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
___________
No. 16-4335
___________
RONALD BASS, SR.,
Appellant
v.
THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY; DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN
AND FAMILIES; THE DIVISION OF CHILD PROTECTION
AND PERMANENCY; LAURA DAVIS, HEAD SUPERVISOR OF DYFS;
ANNDRIA CALWELL, SUPERVISOR, FAMILY SPECIALIST II;
LASHONDA DRAKE, CASE WORKER, FAMILY SERVICES SPECIALIST II;
ERIC KIRSCHNER, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGISTS;
GWENDOLYN O. AUSTIN; DONALD O. EGBUCHULAM;
CHILDREN AID FAMILY SERVICES, ET AL.;
ERIC MEEHAN, DAG, FOR THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY;
ALLISON BLAKE; MARY P. DUGUID; DEIRDRE M. O'REILLY;
MAIN ST. COUNSELING CENTER; JEENA KRZASTEK
____________________________________
On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of New Jersey
(D.C. Civil Action No. 2-14-cv-05006)
District Judge: Honorable Jose L. Linares
____________________________________
Submitted Pursuant to Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
May 3, 2017
Before: RESTREPO, SCIRICA and FISHER, Circuit Judges
(Opinion filed: May 9, 2017)

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___________
OPINION*
___________
PER CURIAM
Ronald Bass, Sr., appeals from the order of the District Court dismissing his
complaint. We will affirm.
I.
We previously set forth the background of this matter in Bass v. New Jersey, 649
F. App’x 255 (3d Cir. 2016) (per curiam). In brief, Bass filed and then amended a federal
complaint asserting claims relating to the termination of his parental rights following a
New Jersey family court hearing. The District Court dismissed Bass’s amended
complaint in its entirety for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman
doctrine. See Rooker v. Fid. Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413 (1923); D.C. Ct. App. v. Feldman,
460 U.S. 462 (1983). We affirmed in part but vacated in part and remanded for further
proceedings on Bass’s claims regarding “defendants’ alleged misconduct preceding and
allegedly resulting in the state-court judgment.” Id. at 258.
On remand, the District Court directed Bass to file another amended complaint.
Bass then filed what he captioned as a third amended complaint (it actually was his
second, and we will refer to it hereafter simply as his “complaint”). As relevant here, he

*

This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not
constitute binding precedent.
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asserted claims against three categories of defendants: (1) Eric Kirschner, a psychologist
who testified about Bass’s ability to raise his son; (2) the State of New Jersey and several
of its agencies and employees involved in the proceeding (collectively, the “State
defendants”); and (3) Gwendolyn Austin, a lawyer who represented him in the
proceeding, and another lawyer whose precise involvement Bass did not make clear.1
As was the case before, Bass’s complaint is difficult to follow. Bass claimed,
however, that: (1) Kirschner lied at the hearing about Bass’s psychological profile and
ability to care for his son; (2) the State defendants failed to properly investigate his
background and submitted allegedly falsified reports; and (3) Austin failed to properly
represent him. On the basis of these allegations, Bass purported to assert claims under
numerous federal statutes, including the Americans With Disabilities Act, and claims
under state law for discrimination and malpractice. Bass also filed a motion for
appointment of counsel, which a Magistrate Judge denied.
Kirschner and the State defendants filed motions to dismiss Bass’s complaint.
Bass both responded to those motions and filed a motion for reconsideration of the denial
of counsel. While that motion was pending, the District Court granted defendants’
motions and dismissed Bass’s complaint with prejudice in its entirety. The Magistrate

1

Bass previously named all of these defendants in his amended complaint. Bass named
several new defendants in his second amended complaint, but he never served them with
process and he mentions them only in passing in his brief, so we need not address them.
3

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Judge then denied Bass’s motion for reconsideration. Bass appeals.2
II.
Bass appeals both the dismissal of his complaint and the denial of his motions for
counsel. The only ruling to which he raises any specific challenge, however, is to the
denial of counsel. To the extent that his challenge is properly before us, we perceive no
abuse of discretion for the reasons that the Magistrate Judge explained. See Tabron, 6
F.3d at 155-57.3 Bass does not raise any specific challenge to any of the reasons that the
District Court gave for dismissing his complaint. To the contrary, his brief largely

2

We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 except as noted below. We review de
novo both matters of subject matter jurisdiction, see Great W. Mining & Mineral Co. v.
Fox Rothschild LLP, 615 F.3d 159, 163 (3d Cir. 2010), and the dismissal of a complaint
under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), see Williams v. BASF Catalysts LLC, 765 F.3d 306, 315
(3d Cir. 2014). “To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient
factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Id.
(quotation marks omitted). We review the denial of a motion for appointment of counsel
for abuse of discretion. See Tabron v. Grace, 6 F.3d 147, 157 (3d Cir. 1993).
3

Bass addressed his motion for reconsideration of the denial of counsel to the Magistrate
Judge, but he also copied the District Judge. The District Judge dismissed Bass’s
complaint without treating Bass’s motion as an objection under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)
and Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(a), and the Magistrate Judge later denied reconsideration. Bass
challenges both the Magistrate Judge’s initial denial of counsel and his denial of
reconsideration. We construe Bass’s motion for reconsideration as an objection to the
initial denial of counsel that the District Court overruled sub silentio when it dismissed
his complaint. We have reviewed the initial denial of counsel on that basis. We do not
have jurisdiction to review the Magistrate Judge’s denial of reconsideration, however,
because it is not an order of the District Court. See Siers v. Morash, 700 F.2d 113, 11415 (3d Cir. 1983). Nevertheless, there would appear to be even less of a basis to
challenge the denial of counsel after the District Court already had dismissed Bass’s
complaint.
4

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reiterates his allegations and is otherwise devoted to extraneous matters. Nevertheless,
we will address three points that we liberally construe Bass’s brief to raise.
First, the District Court again dismissed Bass’s claims against the State defendants
for lack of jurisdiction to the extent that they are barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.
We agree that Bass’s complaint can be read to assert claims that are subject to dismissal
on that basis. Even on appeal, Bass requests that we order the “exclusion” of evidence
presented to the family court and remand this matter to the District Court for “family
unification.” (Appellant’s Br. at 11.) As we previously explained, the Rooker-Feldman
doctrine bars Bass’s claims to the extent that he seeks to appeal the family court’s
termination of his parental rights in federal court. See Bass, 649 F. App’x at 258; see
also Great W. Mining & Mineral Co., 615 F.3d at 166-67.
Second, the District Court dismissed Bass’s claims against Kirschner and his
remaining claims against the State defendants on various grounds, including New
Jersey’s litigation privilege as to Kirschner and the statute of limitations as to the State
defendants. We question whether certain of these issues can be resolved from the face of
Bass’s complaint or even apply to it. See, e.g., Williams, 765 F.3d at 317-20 (holding
that New Jersey’s litigation privilege did not bar certain claims of fraud on a court). We
need not resolve them, however, because the dismissal of Bass’s remaining claims was
appropriate on the alternative ground that Bass failed to state a plausible claim to relief.
Bass refers throughout his complaint to “discrimination,” but his allegations are
conclusory and he pleaded no actual facts in that regard. He also claimed that evidence
5

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introduced at the family court hearing was falsified and misleading, and we could
liberally construe those allegations as a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that defendants
conspired to deprive him of due process. Once again, however, Bass pleaded nothing
suggesting any actual conspiracy, or even that any evidence was false. The closest he
came was by alleging that a State defendant submitted a report opining that Bass was an
“abusive parent” and that the report was false because it “conflicted with the . . . photos
. . . of my son and I bonding.” (ECF No. 64 at 6.) That allegation does not raise the
reasonable inference that the opinion was “false,” let alone that defendants intentionally
conspired to produce it. Thus, we will affirm the dismissal of Bass’s remaining claims
against Kirschner and the State defendants on the ground that Bass failed to state any
plausible federal claim.4
Finally, the District Court dismissed Bass’s complaint in its entirety without
explicitly addressing his claims against his former counsel Austin. Bass does not argue
that the District Court erred in that regard, but he mentions his claims against Austin in
his brief (Appellant’s Br. at 4, 6), so we will address them. Bass’s complaint cannot be
read to assert any federal claim against Austin, who was not a state actor and whom Bass

4

We are satisfied that leave to amend would be futile. In our previous opinion, we
acknowledged that Bass’s remaining claims were “largely conclusory,” but we remanded
for the District Court to consider them and the possibility of amendment. Bass, 649 F.
App’x at 259. On remand, the District Court directed Bass to file a second amended
complaint and gave him specific guidance on how to allege a plausible claim. (ECF No.
62.) Bass failed to do so, however, and none of his filings suggests that he could do so if
given another opportunity.
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did not plausibly allege conspired with any state actor. Bass, however, did make
allegations regarding insufficient investigation and failure to obtain an expert that could
be construed as a state-law claim for professional negligence. The District Court did not
expressly address the issue but, in the absence of any plausible federal claim, we
understand the District Court’s opinion to have declined to exercise supplemental
jurisdiction over any potential state-law claims. See 28 U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3).5 Thus, the
dismissal of Bass’s claim for professional negligence is without prejudice to Bass’s
ability to assert it in state court. We express no opinion on the merits of that claim.
III.
For these reasons, we will affirm the judgment of the District Court. Bass’s
motion for appointment of counsel on appeal is denied. Bass’s letters docketed as
“documents in support of the appeal,” to the extent that they can be construed as motions
to expand the record, are denied. To the extent that Bass’s filings request any other form
of relief, they are denied as well.

5

Bass did not allege Austin’s citizenship or otherwise invoke the District Court’s
diversity jurisdiction, and it appears that both Bass and Austin may be citizens of New
Jersey.
7