Phillip Rousseau v. Howard County, Maryland

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Originating case number: 1:09-cv-01079-JFM Copies to all parties and the district court/agency. [998572870].. [10-1016]

Case: 10-1016

Document: 56

Date Filed: 04/21/2011

Page: 1

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 10-1016

PHILLIP ROUSSEAU; CARVEL MAYS, JR.; FRANK MARTIN; PAUL F.
KENDALL,
Plaintiffs - Appellants,
v.
HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND; PAUL JOHNSON, Individually and in
his Official Capacity as Deputy County Solicitor; LYNN
ROBESON, Individually and in her Official Capacity as
Assistant
County
Solicitor;
MARSHA
S.
MCLAUGHLIN,
Individually and in her Official Capacity as Director,
Department
of
Planning
and
Zoning;
ROBIN
REGNER,
Individually and in her Official Capacity as Administrative
Assistant to Hearing Examiner and Board of Appeals; LISA
KENNY, Individually and in her Official Capacity as
Administrative Assistant to the Director, Department of
Planning & Zoning; MICHELE L. LEFAIVRE, Individually and in
her Official Capacity as Board of Appeals Hearing Examiner,
Defendants - Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
Maryland, at Baltimore.
J. Frederick Motz, District Judge.
(1:09-cv-01079-JFM)

Argued:

January 25, 2011

Decided:

April 21, 2011

Before NIEMEYER, DUNCAN, and KEENAN, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Case: 10-1016

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Date Filed: 04/21/2011

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ARGUED:
Susan Baker Gray, Highland, Maryland, for Appellants.
Melissa Shane Whipkey, HOWARD COUNTY OFFICE OF LAW, Ellicott
City, Maryland, for Appellees.
ON BRIEF:
Margaret Ann Nolan,
County Solicitor, Louis P. Ruzzi, Senior Assistant County
Solicitor, HOWARD COUNTY OFFICE OF LAW, Ellicott City, Maryland,
for Appellees.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Four residents and voters (“Residents”) of Howard County,
Maryland, commenced this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against
Howard

County

and

five

of

its

officers

in

their

individual

capacities, alleging numerous Fourteenth Amendment due process
and

equal

protection

administrative

and

violations

judicial

with

respect

proceedings.

The

to

state

district

court

dismissed the claims, finding that three of the residents had
impermissibly split their claims between two cases and that the
fourth did not have standing.
We

affirm

the

This appeal followed.

judgment

of

the

district

court,

but

we

conclude that the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear
this

case

under

Rooker

v.

Fidelity

Trust

Co.,

263

U.S.

413

(1923), and District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman,
460 U.S. 462 (1983).
The Residents allege “numerous due process violations . . .
at the hands of various county Board[]s and agencies, and their
attorneys and staff” during “the county’s administrative review”
process.
proposed

Many

of

these

development

decisions

projects

and

were
land

in
use.

the

contexts

The

of

complaint

“challenges these actions, as well as the statutorily prescribed
process

in

which

most

of

these

actions

occurred

as

being

fundamentally unfair and designed to ensure those participating
in these processes will have no chance of being heard.”
3

The

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Residents allege that “each of them suffered harm to a protected
interest

as

a

result

of

the

pattern

and

practice

of

Howard

County to deny them due process in county administrative review
and ‘appeals’ processes by a deliberate failure to follow rules,
outright perversion of the process by various means including
fraud, misrepresentation and collusion between the county and
the developers, and by inherent structural defects in the law
preventing

any

sufficient

or

legitimate

constitutionally adequate due process.”

process,

let

alone,

They contend that their

due process and equal protection rights were violated in the
course of many hearings and proceedings, including hearings by
the Howard County Board of Appeals and proceedings in Maryland
state courts.

They characterize their claims as “a challenge to

the conduct of administrative proceedings and decisions” at the
county level.
On

appeal,

the

Residents

argue

erroneously dismissed their claims.

that

the

district

court

With respect to the claims

of three Residents, Kendall, Martin, and Rousseau, which were
dismissed for claim splitting, they argue that “[t]he series of
transactions or core operative facts in [this case] arise from a
number

of

independent

administrative

hearings,

decisions,

defective administrative processes in those hearings, or failure
to hold administrative hearings or give notice of decisions,”
none of which they contend were implicated by the related case
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Date Filed: 04/21/2011

which arose out of the same transactions.
respect

to

the

fourth

Resident,

Mays,

Page: 5

And they argue with
that

he

had

standing

because “plaintiffs have standing to bring suit if they allege a
diminution of their right to vote.”
We do not reach the Residents’ arguments, however, because
we conclude that the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear
this case under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.
complaint

asks

that

lower

federal

courts

in

The Residents’
effect

exercise

appellate review over numerous state administrative and judicial
decisions, and under our system of federalism, the lower federal
courts

lack

jurisdiction

state

administrative

to

and

sit

as

judicial

explicit statutory authorization.
Feldman,

460

U.S.

462;

appellate

Exxon

tribunals

decisionmakers,

over

absent

See Rooker, 263 U.S. 413;
Mobil

Corp.

v.

Saudi

Basic

Industries Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 284 (2004) (holding that lower
federal

courts

lack

jurisdiction

to

hear

“cases

brought

by

state-court losers complaining of injuries caused by state-court
judgments

rendered

before

the

district

court

proceedings

commenced and inviting district court review and rejection of
those judgments”).

Parties aggrieved by state administrative

and judicial decisions must pursue review in state appellate
tribunals, with the ultimate opportunity to petition the Supreme
Court of the United States for review.
544 U.S. at 291-92.

See Exxon Mobil Corp.,

We note that decisions of the Howard County
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Case: 10-1016

Planning

Board

can

Document: 56

be

Date Filed: 04/21/2011

appealed

to

the

Howard

Page: 6

County

Hearing

Examiner, with further appeals to the Howard County Board of
Appeals and the state court system, beginning with the Circuit
Court for Howard County.

See, e.g., Howard County Code, Rules

of Procedure of the Board of Appeals, § 2.211(e) (providing for
appeal
County).

from

Board

of

Appeals

to

Circuit

Court

for

Howard

Indeed, the Residents acknowledge the existence of

this process.

They simply contest its sufficiency.

For these reasons, we affirm the district court’s judgment
of dismissal.
AFFIRMED

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