Young-Smith v. Yokich et al

Filing 42

OPINION AND ORDER: GRANTING 10 MOTION TO DISMISS FOR FAILURE TO STATE A CLAIM by Defendant Stephen Anthony Yokich and 12 MOTION for Judgment on the Pleadings by Defendant Ivan E. Bodensteiner. Case DISMISSED as to Stephen Anthony Yokich and Ivan E. Bodensteiner and Young-Smith's state-law claims of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress against Holt ARE REMANDED TO STATE COURT; all other pending motions 14 , 16 , and 18 are DENIED AS MOOT. Signed by Chief Judge Philip P Simon on 10/29/2015. (lhc)(cc: Pla and Certified copy to Elkhart Superior Court)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA
SOUTH BEND DIVISION
YOLANDA D. YOUNG-SMITH,
Plaintiff,
v.
STEPHEN ANTHONY
YOKICH ET AL,
Defendants.

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CAUSE NO. 3:15-cv-156-PPS-APR

OPINION AND ORDER
This is Plaintiff Yolanda Young-Smith’s third case in which she has alleged that
she is the victim of a conspiracy between Ivan Bodensteiner (her former attorney) and
Stephen Yokich (an attorney who represented her opponent in one of her earlier cases).
Three different judges of this court and two panels of judges in the Seventh Circuit have
reviewed these allegations and have found them to be deficient. Despite the previous
dismissals of her cases with prejudice, Young-Smith has nonetheless filed this case – her
third attempt to raise the same issues against the attorney defendants. It’s time to put an
end to this.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Although it is a bit tedious, to fully understand the matter that is presently before
the Court, one needs to understand the chronology of Young-Smith’s prior cases. This
is how we got here: After Young-Smith was fired from her job with Bayer Healthcare,
she sued Bayer and her Union. [Cause No. 3:07-cv-629, DE 1.] For ease of

reference I will call this the “employment case.” Young-Smith settled her claims against
Bayer in late 2009, and the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the
Union on one of Young-Smith’s two remaining claims, sending Young-Smith’s
remaining claim to trial. [Id., DE 94.] Prior to trial, Young-Smith fired her attorney and
asked the court to reconsider earlier rulings, alleging that there was a conspiracy afoot
to perpetrate fraud upon the court. Judge Lee asked Young-Smith to prepare a list of
evidence to support her contentions. Upon reviewing the evidence presented by
Young-Smith, Judge Lee found that most of Young-Smith’s contentions related entirely
to the decision of her counsel strategically to place certain evidence into the record
before the court during the summary judgment process, as opposed to every piece of
evidence, and this did not amount to “fraud on the court.” [Id., DE 153 at 6-8.]
Young-Smith’s remaining claim in the employment case went to trial before
Judge Van Bokkelen, the case having been transferred to him from Judge Lee. The trial
ended in a verdict in favor of the Union. [Id., DE 280.] In her post-trial motions before
Judge Van Bokkelen, Young-Smith rehashed her claims previously decided by Judge
Lee about the alleged fraud on the court, perjury, and attorney misconduct as a basis for
a new trial. [Id., DE 297.] Just as Judge Lee had done once before, Judge Van Bokkelen
denied the motion. [Id., DE 297].
While Young-Smith’s employment case was pending, Young-Smith filed another
action in federal court regarding the same alleged conspiracy and attorney misconduct
that she raised in her employment case. [Cause No. 3:12-cv-275, DE 1.] Her claims,
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however, failed to state a federal cause of action or raise a substantial question of
federal law, thereby failing to secure the jurisdiction of this Court. As a result, I
dismissed her claims, albeit without prejudice. [Id., DE 84.] None of the parties were
particularly pleased with that decision, filing several motions after the opinion was
entered. [Id., DE 86, 91, 94.] Specifically, Young-Smith believed that I had failed to
consider all of her claims based on federal violations. I denied that motion as simply an
effort to relitigate arguments that I previously had rejected. [Id., DE 105.] Defendants
Bodensteiner and Yokich asked that I dismiss all of Young-Smith’s claims regarding
fraud on the court with prejudice in light of Judge Lee’s opinion in Young-Smith’s
employment case, which precluded Young-Smith from raising the same issues again.
Because I had concluded that this Court did not have jurisdiction over those claims, I
decided that I could not properly make such a ruling and denied their motions. [Id.]
Young-Smith and Yokich both appealed (consolidated under Seventh Circuit
Cause No. 13-2427) and the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal, finding that YoungSmith failed to raise a substantial federal question, but also held that her claim of
conspiracy to defraud the court against Bodensteiner and Yokich should have been
dismissed with prejudice because “her exclusive remedy for that claim is in the
employment case.” [Cause No. 13-2427, DE 40 at 4.]
Undeterred, Young-Smith filed this – her third case – in state court regarding the
same alleged conspiracy and attorney misconduct that she raised in her employment
case and in her second federal action, naming three of the same defendants as in the
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second action (Yokich, Bodensteiner, and Holt) [DE 4]. The three Defendants removed
the case to this Court asserting that Young-Smith’s complaint purported to state federal
claims including a conspiracy to violate Young-Smith’s rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1985
[DE 1]. Defendants Yokich and Bodensteiner promptly filed Motions to Dismiss [DE
10] and Judgment on the Pleadings [DE 12], respectively.
After the present case was filed, the Seventh Circuit ruled on the appeal brought
by Young-Smith in her original employment case, in which she contended that the
district court committed errors assessing the evidence in that case. [Cause No. 14-3617,
DE 39.] In its June 2015 Order, the Seventh Circuit noted that Young-Smith raised
“what appear to be substantially similar allegations against her and the Union’s
attorneys” in her second suit and that “[a]side from the possible preclusive effect of [the
Seventh Circuit’s] affirmance [of that case] on these allegations, our review of the record
uncovers no evidence to substantiate them.” [Id., DE 39 at 5.] As such, the Seventh
Circuit held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Young-Smith’s
motions based on her allegations that Bodensteiner and Yokich conspired to defraud the
court.
DISCUSSION
With the factual background in mind, I will now take up the pending motions
brought by Yokich and Bodensteiner to dismiss the pending case. As I mentioned,
Defendants Yokich and Bodensteiner filed Motions to Dismiss and Judgment on the
Pleadings, respectively, but these motions may be adjudicated together. “A motion for
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judgment on the pleadings under Rule 12(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is
governed by the same standards as a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under
Rule 12(b)(6).” Adams v. City of Indianapolis, 742 F.3d 720, 727-28 (7th Cir. 2014). A
motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) “challenges the sufficiency of the complaint
to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.” Hallinan v. Fraternal Order of Police of
Chi. Lodge No. 7, 570 F.3d 811, 820 (7th Cir. 2009). “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.’ A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff
pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the
defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009)
(internal citations omitted).
Young-Smith’s claims that Yokich and Bodensteiner conspired against her and
committed fraud on the court in her employment case have been raised and rejected at
least five times. They were rejected by both Judge Lee and Judge Van Bokkelen in
Young-Smith’s employment case. That decision was later affirmed by the Seventh
Circuit, which noted not only the possible preclusive effect the judgment renders in
Young-Smith’s subsequent federal action, but the fact that there was no evidence to
substantiate Young-Smith’s claims.
Young-Smith’s allegations were again rejected – this time by me – in her second
suit brought in federal court. I found that the references to federal law contained in her
complaint were insufficient to confer jurisdiction of this Court and dismissed Young5

Smith’s claims without prejudice. I also noted that even if I had jurisdiction over
Young-Smith’s claims, they were potentially barred by Judge Lee’s prior opinion in
Young-Smith’s employment case. Reviewing my dismissal of the action, the Seventh
Circuit agreed with the majority of my disposition of the second case but disagreed
with me in one important way; the Seventh Circuit said that Young-Smith’s claims of
conspiracy to defraud the court should have been dismissed with prejudice.
So here we find ourselves again discussing Young-Smith’s claims of conspiracy
to bring fraud upon the court for a sixth time. But these claims have previously been
adjudicated and dismissed with prejudice. I italicize “with prejudice” to emphasize the
importance of that proviso. A dismissal of a claim with prejudice works as an
adjudication on the merits. See, e.g., Georgakis v. Illinois State University, 722 F.3d 1075,
1077-78 (7th Cir. 2013). Here is why that is important: when a matter has been decided
on the merits, it means that the issue cannot be raised again. This is because collateral
estoppel or issue preclusion applies to prevent relitigation of issues resolved in an
earlier suit.1 Taylor v. Sturgell, 553 U.S. 880, 892 (2008).

While my analysis relies on issue preclusion to preclude relitigation of these
issues, claim preclusion may also apply to prevent Young-Smith from raising these
issues. Res judicata or claim preclusion applies when “there was a final judgment on
the merits in an earlier case and both the parties and the claims in the two lawsuits are
the same.” Bernstein v. Bankert, 733 F.3d 190, 224 (7th Cir. 2012). Because the Seventh
Circuit in Young-Smith’s second case ordered the dismissal with prejudice of these
same claims against the same parties to this lawsuit – Bodensteiner and Yokich – res
judicata also applies to preclude the claims in this case.
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Issue preclusion has the following elements: (1) the issue sought to be precluded
is the same as an issue in the prior litigation; (2) the issue must have been actually
litigated in the prior litigation; (3) the determination of the issue must have been
essential to the final judgment; and (4) the party against whom estoppel is invoked
must have been fully represented in the prior action. Matrix IV, Inc. v. Am. Nat’l Bank &
Trust Co. of Chicago, 649 F.3d 539, 548 (7th Cir. 2011). As already discussed at length,
Young-Smith has had an opportunity to litigate the same issue several times, in
multiple actions (the most recent of which involved the same parties to this action)
including two appeals to the Seventh Circuit. Young-Smith, therefore, is precluded
from yet again raising the issue in this action.
Furthermore, Young-Smith’s additional claims against Bodensteiner and Yokich
– defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, and perjury
– also are precluded because these issues also were raised in the previous actions. It is
this alleged conduct, Young-Smith asserts, that is the vehicle by which Bodensteiner and
Yokich brought fraud upon the district court in Young-Smith’s employment case.
Specifically, Young-Smith alleges that certain evidence was or was not introduced and
challenges the veracity of that evidence. Both Judge Lee, Judge Van Bokkelen, and the
Seventh Circuit had the opportunity to review Young-Smith’s list of purported evidence
of Bodensteiner and Yokich’s alleged fraudulent activity, including defamation and
perjury, and found that Young-Smith’s claims were unsubstantiated.

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But let’s suppose that Young-Smith did not bring in the earlier cases the specific
claims that she now raises, such as defamation and intentional infliction of emotional
distress. She would nonetheless be barred from bringing those claims in this case
because to do so would amount to claim splitting, which is prohibited. Carr v. Tillery,
591 F.3d 909, 913 (7th Cir. 2010). As the Court stated in Carr, claim splitting is
prohibited because “[y]ou cannot maintain a suit arising from the same transaction or
events underlying a previous suit simply by a change in legal theory.” Id.
Young-Smith is, therefore, precluded from once again raising the same issues in
this case that she has raised (or could have raised) in her two prior cases. Counts IV, VIX2 as against Bodensteiner and Yokich will therefore be dismissed with prejudice.
Young-Smith also brings two state law claims against Rebecca Holt, a former coworker at Bayer, for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
(Compl. ¶¶ 48-60.) Unlike Bodensteiner and Yokich, Holt has not moved to dismiss; she
has answered the Complaint. In the absence of any argument from Holt as to why this
case should be dismissed against her, it must go forward. But where? As I mentioned,
the claims against Holt are based on state law and I therefore do not have
original jurisdiction over them. They are supplemental state law claims. Pursuant to 18
U.S.C. § 1367(c)(3), the proper course is to relinquish jurisdiction over the remaining
state law claims and remand them back to state court. See, e.g., Williams Electr. Games v.

Young-Smith uses consecutive heading numbers in her Complaint and does not
restart the numbers for her Counts, so the first Count is numbered IV.
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Garrity, 479 F.3d 904, 907 (7th Cir. 2007) (“[T]he sensible presumption is that if federal
claims drop out before trial, the district court should relinquish jurisdiction over the
state law claims.”). Counts V and VI against Holt will therefore be remanded to state
court.
TO SUM UP:
(1) Bodensteiner’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings [DE 12] and Yokich’s
Motion to Dismiss [DE 10] are GRANTED. The claims against them are dismissed, and
I direct the Clerk of Court to denote the matter as terminated against those defendants;
(2) Young-Smith’s state-law claims of defamation and intentional infliction of
emotional distress against Holt ARE REMANDED TO STATE COURT;
(3) All other pending motions [DE 14, 16 and 18] are DENIED AS MOOT.

ENTERED: October 29, 2015

s/ Philip P. Simon
PHILIP P. SIMON, CHIEF JUDGE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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