Case: 20-30231 Document: 00515638539 Page: 1 Date Filed: 11/13/2020
United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
FILED
November 13, 2020
No. 20-30231
Lyle W. Cayce
Summary Calendar Clerk
Shantrice L. Jones,
Plaintiff—Appellant,
versus
Southern University; Sage Rehabilitation Outpatient;
Leigh Ann Baker; Amelia Major; Donna Fitzgerald-
Dejean; Terrilynn Gillis; Elaine Lewnau; Janet Rami;
Carpenter Health Network, L.L.C., on behalf of Sage
Rehabilitation Outpatient; Christy Wynn Moland,
Defendants—Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Louisiana
USDC No. 3:18-CV-1034
Before King, Smith, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam:*
*
Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this
opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited
circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4.
Case: 20-30231 Document: 00515638539 Page: 2 Date Filed: 11/13/2020
Proceeding pro se and in forma pauperis, Shantrice Jones appeals the
district court’s dismissal of her Title VI retaliation claims with prejudice. We
AFFIRM.
I.
Jones is a former speech-language pathology graduate student at
Southern University and A&M College (Southern). She enrolled in 2015 and
graduated in 2018. Following graduation, Jones filed a pro se lawsuit against
Southern, Sage Rehabilitation Hospital (Sage), and seven related
individuals,1 alleging discrimination and retaliation claims under Title II,
Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, as well as a
state law claim for defamation.
Southern filed a Rule 12(b)(1) and Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss on
behalf of itself and its current and former employees. In response, Jones
amended her complaint. Her amended complaint largely recited her original
allegations but added additional instances of alleged discrimination and
retaliation, and attached fourteen exhibits. Jones alleged that her
supervisors, Baker (Southern) and Major (Sage), gave preferential treatment
to other students and acted in a discriminatory manner on the bases of her
race and her child’s disability. She also asserted that Southern and Sage
discriminated and retaliated against her by increasing her workload, failing to
protect her from retaliatory events, and harassing her. Jones further alleged
that other former and current faculty members retaliated by trying to dismiss
her from the graduate program.
1
The individuals Jones sued are current and former employees of Southern and
Sage. Southern’s employees are Leigh Ann Baker, Donna Fitzgerald-Dejean, Terrilynn
Gillis, Janet Rami, Elaine Lewnau, and Christy Moland. Sage’s named employee is Amelia
Major.
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No. 20-30231
After Jones filed the amended complaint, Southern moved to
withdraw its original motion to dismiss and filed a renewed motion to dismiss
the amended complaint. A day later, Rami and Baker filed separate motions
to dismiss. In response to defendants’ dispositive motions, Jones moved for
leave to file a second amended complaint. On the heels of Jones’s motion to
amend, Sage moved to dismiss Jones’s claims under Rule 12(b)(6), and Jones
filed a response in opposition.
The district court denied Jones’s motion for leave to file a second
amended complaint and ordered Jones to respond to the motions to dismiss
filed by Southern, Rami, and Baker. Shortly thereafter, Fitzgerald-Dejean,
Lewnau, Gillis, and Moland also moved to dismiss Jones’s claims under Rule
12(b)(6). In due course, Jones filed responses to all these dispositive motions.
The district court granted the motions filed by Southern, Rami, and
Baker, dismissing Jones’s claims against those defendants with prejudice.
Jones moved to reconsider, but the court denied her motion. On November
1, 2019, Jones filed a notice of appeal. Because her claims against Sage,
Major, Fitzgerald-Dejean, Lewnau, Gillis, and Moland remained pending in
district court, this court dismissed Jones’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction.
Jones v. Southern Univ., No. 19-30911, 2019 WL 8645963, at *1 (5th Cir. Dec.
9, 2019) (unpublished).
On March 23, 2020, the district court granted the remaining
defendants’ motions to dismiss. The district court dismissed Jones’s claims
with prejudice, including those against Major, which the court dismissed sua
sponte. This appeal followed.
II.
A district court’s grant of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss is
reviewed de novo. Vizaline, L.L.C. v. Tracy, 949 F.3d 927, 931 (5th Cir.
2020). “We accept all well-pleaded facts as true and construe the complaint
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in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Heinze v. Tesco Corp., 971 F.3d
475, 479 (5th Cir. 2020) (cleaned up). “But we do not accept as true
conclusory allegations, unwarranted factual inferences, or legal
conclusions.” Id. (cleaned up). We review the denial of leave to amend the
complaint for abuse of discretion. Lewis v. Fresne, 252 F.3d 352, 356 (5th Cir.
2001).
III.
While Jones alleged numerous claims before the district court, Jones
articulates only two challenges on appeal: (1) whether the district court erred
by denying her second request to amend and (2) whether the district court
erred by dismissing her Title VI retaliation claims.2
A.
Jones argues the district court erred by denying her second request to
amend her complaint. Under Rule 15, “[a] party may amend its pleading
once as a matter of course . . . 21 days after service of a motion under Rule
12(b)[.]” Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(1)(B). “In all other cases, a party may
amend its pleading only with the opposing party’s written consent or the
2
Pro se litigants’ filings are “‘to be liberally construed,’ . . . and ‘a pro se complaint,
however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings
drafted by lawyers[.]’” Coleman v. United States, 912 F.3d 824, 828 (5th Cir. 2019)
(quoting Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94 (2007)). Pro se litigants’ briefs must
nonetheless adhere to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. Al-Ra’id v. Ingle, 69 F.3d
28, 31 (5th Cir. 1995). Jones’s appellate brief fails to provide argument or authority
regarding the district court’s dismissal of her claims under Title II, Title VII, Title IX, §
504 of the Rehabilitation Act, or her state law defamation claim. As a result, Jones has
waived any arguments related to those claims. See Roy v. City of Monroe, 950 F.3d 245, 251
(5th Cir. 2020) (“Failure adequately to brief an issue on appeal constitutes waiver of that
argument.”) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Jones also asserts a new
negligence argument, but we decline to address issues raised for the first time on appeal.
See Yohey v. Collins, 985 F.2d 222, 225 (5th Cir. 1993).
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court’s leave. The court should freely give leave when justice so requires.”
Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(a)(2). “Although Rule 15(a) requires the district court
to grant leave to amend freely, leave to amend is in no way automatic.” Body
by Cook, Inc. v. State Farm Auto. Ins., 869 F.3d 381, 391 (5th Cir. 2017). “The
district court is entrusted with the discretion to grant or deny a motion to
amend and may consider a variety of factors including undue delay, bad faith,
or dilatory motive on the part of the movant, repeated failure to cure
deficiencies by amendments previously allowed, undue prejudice to the
opposing party . . . , and futility of the amendment.” Marucci Sports, L.L.C.
v. Nat’l Collegiate Athletic Ass’n, 751 F.3d 368, 378 (5th Cir. 2014).
After Southern filed its Rule 12(b) motion to dismiss the claims Jones
asserted against Southern in her original complaint, Jones responded by
amending her complaint as a matter of course under Rule 15(a)(1)(B). In her
amended complaint, she asserted substantively identical claims, against the
same defendants, but added fourteen exhibits. Soon thereafter, Southern
filed a renewed motion to dismiss, and Rami and Baker filed separate Rule
12(b)(6) motions to dismiss Jones’s amended complaint. Jones promptly
followed with a motion for leave to file a second amended complaint. The
district court denied Jones’s motion to amend.
Jones argues that the district court erred. She asserts that her
proposed second amended complaint would have “clearly labeled” an
already existing defendant and “cured” confusion regarding “the events and
times and the actions.” But Jones has failed to explain, either in the district
court or on appeal, how the additional facts and clarifications she would have
added materially varied from the allegations she had already asserted in the
first two versions of her complaint. She likewise fails to show how she could
have overcome the fatal deficiencies found by the district court if she had
been allowed to amend her complaint a second time. Brewster v. Dretke, 587
F.3d 764, 768 (5th Cir. 2009). Jones has also provided no indication that she
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did not plead her best case in her amended complaint. Id.; see Bazrowx v.
Scott, 136 F.3d 1053, 1054 (5th Cir. 1998) (per curiam). Therefore, we discern
no abuse of discretion in the district court’s denial of Jones’s motion to
amend her complaint a second time.
B.
Next, Jones argues the district court erred by dismissing her Title VI
retaliation claim. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits race
discrimination in all programs receiving federal funds. 42 U.S.C. § 2000d.
Claims may be brought only against the institution receiving federal funds,
not employees of those institutions. Sewell v. Monroe City Sch. Bd., 974 F.3d
577, 582 (5th Cir. 2020) (citing Fitzgerald v. Barnstable Sch. Comm., 555 U.S.
246, 257 (2009)). As a result, the district court properly dismissed Jones’s
claims against the individuals named in the complaint. We thus focus on the
alleged retaliatory conduct of Southern and Sage.
To sustain a claim for Title VI retaliation, Jones must show (1) that
she engaged in a protected activity; (2) that the Defendants took a material
action against her, and (3) that a causal connection existed between the
protected activity and the adverse action.3 Peters v. Jenney, 327 F.3d 307, 320
(5th Cir. 2003) (citation omitted); Bhombal v. Irving Indep. Sch. Dist., 809 F.
App’x 233, 238 (5th Cir. 2020) (per curiam).
Jones actually alleges that Southern provided her accommodations to
meet her scheduling needs. Jones also acknowledges that Vice Chancellor
James Ammons supported her during the grievance appeal process, ensuring
that Jones remained enrolled in her classes and received ADA
accommodations. After Jones won her grievance appeal, Southern vacated
3
We assume without deciding that Title VI encompasses a retaliation claim. See
Sewell, 974 F.3d 577, 586 n.4 (5th Cir. 2020).
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the failing grade she received in her clinical practicum and approved the
clinical hours she worked at Sage. Jones then graduated from Southern. The
allegations in Jones’s amended complaint thus undermine her claim against
Southern for retaliation.
Similarly, Jones affirmatively alleges that Sage accommodated and
excused numerous absences and instances of tardiness while she interned at
Sage. To the extent that Jones’s amended complaint references any
retaliatory conduct by Sage, those allegations are conclusory and do not give
rise to a reasonable inference of retaliation cognizable under Title VI. See
Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009) (stating that “naked assertion[s]”
without “further factual enhancement” are insufficient) (citation omitted).
Jones’s amended complaint cannot rest on a foundation of unsupported legal
conclusions. Id.
Because the district court correctly concluded that Jones’s amended
complaint failed to state a prima facie case against any of the defendants, we
AFFIRM the dismissal of Jones’s retaliation claims.
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