Monreal v. New York

12-2829 Monreal v. New York UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING TO A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. 1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals 2 for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United 3 States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York, 4 on the 29th day of April, two thousand thirteen. 5 6 PRESENT: 7 DENNIS JACOBS, 8 Chief Judge, 9 ROSEMARY S. POOLER, 10 RICHARD C. WESLEY, 11 Circuit Judges. 12 _____________________________________ 13 14 FRANCISCO JAVIER MONREAL, M.D., 15 16 Plaintiff-Appellant, 17 18 v. 12-2829 19 20 STATE OF NEW YORK, ITS HEALTH 21 (OPMC) & EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS 22 AND ITS JUDICIAL SYSTEMS, 23 24 Defendants-Appellees. 25 _____________________________________ 26 27 1 FOR PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT: FRANCISCO JAVIER MONREAL, pro 2 se, Jamesville, NY. 3 4 FOR DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES: VICTOR GERARD PALADINO, 5 Assistant Solicitor General 6 (Barbara D. Underwood, Nancy A. 7 Spiegel, on the brief) for Eric 8 T. Schneiderman, Attorney 9 General of the State of New 10 York, Albany, NY. 11 12 Appeal from a judgment of the United States District 13 Court for the Northern District of New York (Suddaby, J.). 14 15 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, 16 AND DECREED that the judgment is AFFIRMED. 17 18 Appellant Francisco Javier Monreal, M.D., pro se, 19 appeals from the district court’s July 2012 judgment 20 dismissing his civil rights complaint for lack of subject 21 matter jurisdiction pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil 22 Procedure 12(b)(1). We review de novo a district court 23 decision dismissing a complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1). 24 See Jaghory v. New York State Dep’t of Educ., 131 F.3d 326, 25 329 (2d Cir. 1997). We assume the parties’ familiarity with 26 the underlying facts, the procedural history of the case, 27 and the issues on appeal. 28 29 “[A]bsent waiver or valid abrogation, federal courts 30 may not entertain a private person’s suit against a State.” 31 Virginia Office for Prot. & Advocacy v. Stewart, 131 S. Ct. 32 1632, 1638 (2011). “‘[T]he immunity recognized by the 33 Eleventh Amendment extends beyond the states themselves to 34 state agents and state instrumentalities that are, 35 effectively, arms of a state.’” Gollomp v. Spitzer, 568 36 F.3d 355, 366 (2d Cir. 2009) (quoting Woods v. Rondout 37 Valley Cent. Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., 466 F.3d 232, 236 (2d 38 Cir. 2006)). Every state entity sued by Monreal is an arm 39 of the state that is entitled to sovereign immunity. See 40 Gollomp, 568 at 368 (finding that “the New York State 41 Unified Court System is unquestionably an arm of the State, 42 and is entitled to Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity”) 43 (quotation marks and internal citation omitted); Dube v. 44 State Univ. of New York, 900 F.2d 587, 594-95 (2d Cir. 1990) 2 1 (finding that the New York State Department of Education is 2 entitled to Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity); New York 3 Ass’n of Homes and Servs. for the Aging, Inc. v. DeBuono, 4 444 F.3d 147, 148 (2d Cir. 2006) (per curiam) (finding that 5 officers of the Department of Health are entitled to 6 Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity). The district court 7 was therefore correct to dismiss Monreal’s suit. 8 9 We have considered all of Monreal’s remaining arguments 10 and find them to be without merit. 11 12 For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district 13 court is hereby AFFIRMED. 14 15 FOR THE COURT: 16 Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk 3