Borges v. County of Mendocino

Background

The defendants filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings. The court determined that oral argument was unnecessary and vacated the scheduled hearing.

Defendants John McCowen, Carre Brown, and Georgeanne Croskey asserted that the plaintiffs sued them in their official capacities. They argued that claims against them should be dismissed because official-capacity claims were redundant of the plaintiffs’ claims against the County of Mendocino. The opinion cites a Ninth Circuit decision stating that, when both a local government entity and an officer named only in an official capacity are sued, a court may dismiss the officer as a redundant defendant.

Parties’ Positions

The plaintiffs said they did not oppose dismissing McCowen, Brown, and Croskey without prejudice. They explained that their first amended complaint did not say whether the three defendants were sued in their official or individual capacities. The plaintiffs wanted to preserve their ability to amend the complaint to assert individual-capacity claims if they later uncovered evidence that the defendants participated in a conspiracy.

The opinion explains that an individual-capacity claim depends on the individual defendant’s participation in the deprivation of constitutional rights.

Ruling

The court dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims against McCowen, Brown, and Croskey without prejudice to the plaintiffs later seeking to allege individual-capacity claims against them. The opinion does not state that the court dismissed the claims against the County of Mendocino or resolve the underlying claims on their merits.