Marcella Navarrete v. Jessie Arana ( 2018 )

NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAR 29 2018
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
MARCELLA NAVARRETE, an individual No. 16-55831
and JOSE CASTANEDA, an individual,
D.C. No.
Plaintiffs-Appellants, 2:16-cv-01230-PA-AFM
v.
MEMORANDUM*
JESSIE ARANA, an individual named in his
personal capacity; et al.,
Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Central District of California
Percy Anderson, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted February 12, 2018
Pasadena, California
Before: BERZON and BYBEE, Circuit Judges, and WOODCOCK,** District
Judge.
Marcella Navarrete and Jose Castaneda, video journalists, appeal the district
court’s order dismissing their complaint against Officer Jessie Arana, Lieutenant
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The Honorable John A. Woodcock, Jr., United States District Judge
for the district of Maine, sitting by designation.
Chris Stevens, and Superintendent Michelle King, employees of the Los Angeles
Unified School District. Navarrete and Castaneda filed suit twenty-eight months
after they allege that Officer Arana wrongfully seized and threatened them when
they lawfully attempted to record from a public sidewalk an incident at a high
school. The district court dismissed their complaint as barred by California’s
twenty-four-month statute of limitations and concluded that Navarrete and
Castaneda’s complaints to Lieutenant Stevens and their efforts to secure
compensation from the City of Los Angeles were not sufficient to equitably toll the
statutory period. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.
In California, as in other jurisdictions, “courts have adhered to a general
policy which favors relieving plaintiff from the bar of a limitations statute when,
possessing several legal remedies he, reasonably and in good faith, pursues one
designed to lessen the extent of his injuries or damage.” Addison v. State of
California, 21 Cal. 3d 313, 317 (1978). This Court has summarized the elements
of equitable tolling under California law:
A plaintiff’s pursuit of a remedy in another forum equitably tolls the
limitations period if the plaintiff’s actions satisfy these factors: 1)
timely notice to the defendants in filing the first claim; 2) lack of
prejudice to the defendants in gathering evidence for the second
claim; and 3) good faith and reasonable conduct in filing the second
claim.
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Cervantes v. City of San Diego, 5 F.3d 1273, 1275 (9th Cir. 1993) (citing
Donoghue v. Orange Cty., 848 F.2d 926, 931 (9th Cir.1987); Collier v. City of
Pasadena, 142 Cal. App. 3d 917, 924 (1983)); see also Addison, 21 Cal. 3d at 319.
The record reflects that the City considered Navarrete and Castaneda’s
claims for less than the four months they need to toll the statute of limitations.
Navarrete and Castaneda filed their claims with the City in or around March 2014,
and the City denied their claims in April and May of 2014. Consequently, the
dispositive issue is whether their complaints to Lieutenant Stevens were sufficient
to trigger equitable tolling.
The interactions with Lieutenant Stevens were insufficient to trigger
equitable tolling for at least two reasons. First, although counsel on appeal argues
for the utility of training and education to prevent future incidents, there is nothing
in the complaint to establish that the interactions with Lieutenant Stevens
constituted the pursuit of a remedy that would “lessen the extent of [Navarrete and
Castaneda’s] injuries or damage.” Addison, 21 Cal. 3d at 317. Second, in these
circumstances, the verbal complaints to an officer’s supervisor did not constitute
an alternate “legal remedy” or “claim” to establish equitable tolling. See Acuna v.
San Diego Gas & Elec. Co., 217 Cal. App. 4th 1402, 1416 (2013) (“The equitable
tolling doctrine generally requires a showing that the plaintiff is seeking an
alternate remedy in an established procedural context.”); 65 Butterfield v. Chicago
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Title Ins. Co., 70 Cal. App. 4th 1047, 1063 (1999) (“[I]n each of the decisions . . . ,
the plaintiff took formal legal action in pursuit of its alternative remedy . . . .”);
Downs v. Dep’t of Water & Power, 58 Cal. App. 4th 1093, 1102 (1997)
(explaining that equitable tolling applies when there was an “established
administrative mechanism in place”).
Navarrete and Castaneda’s alternate contentions — including the argument
that the district court should have dismissed with leave to amend because
Navarrete and Castaneda made vague assertions about bolstering the original
allegations and their alternative theories of unclean hands and equitable estoppel
— lack merit.
Accordingly, the district court is AFFIRMED.
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