A federal judge from the Middle District of Florida has dismissed a Title IX lawsuit brought by a pro se litigant against Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) and several individual defendants after she failed to respond to their motion to dismiss.
Plaintiff L. Yvonne Brown, who was dismissed from the basketball team, sued FGCU and others on Oct. 26, 2018, alleging that they, by dismissing her from the team based on academic ineligibility and without due process, violated Title IX.
The defendants moved to dismiss the lawsuit for failure to state a claim, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). They argued that the plaintiff’s claims are barred by res judicata and that they are protected by sovereign immunity.
Relevant to the instant case was the fact that Brown has previously sued the defendants over her dismissal, claiming it was unconstitutional. The court ruled for the defendants in Brown I, rendering a “judgment on the merits.”
That decision figures prominently in the instant case since the “doctrine of res judicata bars the filing of claims which were raised or could have been raised in an earlier proceeding.” Maldonado v. U.S. Atty. Gen., 664 F.3d 1369, 1375 (11th Cir. 2011).
The court noted that “to prove that res judicata bars a claim, a movant must show that the following four elements are met: ‘(1) the prior decision must have been rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction; (2) there must have been a final judgment on the merits; (3) both cases must involve the same parties or their privies; and (4) both cases must involve the same causes of action.’ Lobo v. Celebrity Cruises, Inc., 704 F.3d 882, 887 (11th Cir. 2013).”
All four elements were met, according to the court. It added that the plaintiff had sought to spin two different legal theories out of the same set of facts, which res judicata prohibits, according to Lobo.
Brown did suggest that the violations of Title IX occurred when the defendants “retaliated against her between the time she filed her informal Title IX complaint on January 29, 2018, and when FGCU refused to reinstate her to the basketball team on February 20, 2018.”
The court disagreed.
“These alleged events concluded well before March 9, 2018, when Brown filed her original complaint (with the court) in Brown I,” it wrote. “Still, Brown failed to plead a Title IX claim in Brown I, and instead waited until April 2, 2018, to file a ‘formal, written, Title IX complaint.’ Because Brown’s alleged claim under Title IX existed before March 9, 2018, it ‘could have been brought’ in Brown I and is thus barred here. … Brown had ample opportunity to litigate all her claims and now seeks an improper redo.”
L. Yvonne Brown v. Florida Gulf Coast University Board of Trustees, Ken Kavanagh, Karl Smesko, Roderick Rolle, Kelly Brock and Jessica Homer; M.D. Fla.; 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201878, Case No.: 2:18-cv-714-FtM-38MRM; 11/21/19
