Head v. Wilkie

The panel reversed the district court’s order granting summary judgment to defendants in an action brought by Christian Head, M.D., an African-American, board-certified head and neck surgeon who filed a lawsuit against his employer, the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs and individual employees alleging, in part, that his supervisors violated 42 U.S.C. § 1985(2) by conspiring to deter him from testifying in a colleague’s and his own civil rights cases.

The district court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment on the § 1985(2) conspiracy claim, relying on David v. United States, 820 F.2d 1038 (9th Cir. 1987), which held that only parties to the initial case who were “hampered in being able to present an effective case” can show injury sufficient to bring a section 1985(2) claim.

The panel held that this court’s decision in David was abrogated by Haddle v. Garrison, 525 U.S. 121, 126 (1998), to the extent that David limited section 1985(2) claims on statutory standing and injury grounds in conflict with Haddle. The panel held that a plaintiff asserting conspiracy under section 1985(2) need not show that the party in the original proceeding was hampered in presenting an effective case; interference with a witness’s employment is a cognizable injury for section 1985(2) purposes. The panel held that David’s limitations were irreconcilable with Haddle’s proclamation that intimidation or retaliation against witnesses in federal court proceedings constitute the “gist of the wrong” at which the statute is directed. The panel held that, as other sister circuits have recognized, this expanded view of section 1985(2) aligned with the Supreme Court’s broad reading of the Reconstruction civil rights acts like section 1985.

The panel held that plaintiff’s allegations that employees retaliated against him based on his testimony in a colleague’s federal civil rights case and in his own case alleged a cognizable injury. The panel reversed the district court’s order granting summary judgment to the defendant supervisors on plaintiff’s section 1985(2) conspiracy claim and remanded for further proceedings consistent with the panel’s opinion and with the concurrently filed unpublished memorandum, which addressed plaintiff’s remaining employment discrimination claims.

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