Facts

Ranae Snowden filed suit against the County of Calaveras, Sabrina Cable, Calaveras County Code Compliance, Josh Crabtree, Calaveras County Sheriff's Department, and Peter Maurer, the Director of the Calaveras County Planning Department, in relation to real property she and her husband owned at 1400 Vineyard Terrace in Murphys, California. In 2016, the County passed an emergency ordinance permitting commercial cultivation of marijuana. On June 30, 2016, Snowden went to a County Planning Department meeting to register for a permit to commercially cultivate marijuana, and she provided her contact information. When Snowden contacted Maurer, he told Snowden that the deadline to submit a permit application was June 30, 2016, and Snowden submitted her application on April 24, 2017. Snowden appealed the rejection to the Planning Commission, which denied their appeal. Snowden then appealed to the County Board of Supervisors, which denied a motion to continue and denied their appeal. On September 13, 2017, Snowden filed a petition for writ of mandate in the Calaveras County Superior Court. That day, Snowden was served with a notice of violation and order to abate due to her cultivation of marijuana on the property. On October 2, 2017, the Sheriff's Department abated over four hundred marijuana plants on the property and recorded a notice of nuisance abatement lien. The superior court concluded that the County violated Snowden's due process rights by denying her request for a continuance of her appeal hearing. Snowden subsequently filed this action and defendants removed it to federal court.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Snowden contended that she was entitled to damages for the County's breach of procedural due process in relation to the County's denial of her request for a continuance of her appeal hearing. Snowden asserted a due process claim under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 based on the Board's denial of her right to counsel during her appeal hearing, the County's failure to serve her with an abatement order prior to abating her marijuana plants and placing a lien on the property, and the County's issuance of an abatement order while her petition for writ of mandate was pending in the superior court. Snowden also asserted a conversion claim based on the County's abatement of her marijuana plants.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS: Defendants denied the allegations and filed a motion to dismiss. Defendants claimed that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Defendants also argued that Snowden's first cause of action was barred by the Full Faith and Credit Act, which requires federal courts give preclusive effect to the findings of state administrative tribunals in subsequent Section 1983 actions. Defendants claimed that Snowden's conversion cause of action failed to state a cognizable claim and thus failed.

Result

The court granted defendants' motion to dismiss without leave to amend. The court concluded that the Full Faith and Credit Act applied because the hearing on the notice of abatement issued to Snowden met the criteria for giving effect to the judgment of an administrative hearing. The court also found that Snowden failed to state a cognizable claim for conversion because she did not allege facts that, if proven, would establish she had a legal right to possess the seized marijuana.