Oleksandra Plyatsko, proceeding pro se, filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against three Georgia state court judges, a guardian ad litem, and court-appointed evaluators. She alleged that these defendants conspired to violate her constitutional rights during a prolonged custody dispute in Fulton County, Georgia. Her claims included violations of procedural and substantive due process, First Amendment retaliation, civil conspiracy, and denial of access to the courts. The district court sua sponte dismissed the complaint with prejudice under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2), citing multiple grounds: the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, the Younger abstention doctrine, the domestic relations exception, judicial immunity, and the failure to state a claim. Plyatsko appealed, challenging most of the district court's grounds but failing to provide any briefing or argument regarding the domestic relations exception.
The Eleventh Circuit reviewed the case de novo for failure to state a claim and for abuse of discretion regarding frivolousness and abstention. The court began by addressing the procedural posture of the appeal, noting that issues not briefed by a pro se litigant are deemed abandoned. Plyatsko had challenged the district court's reliance on Rooker-Feldman, Younger, and immunity, but she did not address the domestic relations exception in her appellate brief. Under Eleventh Circuit precedent, specifically Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian Ins. Co., an appellant abandons a claim when they fail to raise it with supporting arguments and authority. Because the district court's judgment rested on multiple independent grounds, and Plyatsko abandoned the challenge to the domestic relations exception, the appellate court affirmed the dismissal based on that specific ground. The court explained that the domestic relations exception is an abstention doctrine rooted in the federal government's deference to state-law policy decisions regarding domestic relations. While the Supreme Court has not expressly decided if the exception applies to federal question jurisdiction, the Eleventh Circuit has applied it when a federal court would become enmeshed in domestic factual disputes. The court noted that Plyatsko's case was essentially a domestic relations dispute, falling squarely within this exception. Consequently, the district court was correct to abstain, but the appellate court determined that the dismissal should be without prejudice. Dismissals based on abstention doctrines like the domestic relations exception are generally without prejudice because the court is declining to exercise jurisdiction rather than ruling on the merits. The district court had dismissed with prejudice, which was an error because it potentially barred Plyatsko from refiling if she could overcome the jurisdictional bar. The court vacated the judgment and remanded with instructions to dismiss without prejudice.
The case is sent back to the district court to enter a dismissal without prejudice. This change ensures that Plyatsko is not permanently barred from filing a new lawsuit should she be able to frame her claims in a way that avoids the domestic relations exception, although the jurisdictional bar remains a significant hurdle. The decision clarifies that when a pro se litigant abandons a jurisdictional argument on appeal, the appellate court will affirm based on that ground, but it also mandates that dismissals based on abstention doctrines must be without prejudice to preserve the plaintiff's right to potentially refile in state court or in federal court if the jurisdictional basis changes.
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