Morcos S. Azer Doctor's Medical Laboratory, Inc. v. Kathleen Connell John Chen Steven Fujimori Joseph P. Munso Al Schaden

Plaintiffs Morcos S. Azer and his now-moribund company, Doctor’s Medical Laboratory, Inc. (“DML”), bring this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against defendants Kathleen Connell, California’s elected State Controller; John Chen, Chief of the Audits Division of the California Controller’s office at all times relevant to this appeal; and Ste ven Fujimori, an audit manager in the Controller’s office at all times relevant to this appeal (collectively, the “Controller Defendants”). The suit also names as defendants Joseph Munso and A1 Schaden, who were employed by the California Department of Health Services (“DHS”) at all times relevant to this appeal (collectively, the “DHS Defendants”). Munso was the acting or actual Chief Deputy Director of DHS. Schaden was the Chief of the Case Development Section of the Medical Review Branch of the Audits and Investigation Division of DHS. The plaintiffs allege that each defendant, in his or her individual capacity, wrongfully withheld nearly $3 million in payments to DML as part of a Medi-Cal fraud investigation. The district court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the suit as untimely. We reverse and remand.

I. Background

Azer was the sole…