Denise Schmidt v. Contra Costa County

MEMORANDUM

In an Opinion concurrently filed with this memorandum, we affirmed the district court’s summary judgment ruling that Judge Laurel Brady, Judge Thomas Mad-dock, Judge Barry Baskin, and Judge Lois Haight (“the Judge Defendants”) are entitled to legislative immunity from Plaintiff-Appellant Denise Schmidt’s federal constitutional claims brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , as well as from her state constitutional claims. Here, we address the district court’s (1) grant of summary judgment to the Judge Defendants and Ken Torre on Schmidt’s state law wrongful termination claim; (2) grant of summary judgment to Contra Costa County (“the County”) on Schmidt’s Monell claim; and (3) denial of Schmidt’s request for additional discovery and related motions. We affirm in all respects.

1.Schmidt is not entitled to summary judgment on her wrongful termination claim. The district court dismissed this claim in its December 2009 Order because “[t]he parties agree[d]” that the claim “[wa]s not viable,” and Schmidt failed to appeal that ruling. Even if we were to treat Schmidt’s appeal as a challenge to the district court’s dismissal of her claim, the district court did not err in dismissing…