David Efron v. Madeleine Candelario
Citation110 F.4th 1229
Date Filed2024-08-02
Docket23-10691
Cited30 times
StatusPublished
Full Opinion (html_with_citations)
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[PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 23-10691
____________________
DAVID EFRON,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
MADELEINE CANDELARIO,
MICHELLE PIRALLO DI CRISTINA,
Defendants-Appellees.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
D.C. Docket No. 1:22-cv-21452-JEM
____________________
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2 Opinion of the Court 23-10691
Before WILSON, GRANT, and LAGOA, Circuit Judges.
LAGOA, Circuit Judge:
David Efron appeals the dismissal of his complaint, in which
he asserted four claims: (1) deprivation of procedural due process
under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Count I); (2) conspiracy to deny civil rights
under § 1983 (Count II); civil conspiracy (Count III); and unjust en-
richment (Count IV). On appeal, Efron contends that the district
court erred in finding that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine bars his
claims from federal review.1 After careful consideration of the par-
ties’ arguments and with the benefit of oral argument, we conclude
that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine bars Efron’s claims, and we affirm
the district court’s dismissal of Efron’s complaint for lack of subject
matter jurisdiction.2
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
David Efron and Madeleine Candelario filed for divorce in
Puerto Rico. At some point during the dissolution litigation, Efron
was ordered to pay Candelario $50,000 per month as an advance
towards the marital asset distribution, but those payments ceased
1 The doctrine takes its name from two Supreme Court decisions: Rooker v.
Fidelity Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413 (1923), and District of Columbia Court of Appeals
v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462 (1983).
2 In the alternative, Efron argues that Rooker-Feldman does not bar his § 1983
claims because they fall (or should fall) under an extrinsic fraud exception to
the doctrine. As Efron acknowledges, this Circuit has never recognized such
an exception, and we decline to do so here.
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23-10691 Opinion of the Court 3
when the divorce was finalized. Thereafter, Candelario began a
romantic relationship with a Puerto Rico Court of Appeals Judge,
Cordero.
Around the same time, another Puerto Rico Court of Ap-
peals Judge, Aponte, had a problem: his brother, Jorge Aponte Her-
nandez, had been charged in Puerto Rico with public corruption.
Efron alleges that, during the pendency of his marriage property
litigation and Mr. Jorge Aponte’s criminal case, Candelario, her at-
torney Michelle Pirallo Di Cristina (“Pirallo”), Judge Cordero, and
Judge Aponte met and agreed to a quid pro quo: Judge Cordero
would make sure Judge Aponte’s brother went free, and Judge
Aponte would rule in Candelario’s favor on a new motion to rein-
state the $50,000 monthly payments. According to Efron, the
scheme succeeded.
Mr. Jorge Aponte moved to amend his indictment, seeking
to remove some of the language alleging his level of intent. The
trial court denied the motion, but the Court of Appeals—including
Judge Cordero—reversed and ruled in Aponte’s favor. At the en-
suing criminal trial, Mr. Aponte was acquitted by the trial judge for
a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.3 As for Candelario, she moved
for the $50,000 payments to resume and to apply retroactively to
an earlier date with interest. In a three-judge panel opinion au-
thored by Judge Aponte, the Court of Appeals granted her request.
See Candelario del Moral v. Efron, Nos. KLCE0500605,
3 Mr. Aponte later filed a lawsuit claiming malicious prosecution, but the jury
found in favor of the state prosecutors.
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4 Opinion of the Court 23-10691
KLCE0500616, 2006 WL 536597 (P.R. Cir. Jan. 31, 2006), as
amended, Candelario del Moral v. Efron, Nos. KLCE0500605,
KLCE0500616, 2006 WL 1044530 (P.R. Cir. Feb. 16, 2006).
According to Efron, Judge Aponte’s opinion finalized the al-
leged fraudulent scheme. Indeed, Efron maintains that the
“scheme was wildly successful” because both parties got what they
wanted: Mr. Aponte was declared not guilty and Candelario has
received approximately $7 million from Efron.
Since Judge Aponte’s decision, the parties have been em-
broiled in a series of disputes concerning payment of the advance-
ments. After paying around $400,000 to Candelario, Efron refused
to make further monthly payments. In response, Candelario has
garnished Efron’s salary and attached his bank and brokerage
house accounts, as well as other assets. Efron asserts that Cande-
lario’s repeated legal victories, which all rely upon the Judge
Aponte decision, are proof that “the scheme is . . . still in operation
to this very day.” In addition to asserting that he has “no ability to
overturn the [Aponte] decision” Efron also alleges that Candelario
has intentionally delayed the property distribution case for twenty
years—seeking “seemingly endless continuances [and] . . . recusal
of judges” with the goal of continuing to receive the $50,000
monthly “advance payments.”
On May 10, 2022, Efron filed a complaint in federal district
court against Candelario and her attorney, Pirallo. Efron asserted
four claims: (1) deprivation of his constitutional procedural due
process rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Count I); (2) conspiracy to
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23-10691 Opinion of the Court 5
deny civil rights under § 1983 (Count II); civil conspiracy (Count
III); and unjust enrichment (Count IV). In his first three claims,
Efron alleged that as a direct and proximate consequence of the de-
fendants’ actions he suffered monetary damages in an amount not
less than $7 million. His fourth claim asserted his entitlement to
return of the money so far received by Candelario and Judge
Cordero (who, while not a defendant, allegedly benefitted from the
funds as Candelario’s live-in boyfriend). And at the end of his reci-
tation of facts, Efron asserted that, until his due process rights “are
restored by the abrogation of the Aponte decision, Candelario and
Pirallo will continue to have free reign to use the corrupt orders in
that case to enlist the courts of Florida and Puerto Rico as unwit-
ting co-conspirators in their illegal scheme.”
Candelario moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter juris-
diction pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and for
failure to state a claim under 12(b)(6). She argued (1) that the court
lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over the action under the Rooker-
Feldman doctrine, (2) that the action was time-barred, and (3) that
Efron had failed to state a cause of action under § 1983. She asked
that Efron’s claim be dismissed with prejudice.
On January 5, 2023, the district court granted in part and de-
nied in part Candelario’s motion to dismiss and dismissed the com-
plaint without prejudice, finding that it had no subject matter juris-
diction over Efron’s claims. In short, the district court noted that
the Rooker-Feldman doctrine bars federal judicial review of claims
that are “inextricably intertwined” with a state court judgment
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6 Opinion of the Court 23-10691
such that granting relief would “effectively nullify” the state court
judgment, or where claims may succeed “only to the extent that
the state court wrongly decided the issues.” 4 The court concluded
that Efron’s claims are “inextricably intertwined” with the Puerto
Rico court’s judgment and thus prohibited by Rooker-Feldman. The
court also rejected Efron’s argument that his claim fell under a
fraud exception to the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.
Having dismissed Efron’s complaint on jurisdictional
grounds, the district court declined to reach the remainder of Can-
delario’s arguments.
Efron timely appealed.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
When evaluating a district court’s resolution of a Rule
12(b)(1) motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction,
we review legal conclusions de novo and findings of fact for clear
error. 5 Glob. Marine Expl., Inc. v. Republic of France, 33 F.4th 1312,
1317 (11th Cir. 2022).
4 Here, the district court relied on our decisions in Casale v. Tillman, 558 F.3d
1258, 1260(11th Cir. 2009), Powell v. Powell,80 F.3d 464, 467
(11th Cir. 1996),
and Goodman ex rel. Goodman v. Sipos, 259 F.3d 1327, 1332 (11th Cir. 2001).
5 The parties in this case dispute the kind of jurisdictional challenge presented
here. A motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) can be based on either a “facial” or a “factual”
challenge to the complaint. See McElmurray v. Consol. Gov’t, 501 F.3d 1244,
1251 (11th Cir. 2007). In a facial challenge, a court must consider the allega-
tions of the plaintiff’s complaint as true and merely “look and see if [the] plain-
tiff has sufficiently alleged a basis of subject matter jurisdiction.” Lawrence v.
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23-10691 Opinion of the Court 7
III. ANALYSIS
On appeal, Efron argues that the district court erred in hold-
ing that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine deprived it of jurisdiction over
Efron’s complaint. According to Efron, the doctrine does not apply
because he does not ask that the district court overturn the state
court opinion but rather seeks compensatory damages.
The Rooker-Feldman doctrine “is a jurisdictional rule that pre-
cludes the lower federal courts from reviewing state court
Dunbar, 919 F.2d 1525, 1529 (11th Cir. 1990) (alteration in original and quota-
tion marks omitted). By contrast, a factual attack challenges “the existence of
subject matter jurisdiction in fact, irrespective of the pleadings, and matters
outside the pleadings, such as testimony and affidavits are considered.” Id.
Though Appellees characterized their claim to the district court as a
factual attack on the court’s jurisdiction, the court found that they brought a
facial challenge because “the universe of facts upon which the Motion relies is
contained in the Complaint and attachments thereto.” On appeal, Efron
adopts the district court’s position, asserting that Appellees brought a facial
challenge and that the district court was thereby required to accept Efron’s
facts as true. Pointing to a string of district court opinions, Appellees respond
that Rooker-Feldman is necessarily a factual attack on jurisdiction. But the or-
ders labeling Rooker-Feldman as a factual challenge only state (or can be traced
to other district court orders stating) that the specific challenge before them
was a factual attack. See e.g. Ellis v. U.S. Bank, N.A., No. 16-CV-1750, 2017 WL
477707, at *2 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 6, 2017); O’Neal v. Bank of Am., N.A., No. 11-CV-
107, 2012 WL 629817, at *3 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 28, 2012); Dean v. Wells Fargo Home
Mortg., No. 10-CV-564, 2011 WL 1515106, at *2 (M.D. Fla. Apr. 21, 2011).
Thus, they do not support the proposition that all Rooker-Feldman challenges
are inherently factual attacks. In any event, because the Appellees did not pre-
sent any outside evidence challenging the facts underlying Efron’s complaint,
the difference is largely academic here, and we need not decide it.
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8 Opinion of the Court 23-10691
judgments.” Alvarez v. Att’y Gen. of Fla., 679 F.3d 1257, 1262 (11th
Cir. 2012). The rule is not prudential but rather “follows naturally
from the jurisdictional boundaries that Congress has set for the fed-
eral courts. First, federal district courts are courts of original juris-
diction” which “generally cannot hear appeals [a]nd second, only
the Supreme Court can ‘reverse or modify’ state court judgments.”
Behr v. Campbell, 8 F.4th 1206, 1210(11th Cir. 2021) (citing28 U.S.C. § 1257
(a)). Under Rooker-Feldman, “a party losing in state court is
barred from seeking what in substance would be appellate review
of the state court judgment in a United States District Court, based
on the losing party’s claim that the state judgment itself violates
the loser’s federal rights.” Johnson v. De Grandy, 512 U.S. 997, 1005–
06 (1994). 6
Following the Supreme Court’s direction, we have repeat-
edly emphasized that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine is “limited” and
“clearly narrow.” Behr, 8 F.4th at 1211. It does not prevent a “dis-
trict court from exercising subject-matter jurisdiction simply be-
cause a party attempts to litigate in federal court a matter previ-
ously litigated in state court.” Nicholson v. Shafe, 558 F.3d 1266, 1274
(11th Cir. 2009) (quoting Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Indus.
Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 293 (2005)). Nor does Rooker-Feldman “block
claims that ‘require some reconsideration of a decision of a state
court’ if the plaintiff presents ‘some independent claim, albeit one
6 Rooker-Feldman likewise applies to Puerto Rican court judgments. Federacion
de Maestros de Puerto Rico v. Junta de Relaciones del Trabajo de Puerto Rico, 410
F.3d 17(1st Cir. 2005); see also28 U.S.C. § 1258
.
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that denies a legal conclusion that a state court has reached in a case
to which he was a party.’” Behr, 8 F.4th at 1212 (quoting Target Me-
dia Partners v. Specialty Mktg. Corp., 881 F.3d 1279, 1288 (11th Cir.
2018)). Indeed, we have stated that Rooker-Feldman “will almost
never apply.” Id.
But almost is not never. The question is whether the case
has been “brought by state-court losers complaining of injuries
caused by state-court judgments rendered before the district court
proceedings commenced and inviting district court review and re-
jection of those judgments.” Id.(quoting Exxon Mobil,544 U.S. at 284
). This requires a court to determine whether the plaintiff seeks
relief from an injury “caused by the judgment itself ” or whether
he seeks damages for some independent source of injury. Id. If the
source of the plaintiff’s injury is the state-court judgment itself,
then Rooker-Feldman applies. See also D.C. Ct. of Appeals v. Feldman,
460 U.S. 462, 486–87 (1983) (finding that Rooker-Feldman barred a
plaintiff’s claim that the state court had acted “arbitrarily and capri-
ciously” but not the plaintiff’s claim that the underlying state rule
was unconstitutional); Alvarez, 679 F.3d at 1263 (distinguishing a
permissible challenge to the underlying constitutionality of a pro-
cedure from a barred challenge to the state court’s application of
that procedure).
Further, as we explained in Behr, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine
does not cease to operate simply because the plaintiff requests
something other than the vacatur of a state decision. Whether a
state court judgment caused the plaintiff’s injury remains the
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10 Opinion of the Court 23-10691
question for a federal court regardless of the form in which the
plaintiff brings his or her claims. Behr, 8 F.4th at 1211. Thus, Rooker-
Feldman “bars all appeals of state court judgments—whether the
plaintiff admits to filing a direct appeal of the judgment or tries to
call the appeal something else.” 7 Id.
i. A Claim-By-Claim Analysis
As we explained in Behr, a court should follow a claim-by-
claim approach when determining whether Rooker-Feldman bars a
plaintiff’s claims from review in a federal district court. Id. at 1213.
“The question isn’t whether the whole complaint seems to chal-
lenge a previous state court judgment, but whether resolution of
each individual claim requires review and rejection of a state court
judgment.” Id. We thus consider each of Efron’s four claims in
turn.
7 When the Supreme Court issued its decision in Feldman, it noted that Feld-
man’s two claims—that the federal court overturn the state court’s judgment
and that the federal court declare that the state court acted “arbitrarily and
capriciously”—were “inextricably intertwined.” Feldman, 460 U.S. at 486–87.
In Behr we explained that “whether a claim is ‘inextricably intertwined’ with a
state court judgment . . . is merely a way of ensuring that courts do not exer-
cise jurisdiction over the appeal of a state court judgment simply because the
claimant does not call it an appeal of a state court judgment.” Behr, 8 F.4th at
1212. We recognize that lower courts have since taken to relying on the for-
mulation of “inextricably intertwined” that we provided in Casale. See, e.g.,
Efron v. Candelario, No. 22-21452-CIV, 2023 WL 2394592, at *4 (S.D. Fla. Feb.
3, 2023). However, our instruction in Behr was to avoid relying on any such
standard, and to instead prioritize simply asking whether a plaintiff’s claim re-
quires a federal district court to review and reject a state court decision. See
Behr, 8 F.4th at 1211–12.
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In his first count, Efron claimed deprivation of procedural
due process rights under § 1983, alleging that the Appellees had re-
cruited Judge Aponte to issue “a corrupt decision” on behalf of
Candelario, thereby denying “Efron his right to have the property
distribution case heard before a neutral tribunal.” Efron requested
monetary damages for injury to his business and property as a re-
sult of the corrupt decision. On appeal, Efron asserts that neither
this claim nor any of his others seek to “reverse and nullify” the
Puerto Rican court’s judgment. He argues that his allegations
“specify a claim for damages independent of the standing Aponte
decisions, based on the factual allegations that the two Appellees
procured and then utilized state court judgments to obtain by
means of fraud and misrepresentation not less than $7,000,000 that
should be compensated for in damages or disgorgement.” Efron
seeks to distinguish his claims from those barred under Rooker-Feld-
man on the grounds that he does not request relief from an injury
caused solely by the state court’s decision, but rather seeks dam-
ages from third party actions.
But Efron’s efforts to distinguish his claim are unpersuasive
and amount to filing a direct appeal of the state court judgment
while simultaneously trying to “call the appeal something else.”
Behr, 8 F.4th at 1211. Although Efron does not explicitly ask us to
overturn the state court’s judgment, Efron asks us to find that the
court’s determination that Candelario is entitled to $50,000 a year
is the result of corruption, which amounts to the same thing. See
id. (recognizing that a request that a district court overturn a state
court judgment and a request that the district court declare that the
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12 Opinion of the Court 23-10691
state court acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” by denying the
plaintiff’s state claim were “one and the same”); see also Alvarez, 679
F.3d at 1263 (concluding that a plaintiff’s claim that the state court
had “arbitrarily ignored material facts” to be a request for the dis-
trict court to review and reject the state court judgment, which was
barred by Rooker-Feldman doctrine). Efron essentially conceded as
much in his complaint, where he alleged that his due process rights
can only be restored “by the abrogation of the Aponte decision.”
Efron therefore does not seek relief from an injury by a third party
or challenge the constitutionality of a state court rule, distinguish-
able from the state court’s application of that rule. See Feldman,
460 U.S. at 482–87. Instead, Efron’s claim seeks relief from injuries
caused by the state-court judgment because the claim at “its heart
challenges the state court decision itself ”—the money adjudicated
to Candelario by the Aponte decisions—“and not the statute or law
which underlies that decision.” Behr, 8 F.4th at 1211. In sum,
Efron’s due process challenge “boils down to a claim that the state
court judgment itself caused him constitutional injury.” Alvarez,
679 F.3d at 1263.
The rest of Efron’s claims are similarly barred by Rooker-
Feldman. Count II, a “Conspiracy to Deny Civil Rights Under 42
U.S.C. § 1983,” alleges that Candelario and Pirallo participated in a
conspiracy with Judges Aponte and Cordero who, acting under the
color of state law, agreed to “deny Efron his constitutional rights
protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amend-
ment to be heard in an impartial forum and to have equal and fair
access to the courts.” Efron alleges that the conspirators’ objective
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was to “deny Efron his due process rights so that he could be
wrongfully ordered to pay” and seeks $7,000,000 in injury to his
business and property as a result of that conspiracy. Count III as-
serts a claim for civil conspiracy and focuses on the same set of
facts. In particular, Efron alleges that Candelario and Pirallo
agreed to a quid pro quo between Judges Cordero and Aponte and
that the scheme “continues to the present day through Candelario’s
relentless pursuit of Efron in the courts of Florida and Puerto Rico
for money ostensibly owed to Candelario based on Judge Aponte’s
corruptly procured rulings.” Efron seeks the same damages under
Count III as Count II. Count IV, which asserts a claim for unjust
enrichment, alleges that Candelario and Pirallo were paid money
“to which they are not entitled” as a result of the Aponte decisions,
resulting in their unjust enrichment at Efron’s expense. Efron de-
manded a “return of the money received” by the Appellees.
Like Count I, Counts II, III, and IV tick all the Rooker-Feldman
boxes. At heart, they challenge the result of the Aponte decisions
themselves, seeking to nullify the decisions’ effect by mandating
the return of the money the Aponte decisions ordered Efron to pay
and explicitly seeking a finding that the Aponte decisions were
“wrongful,” “corruptly procured” and did not entitle the Appellees
to the money they were paid. See Behr, 8 F.4th at 1211. In short,
Counts II–IV require a district court to “review” and “reject” the
state court decision.
Efron argues that his claims are not covered by Rooker-Feld-
man because he seeks monetary damages solely as compensation
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for the Appellees’ past wrongdoing and thus articulates a claim for
relief “independent” of the Aponte decisions. He maintains that
the district court erred by (1) principally focusing on the interrela-
tionship of the federal claim to the litigation in the state court, (2)
giving no weight to the exclusive damages remedy sought, (3) giv-
ing no weight to the fact that the complaint sought no relief to va-
cate or reverse the state-court judgment, and (4) overlooking the
fact that damages could be awarded without nullifying the state
court judgment. These arguments fail to persuade.
Efron is correct that a plaintiff’s claim for relief does matter.
See id. at 1214. In Behr, we explicitly rejected a proposition from
Goodman that Rooker-Feldman “focus[es] on the federal claim’s rela-
tionship to the issues involved in the state court proceeding,” to the
exclusion of “the type of relief sought by the plaintiff.” Id. (quot-
ing Goodman, 259 F.3d at 1333). But the claim for relief, alone, is
not determinative: the question is still whether the substance—if
not the form—of a plaintiff’s claim requires a district court to “re-
view” and “reject” a state court judgment. Id. at 1211. As we said
in Behr, a request that a state court decision be invalidated is equiv-
alent to a request that the state court be declared to have acted “ar-
bitrarily and capriciously.” Id. In this case, although Efron does
not ask us to overturn the state court’s judgment, there is no dis-
tinguishing between the damages that the judges’ alleged constitu-
tional violations caused Efron and the state court’s disposition of
Efron’s case. Efron essentially claims that the state court judgment
is the constitutional issue, and his request for damages would not
only explicitly negate the Aponte decision’s effect to date but would
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23-10691 Opinion of the Court 15
also (as he intends) “deter [the Aponte decision’s] future use.” In-
deed, the complaint at issue here was “brought by [a] state-court
loser[] complaining of injuries caused by state-court judgments
rendered before the district court proceedings commenced and in-
viting district court review and rejection of those judgments.”
Behr, 8 F.4th at 1212(quoting Exxon Mobil,544 U.S. at 284
). We thus
conclude that Efron’s claims are barred under Rooker-Feldman be-
cause they amount to a request that the district court review and
reject the state court judgment.8
IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court’s dis-
missal of Efron’s complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
AFFIRMED.
8 Efron alleges that the district court made several other errors in its analysis.
Because our review of subject matter jurisdiction is dispositive, we need not
address the other errors Efron alleges.