[PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________

No. 20-12576 ________________________

D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cv-04214-LMM

NOEL N. CHUA, M.D.,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

versus ANDREW J. EKONOMOU, MICHAEL G. LAMBROS, LAMBROS ATKINSON & EKONOMOU, P.C., THE LAMBROS FIRM, LLC, STEVE BERRY,

Defendants-Appellees.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia _______________________

(June 15, 2021) USCA11 Case: 20-12576 Date Filed: 06/15/2021 Page: 2 of 20

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, LUCK, Circuit Judge, and MARKS,* District Judge. WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge:

This appeal involves an alleged conspiracy by several state officials to violate a former physician’s civil rights by pinning the blame for his patient’s death on him. Noel Chua sued several of the alleged conspirators, including the court- appointed receiver in a civil-forfeiture action filed against him. The district court dismissed the claims involving actions taken within the scope of the receivership for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction because Chua did not obtain permission to sue from the state court that appointed the receiver. And it dismissed the remaining claims for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. We conclude that the district court had jurisdiction to review the claims against the receiver for his acts taken within the scope of the receivership but that these claims fail because the receiver is entitled to judicial immunity. And we agree with the district court that the remaining claims fail as well. So we vacate in part and affirm in part.

I. BACKGROUND

We accept as true, as we must at this stage, the following facts alleged in Noel Chua’s complaint. See Hill v. White, 321 F.3d 1334, 1335 (11th Cir. 2003). In September 2005, a pre-med student at a local college began working in Chua’s

* Honorable Emily Coody Marks, Chief United States District Judge for the Middle District of Alabama, sitting by designation.

2 USCA11 Case: 20-12576 Date Filed: 06/15/2021 Page: 3 of 20

solo medical practice in St. Marys, Georgia. The student later moved into Chua’s home. Chua started prescribing the student hydrocodone and increasingly stronger medications for headaches and abdominal pains. On December 15, he returned home to find the student lying on his bathroom floor, dead from an apparent drug overdose.

Chua alleges that a conspiracy was formed to pin the blame for the student’s death on him. He calls it the “Making a Murderer Enterprise,” and he alleges that its members included the district attorney and assistant district attorney for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit. The district attorney obtained an indictment against Chua for felony murder and violations of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. He also initiated a civil-forfeiture action, allegedly to deprive Chua of the resources needed to mount a defense in the criminal trial.

According to Chua, the judge who presided over both his criminal and civil proceedings was also a member of the conspiracy. She issued a temporary restraining order freezing Chua’s assets and appointed another member of the conspiracy, Michael Lambros, to serve as receiver in the forfeiture action. Andrew Ekonomou, who was a partner at Lambros’s law firm, served as counsel to the receiver and also alle