Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-azd-2_09-cv-00195/USCOURTS-azd-2_09-cv-00195-0/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 440
Nature of Suit: Other Civil Rights
Cause of Action: 42:1983 Civil Rights Act

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 The Gipson Plaintiffs (Varick Gipson, Alonzo Alexander, Avon Skinner, Brandon

Dickson, Michael Burgess, and Mark Burgess) joined Plaintiff Ashley Skinner et al. in her

WO

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

Ashley Skinner, et al.,

 Plaintiffs,

v.

Pinal County, et al.

 Defendants. 

Varick Gipson, et al.,

 Plaintiffs,

v.

Pinal County, et al.

 Defendants. 

 

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No. CV09-00195-PHX-MHM

No. CV09-00314-PHX-MHM

 (Consolidated) 

ORDER

Currently pending before the Court is Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss City of Casa

Grande Police Department as a Non-Jural Entity. (Dkt. #5) Plaintiffs oppose this motion,

arguing that the Court is not bound by the numerous federal cases from this and other circuits

that hold that a police department is not a jural entity that is capable of suing and being sued

but rather is merely a subdivision of the political entity to which it belongs (here, the City of

Casa Grande).1

 (Dkt.#8 at 5) However, the Court finds the plethora of cases cited by the

Case 2:09-cv-00195-MHM Document 16 Filed 05/20/09 Page 1 of 4
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Response to the Motion to Dismiss City of Casa Grande Police Department as a Non-Jural

Entity. (Dkt.#15, CV09-00314)

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City of Casa Grande persuasive. See, e.g. Gotbaum v. City of Phoenix, 2008 WL 4628675

(D. Ariz. 2008) (explaining that “[c]onsistent with its previous decision in Wilson, the Court

concludes that the Phoenix Police Department is a subpart of the city of Phoenix, not a

separate entity for purposes of suit.”); 56 Am.Jur.2d Municipal Corporations § 787

(“Generally, the departments and subordinate entities of municipalities, counties, and towns

that are not separate legal entities or bodies do not have the capacity to sue or be sued in the

absence of specific statutory authority.”); Jacobs v. Port Neches Police Dep’t, 915 F. Supp.

842, 844 (E.D. Tex. 1996) (explaining that the sheriff’s department was not a proper party

to the suit because the county had not expressly “grant[ed] the servient agency with jural

authority”); Wright v. Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Dep’t, 963 F. Supp. 1029, 1034 (D. Kan.

1997) (explaining that the Sheriff’s department is merely an agency of the county and is not

itself capable of being sued).

The capacity to sue or be sued is determined by the law of the state where the court

is located. Fed. R. Civ. P. 17(b)(2), (3). Arizona Rule of Civil Procedure 17(d) explains that

“[a]ctions brought by or against a county or unincorporated city or town shall be brought in

its corporate name.” Thus, the proper form of a lawsuit against the City of Casa Grande’s

Police Department is a lawsuit that names the City of Casa Grande. The Arizona

Constitution specifically confers the right to sue or be sued on municipal corporations.

A.R.S. Const. Art. 14 § 1 states that “[t]he term ‘corporation,’ as used in this article, shall be

construed to include all associations and joint stock companies having any powers or

privileges of corporations not possessed by individuals or co-partnerships, and all

corporations shall have the right to sue and shall be subject to be sued, in all courts, in like

cases as natural persons.” 

Plaintiffs are unable to cite any Arizona statute that confers the power to sue or be

sued to a city’s police department. They claim that A.R.S. § 12-820(6) and (7) defines a

Case 2:09-cv-00195-MHM Document 16 Filed 05/20/09 Page 2 of 4
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“public entity” broadly as “this state and any political subdivision of this state” and that

“state” is defined as “the state and any state agency, board, commission, or department.”

(Dkt.#8 at 5) However, this statute simply does not address the question of whether the City

of Casa Grande Police Department is a jural entity that is capable of suing and being sued;

rather, it merely confirms the banality that a political subdivision of the state is also a public

entity. Applied here, it merely confirms that the police department, as a subdivision of a

public entity, is also public. However, it says nothing about whether the police department

is a jural entity that is capable of suing and being sued.

Plaintiffs further claim that McClanahan v. Cochise College, 25 Ariz.App. 13, 540

P.2d 744 (1975) supports their argument that the police department is a jural entity.

However, the McClanahan court never considered the issue and thus is inapposite to the case

at bar. 

Plaintiffs also argue that the size and purpose of the police department mean that its

alleged jural status should be “fairly implied.” However, the importance or purpose of a

department are not the established legal tests for determining whether it may sue or be sued;

as discussed above, the test is whether specific statutory authority authorizes the political

subdivision to sue and be sued. 

Finally, Plaintiffs attempt to argue that the Casa Grande Police Department has been

sued in the past and has not claimed that it was a non-jural entity and thus should be

judicially estopped from raising that argument here. However, Plaintiffs apparently were not

aware that the Casa Grande Police Department did challenge its status as a non-jural entity

in the very case that Plaintiffs cited. (Dkt.#9, Exh. A) Thus, Plaintiffs’ estoppel argument

likewise fails. It might be a closer question if the Casa Grande Police Department had itself

served as a plaintiff in several law suits; however, Plaintiffs have brought no such suits to the

Court’s attention. Plaintiffs have already sued the City of Casa Grande. Dismissal of the

Casa Grande Police Department will not deprive them of any remedy to which they are

entitled.

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Accordingly,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss City of

Casa Grande Police Department as a Non-Jural Entity. (Dkt.# 5)

DATED this 19th day of May, 2009.

Case 2:09-cv-00195-MHM Document 16 Filed 05/20/09 Page 4 of 4