1Grabowski v. Jackson County Public Defenders Office, 923

F.2d 852 (5th Cir.1991). 

1

United States Court of Appeals,

Fifth Circuit.

No. 92-7728.

Rod GRABOWSKI, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

JACKSON COUNTY PUBLIC DEFENDERS OFFICE, et al., DefendantsAppellees.

April 9, 1996.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern

District of Mississippi.

Before POLITZ, Chief Judge, and KING, GARWOOD, JOLLY, HIGGINBOTHAM,

DAVIS, JONES, SMITH, DUHÉ, WIENER, BARKSDALE, EMILIO M. GARZA,

DeMOSS, BENAVIDES, STEWART, PARKER and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Before the en banc court is the second appeal by Roderick John

Grabowski of the dismissal of his complaint against Jackson County,

Mississippi, in which he invoked 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming various

violations of his due process rights while a pretrial detainee. He

also challenges the constitutional validity of his convictions for

armed robbery, burglary, and larceny.

In the first appeal a panel of this court affirmed in part and

vacated and remanded in part for consideration of three alleged due

process violations and for a merits disposition of the challenges

to the validity of the convictions.1 On remand the district court

denied habeas corpus relief and referred the section 1983 complaint

to a magistrate judge for a hearing, report, and recommendations.
 

2Grabowski v. Jackson County Public Defenders Office, 47

F.3d 1386 (5th Cir.1995). 

 

3Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98

S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). 

2

Following a de novo review the district court dismissed the action

against Jackson County. Grabowski appealed both adverse judgments

and we consolidated the appeals for disposition. A second panel of

this court, by majority opinion, affirmed the rejection of habeas

relief, affirmed in part the dismissal of the section 1983

complaint, and remanded for consideration of Grabowski's allegation

that the defendant had failed to protect him from violence at the

hands of other prisoners.2 The full court took the matter en banc

thus vacating the second panel opinion.

The only defendant before the court is Jackson County,

Mississippi, which is being sued for alleged constitutional

shortcomings in the operation of its governmental institutions, the

county jail and the county defender's office. Grabowski made

allegations and offered some evidence of the omissions and

commissions of several county employees, but on close study the

record leaves no doubt that the only party-defendant herein is

Jackson County.

The familiar doctrine of respondeat superior has no

application in a section 1983 action against a governmental unit

based on the wrongful acts of its employees.3 A municipality or

county can be held accountable to a pretrial detainee for a due

process violation resulting from an employee's acts only if the
 

4Id.; Bennett v. City of Slidell, 735 F.2d 861 (5th

Cir.1984) (en banc), cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1016, 105 S.Ct. 3476,

87 L.Ed.2d 612 (1985); Webster v. City of Houston, 735 F.2d 838

(5th Cir.) (en banc), modified on reh'g, 739 F.2d 993 (5th

Cir.1984) (en banc). 

 

5Hare v. City of Corinth, 74 F.3d 633, 649 n. 4 (5th

Cir.1996) (en banc) (emphasis omitted) (citing Farmer v. Brennan,

--- U.S. ----, ----, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 1981, 128 L.Ed.2d 811

(1994)). 

3

harmful acts resulted from a policy or custom4 "adopted or

maintained with objective deliberate indifference to the detainee's

constitutional rights."5

The record before us contains no showing of the existence of

a policy or custom of Jackson County by virtue of which any

employee, including those identified in the pleadings and other

filings herein, violated Grabowski's constitutional or federally

guaranteed rights. Absent such, there can be no 42 U.S.C. § 1983

liability by Jackson County and the trial court's judgment in favor

of the County is therefore AFFIRMED.

Nor does the record contain sufficient evidence warranting

issuance of the Great Writ, and the trial court's rejection of

habeas corpus relief is also AFFIRMED.