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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 1988', '§ 1983', '§ 1292', '§ 1983', '§ 1988', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1988', '§ 1988', '§ 1988', '§ 1988', '§ 1983', '§ 1988', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', 'Art. 428', 'Art. 2315', 'Art. 2315', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1988', '§ 1983', '§ 1988', '§ 1988', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1988', '§ 1983', '§ 1988', '§ 162', '§ 301', '§ 185', '§ 1988', '§ 1988', '§ 3', '§ 1988', '§ 908', '§ 59', '§ 1986', '§ 1986', '§ 1983', 'Art. 428', 'Art. 2315']

Robertson v. Wegmann (full text) :: 436 U.S. 584 (1978) :: Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center Log In
U.S. Supreme CourtRobertson v. Wegmann, 436 U.S. 584 (1978)Robertson v. WegmannNo. 77-178Argued March 21, 1978Decided May 31, 1978436 U.S. 584CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
In early 1970, Clay L. Shaw filed a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Four years later, before trial had commenced, Shaw died. The question presented is whether the District Court was required to adopt as federal law a Louisiana survivorship statute, which would have caused this action to abate, or was free instead to create a federal common law rule allowing the action to survive. Resolution of this question turns on whether the state statute is "inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States." 42 U.S.C. § 1988. [Footnote 1] Page 436 U. S. 586
In 1969, Shaw was tried in a Louisiana state court on charges of having participated in a conspiracy to assassinate President John F Kennedy. He was acquitted by a jury, but within days was arrested on charges of having committed perjury in his testimony at the conspiracy trial. Alleging that these prosecutions were undertaken in bad faith, Shaw's § 1983 complaint named as defendants the then District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Jim Garrison, and five other persons, including petitioner Willard E. Robertson, who was alleged to have lent financial support to Garrison's investigation of Shaw through an organization known as "Truth or Consequences." On Shaw's application, the District Court enjoined prosecution of the perjury action, Shaw v. Garrison, 328 F.Supp. 390 (1971), and the Court of Appeals affirmed, 467 F.2d 113 (CA5 1972). [Footnote 2] Since Shaw had filed an action seeking damages, the parties continued with discovery after the injunction issued. Trial was set for November, 1974, but in August, 1974, Shaw died. The executor of his estate, respondent Edward F. Wegmann (hereafter respondent), moved to be substituted as plaintiff, Page 436 U. S. 587 and the District Court granted the motion. [Footnote 3] Petitioner and other defendants then moved to dismiss the action on the ground that it had abated on Shaw's death.
On an interlocutory appeal taken pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed. The court first noted that all parties agreed that, "if Louisiana law applies, Shaw's § 1983 claim Page 436 U. S. 588 abates." 545 F.2d 980, 982 (1977). Like the District Court, the Court of Appeals applied 42 U.S.C. § 1988, found federal law "deficient" with regard to survivorship, and held Louisiana law "inconsistent with the broad remedial purposes embodied in the Civil Rights Acts." 545 F.2d at 983. It offered a number of justifications for creating a federal common law rule allowing respondent to continue Shaw's action: such a rule would better further the policies underlying § 1983, 545 F.2d at 984-985; would "foste[r] the uniform application of the civil rights laws," id. at 985; and would be consistent with "[t]he marked tendency of the federal courts to allow actions to survive in other areas of particular federal concern," ibid. The court concluded that, "as a matter of federal common law, a § 1983 action instituted by a plaintiff prior to his death survives in favor of his estate." Id. at 987.
As both courts below held, and as both parties here have assumed, the decision as to the applicable survivorship rule is governed by 42 U.S.C. § 1988. This statute recognizes that, in certain areas "federal law is unsuited or insufficient to furnish suitable remedies;'" federal law simply does not "cover every issue that may arise in the context of a federal civil rights action." Moor v. County of Alameda, 411 U. S. 693, 411 U. S. 703, 702 (1973), quoting 42 U.S.C. § 1988. When federal law is thus "deficient," § 1988 instructs us to turn to "the common law, as modified and changed by the constitution and statutes of the [forum] State," as long as these are "not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States." See n 1, supra. Regardless of the source of the law applied in a particular case, however, it is clear that the ultimate rule adopted under § 1988 "`is a federal rule responsive to the need whenever a federal right is impaired.'" Page 436 U. S. 589 Moor v. County of Alameda, supra at 411 U. S. 703, quoting Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc., 396 U. S. 229, 396 U. S. 240 (1969).
As we noted in Moor v. County of Alameda, and as was recognized by both courts below, one specific area not covered by federal law is that relating to "the survival of civil rights actions under § 1983 upon the death of either the plaintiff or defendant." 411 U.S. at 411 U. S. 702 n. 14. [Footnote 4] State statutes governing the survival of state actions do exist, however. These statutes, which vary widely with regard to both the types of claims that survive and the parties as to whom survivorship is allowed, see W. Prosser, Law of Torts 900-901 (4th ed.1971), were intended to modify the simple, if harsh, 19th-century common law rule: "[A]n injured party's personal claim was [always] extinguished . . . upon the death of either the injured party himself or the alleged wrongdoer." Moor v. County of Alameda, supra at 411 U. S. 702 n. 14; see Michigan Central R. Co. v. Vreeland, 227 U. S. 59, 227 U. S. 67 (1913). Under § 1988, this state statutory law, modifying the common law, [Footnote 5] Page 436 U. S. 590 provides the principal reference point in determining survival of civil rights actions, subject to the important proviso that state law may not be applied when it is "inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States." Because of this proviso, the courts below refused to adopt as federal law the Louisiana survivorship statute and in its place created a federal common law rule.
Despite the broad sweep of § 1983, we can find nothing in the statute or its underlying policies to indicate that a state law causing abatement of a particular action should invariably be ignored in favor of a rule of absolute survivorship. The Page 436 U. S. 591 policies underlying § 1983 include compensation of persons injured by deprivation of federal rights and prevention of abuses of power by those acting under color of state law. See, e.g., Carey v. Piphus, 435 U. S. 247, 435 U. S. 254 (1978); Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U. S. 225, 407 U. S. 238-242 (172); Monroe v. Pape, 365 U. S. 167, 365 U. S. 172-187 (1961). No claim is made here that Louisiana's survivorship laws are in general inconsistent with these policies, and indeed most Louisiana actions survive the plaintiff's death. See La.Code Civ.Proc.Ann., Art. 428 (West 1960); La.Civ.Code Ann., Art. 2315 (West 1971). Moreover, certain types of actions that would abate automatically on the plaintiff's death in many States -- for example, actions for defamation and malicious prosecution -- would apparently survive in Louisiana. [Footnote 6] In actions other than those for damage to property, however, Louisiana does not allow the deceased's personal representative to be substituted as plaintiff; rather, the action survives only in favor of a spouse, children, parents, or siblings. See 391 F.Supp. at 1361-1363; La.Civ.Code Ann., Art. 2315 (West 1971); J. Wilton Jones Co. v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 248 So.2d 878 (La.App. 1970 and 1971) (en banc). [Footnote 7] But surely few persons are not Page 436 U. S. 592 survived by one of these close relatives, and in any event no contention is made here that Louisiana's decision to restrict certain survivorship rights in this manner is an.unreasonable one. [Footnote 8]
It is therefore difficult to see how any of § 1983's policies would be undermined if Shaw's action were to abate. The goal of compensating those injured by a deprivation of rights provides no basis for requiring compensation of one who is merely suing as the executor of the deceased's estate. [Footnote 9] And, given that most Louisiana actions survive the plaintiff's death, the fact that a particular action might abate surely would not adversely affect § 1983's role in preventing official illegality, at least in situations in which there is no claim that the illegality caused the plaintiff's death. A state official contemplating illegal activity must always be prepared to face the prospect of a § 1983 action being filed against him. In light of this prospect, even an official aware of the intricacies of Louisiana survivorship law would hardly be influenced in his behavior by its provisions. [Footnote 10] Page 436 U. S. 593
Mitchum v. Foster, supra at 407 U. S. 239. That a federal remedy should be available, however, does not mean that a § 1983 plaintiff (or his representative) must be allowed to continue an action in disregard of the state law to which § 1988 refers us. A state statute cannot be considered "inconsistent" with federal law merely because the statute causes the plaintiff to lose the litigation. If success of the § 1983 action were the only benchmark, there would be no reason at all to look to state law, for the appropriate rule would then always be the one favoring the plaintiff, and its source would be essentially irrelevant. But § 1988 quite clearly instructs us to refer to state statutes; it does not say that state law is to be accepted or rejected based solely on which side is advantaged thereby. Under the circumstances presented here, the fact that Shaw was not survived by one of several close relatives should not itself be sufficient to cause the Louisiana survivorship provisions to be deemed "inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States." 42 U.S.C. § 1988. [Footnote 11] Page 436 U. S. 594
Here it is agreed that Shaw's death was not caused by the deprivation of rights for which he sued under § 1983, and Louisiana law provides for the survival of most tort actions. Respondent's only complaint about Louisiana law is that it would cause Shaw's action to abate. We conclude that the Page 436 U. S. 595 mere fact of abatement of a particular lawsuit is not sufficient ground to declare state law "inconsistent" with federal law.
Accepting this as the proper starting point, it necessarily follows, it seems to me, that the judgment of the Court of Appeals must be affirmed, not reversed. To be sure, survivorship of a civil rights action under § 1983 upon the death of either party is not specifically covered by the federal statute. But that does not mean that "the laws of the United States" are not "suitable" or are "not. adapted to the object" or are "deficient in the provisions necessary." The federal law and Page 436 U. S. 596 the underlying federal policy stand bright and clear. And in the light of that brightness and of that clarity, I see no need to resort to the myriad of state rules governing the survival of state actions.
Second. The Court's reading of § 1988 cannot easily be squared with its treatment of the problems of immunity and damages under the Civil Rights Acts. Only this Term, in Page 436 U. S. 597 Carey v. Piphus, 435 U. S. 247 (1978), the Court set a rule for the award of damages under § 1983 for deprivation of procedural due process by resort to "federal common law." Though the case arose from Illinois, the Court did not feel compelled to inquire into Illinois' statutory or decisional law of damages, nor to test that law for possible "inconsistency" with the federal scheme, before embracing a federal common law rule. Instead, the Court fashioned a federal damages rule, from common law sources and its view of the type of injury, to govern such cases uniformly State to State. 435 U.S. at 435 U. S. 257-259, and n. 13.
Third. A flexible reading of § 1988, permitting resort to a federal rule of survival because it "better serves" the policies of the Civil Rights Acts, would be consistent with the methodology employed in the other major choice of law provision in the federal structure, namely, the Rules of Decision Act. 28 Page 436 U. S. 598 U.S.C. § 162. [Footnote 2/2] That Act provides that state law is to govern a civil trial in a federal court "except where the Constitution or treaties of the United States or Acts of Congress otherwise require or provide." The exception has not been interpreted in a crabbed or wooden fashion, but, instead, has been used to give expression to important federal interests. Thus, for example, the exception has been used to apply a federal common law of labor contracts in suits under § 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 29 U.S.C. § 185(a), Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills, 353 U. S. 448 (1957); to apply federal common law to transactions in commercial paper issued by the United States where the United States is a party, Clearfield Trust Co. v. United States, 318 U. S. 363 (1943); and to avoid application of governing state law to the reservation of mineral rights in a land acquisition agreement to which the United States was a party and that bore heavily upon a federal wildlife regulatory program, United States v. Little Lake Misere Land Co., 412 U. S. 580 (1973). See also Auto Workers v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U. S. 696, 383 U. S. 709 (1966):
Just as the Rules of Decision Act cases disregard state law where there is conflict with federal policy, even though no explicit conflict with the terms of a federal statute, so, too, state remedial and procedural law must be disregarded under § 1988 where that law fails to give adequate expression to important federal concerns. See Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc., supra. The opponents of the 1866 Act were distinctly aware that the legislation that became § 1988 would Page 436 U. S. 599 give the federal courts power to shape federal common law rules. See, for example, the protesting remarks of Congressman Kerr relative to § 3 of the 1866 Act (which contained the predecessor version of § 1988):
The unsuitability of Louisiana's law is shown by the very case at hand. It will happen not infrequently that a decedent's only survivor or survivors are nonrelatives or collateral relatives who do not fit within the four named classes of Louisiana statutory survivors. Though the Court surmises, ante at 436 U. S. 591-592, that "surely few persons are not survived" by a spouse, children, parents, or siblings, any lawyer who has had experience in estate planning or in probating estates knows that that situation is frequently encountered. The Louisiana survivorship rule applies no matter how malicious or ill-intentioned a defendant's action was. In this case, as Page 436 U. S. 600 the Court acknowledges, ante at 436 U. S. 586 n. 2, the District Court found that defendant Garrison brought state perjury charges against plaintiff Shaw "in bad faith and for purposes of harassment," 328 F.Supp. 390, 400, a finding that the Court of Appeals affirmed as not clearly erroneous. 467 F.2d 113, 122. The federal interest in specific deterrence, when there was malicious intention to deprive a person of his constitutional rights, is particularly strong, as Carey v. Piphus intimates, 435 U.S. at 435 U. S. 257 n. 11. Insuring a specific deterrent under federal law gains importance from the very premise of the Civil Rights Act that state tort policy often is inadequate to deter violations of the constitutional rights of disfavored groups.
As to compensation, it is no answer to intimate, as the Court Page 436 U. S. 601 does, ante at 436 U. S. 591-692, that Shaw's particular survivors were not personally injured, for obviously, had Shaw been survived by parents or siblings, the cause of action would exist despite the absence in them of so deep and personal an affront, or any at all, as Shaw himself was alleged to have sustained. The Court propounds the unreasoned conclusion, ibid., that the
Fifth. The Court regards the Louisiana system's structuring of survivorship rights as not unreasonable. Ante at 436 U. S. 592. The observation, of course, is a gratuitous one, for, as the Court immediately observes, id. at 436 U. S. 592 n. 8, it does not resolve the issue that confronts us here. We are not concerned with the reasonableness of the Louisiana survivorship statute in allocating tort recoveries. We are concerned with its application in the face of a claim of civil rights guaranteed the decedent by federal law. Similarly, the Court's observation that the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 908(d), 909(d) (1970 ed., Supp. V), and Federal Employers' Liability Act, 45 U.S.C. § 59, limit survival to specific named relatives or dependents (albeit a larger class of survivors than the Louisiana statute allows) is gratuitous. Those statutes have as their main purpose loss-shifting and compensation, rather than deterrence of unconstitutional conduct. And, although the Court does not mention it, any reference to the survival rule provided in 42 U.S.C. § 1986 governing that statute's principle of vicarious liability, would be off point. There it was the extraordinary character of the liability created by § 1986, of failing to prevent wrongful acts, that apparently induced Congress to limit recovery to Page 436 U. S. 602 widows or next of kin in a specified amount of statutory damages. Cf. Cong.Globe, 42d Cong., 1st Sess., 749-752, 756-763 (1871); Moor v. County of Alameda, 411 U.S. at 411 U. S. 710, n 26.
Sixth. A federal rule of survivorship allows uniformity, and counsel immediately know the answer. Litigants identically aggrieved in their federal civil rights, residing in geographically adjacent States, will not have differing results due to the vagaries of state law. Litigants need not engage in uncertain characterization of a § 1983 action in terms of its nearest tort cousin, a questionable procedure to begin with, since the interests protected by tort law and constitutional law may be quite different. Nor will federal rights depend on the arcane intricacies of state survival law -- which differs in Louisiana according to whether the right is "strictly personal," La.Code Civ.Proc. Ann., Art. 428 (West 1960); whether the action concerns property damage, La.Civ.Code Ann., Art. 2315, ¦ 2 Page 436 U. S. 603 (West 1971); or whether it concerns "other damages," id. ¦ 3. See 37 La.L,Rev. at 52.