Source: https://casetext.com/case/fagan-v-city-of-vineland-4
Timestamp: 2018-10-17 05:35:21
Document Index: 749835710

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1331', '§ 1291', '§ 1983', '§ 59', '§ 2', '§ 2']

Fagan v. City of Vineland, 22 F.3d 1283 | Casetext
22 F.3d 1283 (3d Cir. 1994)
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United States Court of Appeals, Third CircuitApr 29, 1994
…Because we address an issue different from the one previously addressed, however, the law of the case…
…at 20–21. Although that reasoning has an aura of logic, in the Third Circuit independent municipal liability…
Summary of this case from Best v. Cobb County
holding municipality may be liable under § 1983 even if no individual officer violated the Constitution
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Gerald M. Eisenstat, Harry Furman (argued), Eisenstat, Gabage Berman, Vineland, NJ for appellant Sarah Fagan.
Harold B. Shapiro, Dana Davis Teague (argued), Shapiro Shapiro, Vineland, NJ, for appellant Maurice G. Davis, Jr.
Philip S. Burnham, II, Basile, Testa Testa, Vineland, NJ, for appellant Albino Genetti.
A. Michael Barker (argued), Horn, Goldberg, Gorny, Daniels, Paarz, Plackter Weiss, Atlantic City, NJ, for appellees City of Vineland, David Tesoroni, Peter F. Coccaro, III, Benny Velez, Phillip D. Bocelli, Richard Putnam, Mario R. Brunetta, Jr. and Joseph Cassisi, Jr.
Richard M. Pescatore, Perlow, Sebera Pescatore, Bridgeton, NJ, for appellee Town Liquors d/b/a VTL, Inc.
Stacy L. Moore, Jr., Parker, McCay Criscuolo, Marlton, NJ, for appellee Marquez Amnon Corp. d/b/a E. Landis Hotel and Motel.
Plaintiffs appeal the grant of summary judgment in favor of all of the defendants. The district court held (1) that the law of the case doctrine did not prohibit it from reconsidering a predecessor judge's earlier denial of summary judgment in favor of the defendants; (2) the standard of care under section 1983 is conduct which "shocks the conscience," and the pursuing officers' actions did not rise to that level of misconduct as a matter of law; (3) since none of the officers were liable, the City could not be liable because its alleged failure to train had not cause its alleged failure to train had not caused a violation of plaintiffs' constitutional rights; (4) the absence of any remedy under New Jersey law did not affect the scope of plaintiffs' due process rights; and (5) the evidence against defendant Town Liquors was insufficient, as a matter of law, to show that the wine it sold was a cause of the accident.
We will affirm in part and reverse in part. We agree that the law of the case doctrine does not apply. We hold, however, that the City may be held independently liable for violating the plaintiffs' constitutional rights, even if no individual police officer is liable. We agree that the absence of a state remedy has no effect on plaintiffs' rights under the Due Process Clause. We also agree that the record contains insufficient evidence to show that defendant Town Liquors proximately caused the accident. We therefore will reverse the grant of summary judgment rendered in favor of the City, and affirm the grant of summary judgment in favor of Town Liquors.
Initially, this panel filed an opinion on August 5, 1993 and reversed the grant of summary judgment in favor of the police officers. Upon rehearing in banc the full court holds that the standard for liability under section 1983 and the Due Process Clause in a police pursuit case is whether the conduct of the defendant police officers "shocks the conscience," and will affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant police officers. The in banc opinion is filed contemporaneously with this opinion. See Fagan v. City of Vineland, 22 F.3d 1296 (3d Cir. 1994) (in banc). This panel opinion essentially reinstates the original panel opinion except the issue addressed by the in banc court.
In January through March of 1990, the plaintiff-appellants Sarah Fagan, Maurice Davis, Jr., Wanda Pindale, Albino Genetti, and Mary Ellen Duke filed their complaints in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. They alleged that various Vineland police officers, including Officers Tesoroni, Velez, Putnam, and Coccaro, violated 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and their Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process rights by recklessly conducting the high-speed pursuit in violation of the Attorney General's guidelines. Plaintiffs brought separate, independent claims against the City and Police Chief Joseph Cassisi, Jr., for violating section 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment by following a policy of not properly training and supervising police officers in the conduct of high-speed pursuits, and by following a policy of not enforcing the pursuit guidelines. Plaintiffs also sued defendant Town Liquors under New Jersey law for negligently selling alcoholic beverages to an underaged drinker and thus contributing to the accident. They brought various other claims under the Fourth Amendment and state law that are irrelevant to this appeal.
The district court had jurisdiction over the federal claims under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343(a)(3) and pendent jurisdiction over the state claims. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We exercise plenary review over a grant of summary judgment and apply the same test as the district court under Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c): whether there remains a genuine issue of material fact, and if not, whether the moving parties are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Clement, 963 F.2d at 600.
Judge Rodriguez denied the defendant police officers' first motion for summary judgment with respect to plaintiffs' Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process claims. Plaintiffs argue that the law of the case doctrine prohibited Judge Bassler from reconsidering that decision and granting defendants' second motion for summary judgment on those same claims. We review Judge Bassler's decision to reconsider his predecessor's ruling for an abuse of discretion. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Elizabethtown, Inc. v. Coca-Cola Co., 988 F.2d 386, 411 n. 25 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 114 S.Ct. 289, 126 L.Ed.2d 239 (1993).
The law of the case doctrine limits the extent to which an issue will be reconsidered once the court has made a ruling on it. See generally, Hayman Cash Register Co. v. Sarokin, 669 F.2d 162 (3d Cir. 1982); Jeremy C. Moore, et al., Moore's Federal Practice ¶ 0.404[4-1]. Although it does not limit the power of trial judges from reconsidering issues previously decided by a predecessor judge from the same court or from a court of coordinate jurisdiction, it does recognize that as a matter of comity a successor judge should not lightly overturn decisions of his predecessors in a given case. See, e.g., TCF Film Corp. v. Gourley, 240 F.2d 711 (3d Cir. 1957) (transfer from judge to judge in same district); Hayman, 669 F.2d at 115 (transfer from district to district). Of course, defining the precise operation of a principle of comity can be difficult to do in an individual case, but we need not do so here. The law of the case operates only to limit reconsideration of the same issue. Since Judge Bassler did not reconsider the same issue decided by Judge Rodriguez, the law of the case doctrine posed no obstacle to Judge Bassler's action.
1. Plaintiff's fourteenth amendment substantive due process claim. See, e.g., Landol-Rivera v. Cruz Cosme, 906 F.2d 791 (1st Cir. 1990).
However, the central issue before us and subsequently before the in banc court is whether the standard is conduct which "shocks the conscience" as opposed to reckless or grossly negligent conduct. This precise issue was considered by Judge Bassler. None of the motion papers before Judge Rodriguez addressed whether a "shocks the conscience" standard, versus some other standard, should apply. The plaintiffs have not cited, nor have we discovered, any portion of the record which indicates that Judge Rodriguez was even aware that a "shocks the conscience" standard might exist under section 1983.
After Judge Rodriguez denied defendants' first motion for summary judgment, the Fourth Circuit held in Temkin v. Frederick County Comm'rs, 945 F.2d 716, 720 (4th Cir. 1991), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 1172, 117 L.Ed.2d 417 (1992), that the "shocks the conscience" standard applies in police pursuit cases. Defendants relied on this case in their second motion for summary judgment. Temkin apparently alerted the parties and Judge Bassler that misconduct more serious than recklessness might be required to state a claim for violations of substantive due process.
The law of the case doctrine does not preclude a trial judge from clarifying or correcting an earlier, ambiguous ruling. See Swietlowich v. County of Bucks, 610 F.2d 1157, 1164 (3d Cir. 1979). The record is unclear as to whether Judge Bassler addressed the same issue as Judge Rodriguez. We therefore hold that Judge Bassler did not abuse his discretion by reconsidering whether the defendant police officers were entitled to summary judgment on the substantive due process claims.
The Supreme Court unfortunately has provided us with little guidance. A municipality can be sued directly under section 1983 where action pursuant to a municipal policy or custom causes a constitutional tort. Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 691, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2036, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). A municipality, however, cannot be held liable solely because it employs a tortfeasor. There is no respondeat superior liability under section 1983. Id. "Instead, it is when execution of a government's policy or custom . . . inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under § 1983." Id. at 694, 98 S.Ct. at 2037-38.
[N]either Monell . . . nor any other of our cases authorizes the award of damages against a municipal corporation based on the actions of one of its officers when in fact the jury has concluded that the officer inflicted no constitutional harm. If a person has suffered no constitutional injury at the hands of the individual police officer, the fact that the departmental regulations might have authorized the use of constitutionally excessive force is quite beside the point.
In so holding, the Supreme Court was not laying down a general rule for a substantive due process claim. Apparently, the Supreme Court treated Heller as a case brought under section 1983 for violations of the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court characterized Heller as a case where the plaintiff "claimed damages by reason of having been arrested without probable cause and having been the victim of excessive force in the making of the arrest." Id. at 797, 106 S.Ct. at 1572. This language was characteristic of Fourth Amendment claims. Secondly, the Court characterized the liability of the City of Los Angeles and its Police Commission as one of respondeat superior by noting that "[t]hey were sued only because they were thought legally responsible for Bushey's actions." Id. at 799, 106 S.Ct. at 1073. Thus, the Court did not address any independent section 1983 claims against the City of Los Angeles and its Police Commission. Because of these considerations, we do not believe that Heller can be applied to a substantive due process claim directly against a municipality. Indeed, the Supreme Court itself drew a line between a claim for Fourth Amendment violations and one for substantive due process violations. See Albright v. Oliver, ___ U.S. ___, ___-___, 114 S.Ct. 807, 810-14, 127 L.Ed.2d 114 (1994) (plurality opinion).
We hold that in a substantive due process case arising out of a police pursuit, an underlying constitutional tort can still exist even if no individual police officer violated the Constitution. Unlike in Heller, the plaintiffs in this case brought separate, independent constitutional claims against the pursuing officers and the City. These claims are based on different theories and require proof of different actions and mental states. The pursuing officers are liable under section 1983 if their conduct "shocks the conscience." Fagan v. City of Vineland, 22 F.3d 1296 (3d Cir. 1994) (in banc). The City is liable under section 1983 if its policymakers, acting with deliberate indifference, implemented a policy of inadequate training and thereby caused the officers to conduct the pursuit in an unsafe manner and deprive the plaintiffs of life or liberty.
A finding of municipal liability does not depend automatically or necessarily on the liability of any police officer. Even if an officer's actions caused death or injury, he can only be liable under section 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment if his conduct "shocks the conscience." Id. The fact that the officer's conduct may not meet that standard does not negate the injury suffered by the plaintiff as a result. If it can be shown that the plaintiff suffered that injury, which amounts to deprivation of life or liberty, because the officer was following a city policy reflecting the city policymakers' deliberate indifference to constitutional rights, then the City is directly liable under section 1983 for causing a violation of the plaintiff's Fourteenth Amendment rights. The pursuing police officer is merely the causal conduit for the constitutional violation committed by the City.
These appeals do not involve the doctrine of qualified immunity, which may enable an officer who has actually violated the Constitution to avoid liability. See Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 815, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2736-37, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982).
We addressed the issue of independent municipal liability in Simmons v. City of Philadelphia, 947 F.2d 1042 (3d Cir. 1991), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 1671, 118 L.Ed.2d 391 (1992), which involved a detainee who committed suicide. The jury found that the turnkey, who was responsible for supervising the decedent, had not violated the decedent's due process rights, but it found that the city had done so through a policy of improper training. A divided panel upheld these verdicts. Judge Becker wrote the judgment of the court, Chief Judge Sloviter concurred in the judgment, and Judge Weis dissented. Judge Becker reasoned that the verdicts were consistent because the city's policymakers, rather than the turnkey, were the city actors whose primary liability must be established in order to hold the city liable under section 1983 for a failure to train. Id. at 1063.
Judge Becker distinguished Heller and Williams v. Borough of West Chester, Pa., 891 F.2d 458 (3d Cir. 1989), as cases in which the defendant municipalities could not be liable because no municipal employee had inflicted a constitutional injury. Furthermore, in Williams, unlike in Simmons, the plaintiff had not alleged or produced evidence that the municipality, through its policies or its deliberate indifference, directly violated the decedent's constitutional rights. Id.
Defendants rely upon Williams, another case in which a detainee committed suicide. We held that the defendant municipality could not be liable under Monell for a policy or custom of inadequately caring for suicidal detainees and failing to train officers who supervise them, where none of the officers who had contact with the decedent violated his constitutional rights. 891 F.2d at 467 (citing Heller, 475 U.S. at 799, 106 S.Ct. at 1573). Williams is distinguishable as a case where municipal liability was contingent upon an individual officer's liability because there was no independent constitutional claim against the municipality.
Chief Judge Sloviter did not join the relevant portion of Judge Becker's opinion, but she agreed that the verdicts were consistent because the city's liability could be independent of the turnkey's. Id. at 1089 n. 1 (Sloviter, C.J., concurring in the judgment). Simmons, therefore, generated two votes and a binding precedent for the principle that a municipality's liability under section 1983 for a substantive due process violation does not depend upon an individual officer's liability.
In his dissent, Judge Weis concluded that the city could not be liable because its policy did not reflect a deliberate indifference to jail suicides. See Simmons, 947 F.2d at 1092-96 (Weis, J., dissenting). He did not address whether the city's liability could be independent of the turnkey's liability.
We draw additional support from Cannon v. Taylor, 782 F.2d 947 (11th Cir. 1986). A single police officer pursued a fleeing automobile, which crashed into an innocent bystander's automobile. The court held that the officer was not liable under section 1983 because he was merely negligent. Id. at 950. The court, however, then considered whether the defendant municipality could be liable for an alleged policy of failing to train. The court examined the evidence on record and concluded that the city's training fell within constitutional boundaries. Id. at 950-51. Implicitly, the court concluded that municipal liability was not contingent upon any police officer's liability. See also Hopkins v. Andaya, 958 F.2d 881, 888 (9th Cir. 1992) (per curiam) ("the police chief and city might be held liable for improper training or improper procedure even if [the individual officer] is exonerated, since they put an officer on the street who is so badly trained").
We decline to follow four other courts of appeals, which have suggested that a municipality can be liable for failure to train only if one of the pursuing police officers violated the Constitution. See Temkin v. Frederick County Comm'rs, 945 F.2d 716, 724 (4th Cir. 1991), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 1172, 117 L.Ed.2d 417 (1992); Roach v. City of Fredericktown, Mo., 882 F.2d 294, 297-98 (8th Cir. 1989); see also Medina v. City and County of Denver, 960 F.2d 1493, 1499-500 (10th Cir. 1992) (city can be liable if pursuing officers violate Constitution but escape liability because of qualified immunity); Garner v. Memphis Police Dept., 8 F.3d 358, 364-65 (6th Cir. 1993) (same), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 114 S.Ct. 1219, 127 L.Ed.2d 565 (1994). None of these opinions analyzed the issue of independent municipal liability, and we therefore find them unpersuasive.
Under New Jersey law, public entities and employees are not liable for any injury caused by an escaping or escaped person. N.J.Stat.Ann. § 59:5-2(b)(2) (1992). This statute renders police officers and municipalities absolutely immune from liability for injuries caused during high-speed pursuits. Tice v. Cramer, 133 N.J. 347, 627 A.2d 1090, 1101 (1993) ("[t]he immunities provided for by section 5-2b appear to be absolute except in the event of willful misconduct on the part of a public employee"). We must determine whether the lack of a state remedy affects the plaintiff's rights under the Due Process Clause.
Davidson v. O'Lone, 752 F.2d 817, 832 n. 1 (3d Cir. 1984) (in banc) (Garth, J., concurring), aff'd sub nom. Davidson v. Cannon, 474 U.S. 344, 106 S.Ct. 668, 88 L.Ed.2d 677 (1986). We agree with this reasoning. The absence of a state remedy does not expand a plaintiff's rights under the Due Process Clause in a constitutional tort case. The district court correctly concluded that the absence of a state remedy in no way affects the choice or application of the appropriate standard of care under section 1983 and the Fourteenth Amendment.
Under New Jersey law, a licensed server of alcoholic beverages is liable for damages if (1) he was negligent, (2) his negligent service of alcoholic beverages proximately caused injury, and (3) the injury was a foreseeable consequence of that negligence. N.J.Stat.Ann. § 2A:22A-5(a) (1987); see Rappaport v. Nichols, 31 N.J. 188, 156 A.2d 1, 9-10 (1959). A server is negligent if he served a minor, under circumstances where he knew or should have known that the person served was a minor. N.J.Stat.Ann. § 2A:22A-5(b). This liability is not limited to tavern keepers. Licensees who sell package-alcoholic beverages in sealed bottles are liable for injuries to third parties resulting from the sale. See Tilton v. Brombacher, 232 N.J. Super. 374, 556 A.2d 1337, 1337, 1339 (Law Div. 1989). To satisfy the proximate causation requirement, the alcohol sold by the licensee must have contributed to the patron's intoxication. Id. 556 A.2d at 1339. Defendant Town Liquors sold two bottles of wine to Jeffrey Pindale, who was under the legal drinking age. The district court concluded that there was insufficient evidence to enable a reasonable jury to find that the sale of wine was a proximate cause of the accident.
The plaintiff's evidence consisted primarily of Wanda Pindale's deposition. Wanda Pindale testified that her husband Jeffrey purchased the two bottles of wine from Town Liquors early in the evening of the accident. The Pindales, Davis, and Stavoli spent that evening eating and drinking in the kitchen at the Pindales' home. They drank the wine purchased from Town Liquors and beer and Jack Daniels purchased from other vendors. Several times during the evening, Wanda Pindale left the kitchen to go into other rooms in the house. When asked what her husband drank, she testified:
Q. But at most, it was — that you saw, it was a sip or a taste?
The mere existence of a scintilla of evidence in support of a plaintiff's position is insufficient to avoid summary judgment. There must be evidence upon which a jury could reasonably find for the plaintiff. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2512, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). Given Pindale's heavy state of intoxication, no jury could reasonably conclude that his drinking of two gulps of wine, whether it occurred early or late in the evening, sufficiently contributed to his intoxication to have been a cause of the accident. Our conclusion is reinforced by the report of plaintiff's own expert. The district court correctly granted summary judgment in favor of Town Liquors.