Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/619/527/200822/
Timestamp: 2019-11-17 00:50:13
Document Index: 276977686

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 35', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 1983', '§ 144']

Troy Lee Douthit, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Clarence Jones, Sheriff, Dallas County, Texas, and W. H.mccallum, Defendants-appellees, 619 F.2d 527 (5th Cir. 1980) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Fifth Circuit › 1980 › Troy Lee Douthit, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Clarence Jones, Sheriff, Dallas County, Texas, and W. H.mc...
Troy Lee Douthit, Plaintiff-appellant, v. Clarence Jones, Sheriff, Dallas County, Texas, and W. H.mccallum, Defendants-appellees, 619 F.2d 527 (5th Cir. 1980)
US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - 619 F.2d 527 (5th Cir. 1980) June 20, 1980
Douthit contends that the trial court erred in submitting to the jury the question of whether Jones and McCallum had a reasonable good faith belief that they were acting under lawful authority in imprisoning him. He urges that in a § 1983 action predicated upon false imprisonment, a defendant jailer is entitled to qualified immunity only if he demonstrates either that the plaintiff's confinement resulted from an error made outside the realm of his control or knowledge, or that he lawfully incarcerated the plaintiff on the basis of a facially valid legal order. Douthit argues that Jones and McCallum failed to present sufficient evidence of their reasonable good faith to warrant the district court's instruction to the jury on the qualified immunity defense since they did not introduce a facially valid commitment order or capias pro fine authorizing his imprisonment for the unpaid court costs. The defendants respond that the district court's instruction on the qualified immunity defense was correct and proper under the decision of this court in Bryan v. Jones, 530 F.2d 1210 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 865, 97 S. Ct. 174, 50 L. Ed. 2d 145 (1976).A. Prima Facie Showing of a Violation of § 1983.
The Supreme Court has stated that § 1983 must be construed against a background of common law tort principles, including not only the elements of tort liability but also the defenses to liability. See Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 556-57, 87 S. Ct. 1212, 1218-19, 18 L. Ed. 2d 288, 295-96 (1967); Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 187, 81 S. Ct. 473, 484, 5 L. Ed. 2d 492, 505 (1961). The elements of a common law false imprisonment cause of action are "(1) intent to confine, (2) acts resulting in confinement, and (3) consciousness of the victim of confinement or resulting harm." Bryan v. Jones, 530 F.2d at 1213; Whirl v. Kern, 407 F.2d 781 (5th Cir. 1968), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 901, 90 S. Ct. 210, 24 L. Ed. 2d 177 (1969); Restatement Second of Torts § 35 (1965). To establish a cause of action under § 1983, however, a party must also show that the defendant, while acting under color of law, deprived him of a right "secured by the Constitution and laws" of the United States, which requires in the context of this case that Douthit show that the defendant sheriff and deputy sheriff imprisoned him in violation of his fourteenth amendment due process rights. See Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 99 S. Ct. 2689, 61 L. Ed. 2d 433 (1979); Flagg Bros., Inc. v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149, 155-57, 98 S. Ct. 1729, 1733-34, 56 L. Ed. 2d 185, 192-94 (1978); Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 96 S. Ct. 1155, 47 L. Ed. 2d 405 (1976). In Baker the Court held that the detention of an individual for three days on the basis of a valid arrest warrant despite his protestations of innocence did not amount to a deprivation of liberty without due process. Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. at 143-45, 99 S. Ct. at 2694-95. This case presents a substantially different factual context from Baker since Douthit has alleged that the defendants imprisoned him for thirty days beyond the sentence imposed upon him without a valid commitment order. Detention of a prisoner thirty days beyond the expiration of his sentence in the absence of a facially valid court order or warrant constitutes a deprivation of due process. Thus, Douthit asserted a prima facie violation of § 1983 by alleging that the defendants, acting under the authority granted to them by Texas law, deliberately confined him without a valid commitment order between November 1, 1973, and November 30, 1973, against his will and over his objections.
In response to Douthit's allegations, Jones and McCallum asserted that they were entitled to qualified immunity from liability under § 1983 based upon their reasonable, good faith belief that they possessed valid legal authority to incarcerate Douthit for the period in question. They rely primarily upon Bryan v. Jones, 530 F.2d 1210 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 865, 97 S. Ct. 174, 50 L. Ed. 2d 145 (1976), a prior false imprisonment action under § 1983 against Sheriff Jones, in which the court held that a jailer has an official immunity defense to liability under § 1983 for false imprisonment if he acted on the basis of a reasonable, good faith belief that the detention was lawful. This ruling was subsequently reinforced by the Supreme Court's pronouncement in Procunier v. Navarette, 434 U.S. 555, 98 S. Ct. 855, 55 L. Ed. 2d 24 (1978), that prison officials, while not absolutely immune from liability for damages under § 1983, were entitled to the qualified immunity that the Court had previously accorded to other officers of the executive branch of government in Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 94 S. Ct. 1683, 40 L. Ed. 2d 90 (1974), and Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 95 S. Ct. 992, 43 L. Ed. 2d 214 (1975). This qualified immunity doctrine, which the Supreme Court predicated upon the immunity accorded to executive officers in common law tort actions, protects such officials from liability for acts performed in the course of carrying out their duties. The Court justified the grant of immunity upon the grounds that to impose liability upon an executive officer who in good faith exercises his discretion pursuant to the legal obligations of his position would be unjust and that the threat of such liability might deter the officer from executing his office with the decisiveness and judgment necessary to protect the public good. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. at 240, 94 S. Ct. at 1688; Cruz v. Beto, 603 F.2d 1178, 1182 (5th Cir. 1979). Against these rationales the Court balanced the policy underlying § 1983 of protecting individuals from deprivations of their individual constitutional rights caused by an official's abuse of his position, and it refused to accord an absolute immunity to executive officers, granting instead only a qualified immunity to officials who act on the basis of an objective and subjective good faith belief that their actions are lawful.
The qualified immunity doctrine does not, however, protect an official whose actions, regardless of his intent, contravene "settled, undisputable law." Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. at 321, 95 S. Ct. at 1000; Cruz v. Beto, 603 F.2d at 1183; Bogard v. Cook, 586 F.2d 399, 411 (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 883, 100 S. Ct. 173, 62 L. Ed. 2d 113 (1979). Thus the immunity defense is not available to officials
Procunier v. Navarette, 434 U.S. at 562, 98 S. Ct. at 860; Cruz v. Beto, 603 F.2d at 1183. Nor does the immunity doctrine protect an official whose subjective intent was to harm the plaintiff, regardless of the objective state of the law at the time of his conduct. Procunier v. Navarette, 434 U.S. at 566, 98 S. Ct. at 862; Cruz v. Beto, 603 F.2d at 1183; Bogard v. Cook, 586 F.2d at 411. A party seeking to avoid a qualified immunity defense on the basis of the official's subjective intent, however, must show more than mere negligence; he must prove "that (the) official either actually intended to do harm to (him), or took an action which, although not intended to do harm, was so likely to produce injury that the harm can be characterized as substantially certain to result." Id. at 412.
The perimeters of a § 1983 action for false imprisonment must be determined against a background of common law tort principles, including those principles relating both to liability and to available defenses. Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 418, 96 S. Ct. 984, 989, 47 L. Ed. 2d 128, 136 (1976); Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. at 556-57, 87 S. Ct. at 1218-19. At common law a policeman against whom a false imprisonment action was alleged was entitled to immunity if he could demonstrate that he acted in good faith. The defendant police officer bore the burden of justifying the arrest that resulted in the false imprisonment charge by showing that he had reasonable grounds to believe that a crime had been committed. Cruz v. Beto, 603 F.2d at 1183; Dellums v. Powell, 566 F.2d 167 (D.C. Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 438 U.S. 916, 98 S. Ct. 3146, 57 L. Ed. 2d 1161 (1978); Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 456 F.2d 1339 (2d Cir. 1972), on remand from 403 U.S. 388, 91 S. Ct. 1999, 29 L. Ed. 2d 619 (1971). Most of the other circuits deciding the issue have extended the burden of proof rule applicable to common law false arrest and false imprisonment actions to all actions in which a qualified immunity defense is asserted. Compare Dellums v. Powell, 566 F.2d 167 (D.C. Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 438 U.S. 916, 98 S. Ct. 3146, 57 L. Ed. 2d 1161 (1978); Skehan v. Board of Trustees of Bloomsburg State College, 538 F.2d 53 (3rd Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 979, 97 S. Ct. 490, 50 L. Ed. 2d 588 (1976); McCray v. Burrell, 516 F.2d 357 (4th Cir. 1975), cert. dismissed as improvidently granted, 426 U.S. 471, 96 S. Ct. 2640, 48 L. Ed. 2d 788 (1976); McLallen v. Henderson, 492 F.2d 1298 (8th Cir. 1974); Jones v. Perrigan, 459 F.2d 81 (6th Cir. 1972); and Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 456 F.2d 1339 (2nd Cir. 1972), on remand from 403 U.S. 388, 91 S. Ct. 1999, 29 L. Ed. 2d 619 (1971); with Gaffney v. Silk, 488 F.2d 1248 (1st Cir. 1973).
Thus, the showing that a defendant official must make to avail himself of the qualified immunity defense varies depending upon the degree of discretion that he exercises in performing his official duties. Such a result is consistent with the policies underlying § 1983 and the qualified immunity doctrine as delineated by the Supreme Court. The purpose of § 1983 is to provide persons deprived of their constitutional rights by unlawful official actions with a remedy, while the qualified immunity defense protects the public's interest in enforcement of the laws by ensuring that the threat of liability will not deter an executive official from exercising his discretion and performing his official duties. Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 503, 98 S. Ct. 2894, 2909, 57 L. Ed. 2d 895, 913 (1978); Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. at 244, 94 S. Ct. at 1690.
Id. at 790-91, 792. While rejecting the holding of Kern that a jailer could not assert a good faith defense in a false imprisonment action under § 1983, the en banc court in Bryan v. Jones, 530 F.2d 1210 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 865, 97 S. Ct. 174, 50 L. Ed. 2d 145 (1976), concluded that the standard of reasonableness by which the availability of qualified immunity to an official would be gauged varied according to the degree of discretion that he exercised. Where a plaintiff alleges that he was imprisoned without valid authority, the court ruled that it would hold the jailer to a high standard of reasonableness since he exercises no discretion and is under relatively little time pressure. The court stated that
Douthit did not challenge the makeup of the jury at trial, and nothing in the record supports his allegation that certain groups were excluded from the jury. He has failed to satisfy his burden of demonstrating that the process by which the jury was selected systematically and arbitrarily excluded a recognizable, distinct class, since he did not present any evidence showing that any group was "underrepresented on jury panels over a significant period of time" or that the process by which the jurors were selected was not racially neutral or was susceptible to being used as a tool of discrimination. See Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 494, 97 S. Ct. 1272, 1280, 51 L. Ed. 2d 498, 510 (1977); United States v. Lopez, 588 F.2d 450 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 947, 99 S. Ct. 2895, 61 L. Ed. 2d 319 (1979). The only specific allegation of improprieties occurring in the jury selection that Douthit makes is that the trial judge did not rule on his motion to exclude a potential juror who admitted to a bias in favor of the defendants. The record shows conclusively, however, that the suspect individual was not a member of the jury impaneled by the court.
Douthit's assertion of bias on the part of the trial judge does not constitute reversible error on two grounds. First, he neglected to file a "timely and sufficient affidavit" with the district court stating the basis of his belief that bias existed, as required by 28 U.S.C. § 144. Second, the actions of the district judge that Douthit alleges reflect his bias consist solely of judicial actions and do not indicate any personal bias on his part against Douthit. See United States v. Archbold-Newball, 554 F.2d 665, 681-82 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1000, 98 S. Ct. 644, 54 L. Ed. 2d 496 (1977).
Douthit's arguments that the defendant sheriff and deputy sheriff committed perjury and deliberately suppressed material evidence are equally without merit. Even if Deputy McCallum's testimony that the sheriff's office must have had a valid commitment order on November 1, 1973, might be characterized as implausible in light of the evidence presented, Douthit has not presented any evidence showing it to be perjurious. The failure of the defendants to produce two documents requested by Douthit during discovery might have justified a motion on his part seeking the court either to compel discovery or to impose sanctions upon the defendants under Fed. R. Civ. P. 37, but it does not constitute "deliberate suppression of evidence" and does not warrant reversal.