Opinion ID: 476368
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Liability of individual officers

Text: 22 We first address whether the district court properly directed verdicts in favor of each of the defendants in their individual capacities. Since it is well settled that the doctrine of respondeat superior has no application in a Sec. 1983 action to shift the responsibility for the plaintiff's injuries, Monell v. New York City Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978); see also Hahn v. McLey, 737 F.2d 771, 773 (8th Cir.1984), we must analyze separately the potential liability of each officer. To minimize repetitive analysis, we first consider the claims against the officers who were present at the roadblock. 23 In directing verdicts in favor of the police personnel who actually implemented the roadblock, the district court relied on Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981). In Parratt, the plaintiff's procedural due process claim against lower ranking prison officials was dismissed because there existed an adequate state post-deprivation remedy sufficient to compensate the plaintiff for his injury. Id. at 540-41, 101 S.Ct. at 1915-16. When it concluded that the Parratt reasoning applied with respect to the individual officers involved, the district court did not have the benefit of two recent Supreme Court cases, Davidson v. Cannon, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 668, 88 L.Ed.2d 677 (1986), and Daniels v. Williams, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 662, 88 L.Ed.2d 662 (1986), or of our recent decision in New v. City of Minneapolis, 792 F.2d 724 (8th Cir.1986). In New, we explained that: 24 [T]he Supreme Court in Daniels and Davidson did not change the rule that intentional abuse of official power, which shocks the conscience or which infringes a specific constitutional guarantee    implicates the substantive component of the due process clause regardless of the availability of state remedies. 25