Opinion ID: 152551
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Municipal LiabilityOfficial Policy or Custom

Text: Upon finding a policymaker, we must next consider whether the allegedly unconstitutional action constitutes a custom or policy of the municipality. We have identified two forms that official policy may take. First, a plaintiff may point to a policy statement formally announced by an official policymaker. See Webster, 735 F.2d at 841. In the alternative, the plaintiff may demonstrate a persistent widespread practice of city officials or employees, which, although not authorized by officially adopted and promulgated policy, is so common and well settled as to constitute a custom that fairly represents municipal policy. Id. Because no formal directive exists concerning the police department's plain view practices, our analysis turns on the second form of policy. A plaintiff may prove the existence of a custom or policy in one of two ways. First, a pattern of unconstitutional conduct may be shown on the part of municipal actors or employees. Id. at 842. A pattern of conduct is necessary only where the municipal actors are not policymakers. Alternatively, it may be shown that a final policymaker took a single unconstitutional action. Bolton, 541 F.3d at 548.
The district court concluded that Zarnow has not demonstrated a pattern of unconstitutional conduct by police officers. A customary policy consists of actions that have occurred for so long and with such frequency that the course of conduct demonstrates the governing body's knowledge and acceptance of the disputed conduct. Webster, 735 F.2d at 842. In an effort to establish a pattern, Zarnow invites this Court to rely on a series of inferences. The officers' testimony concerning the plain view doctrine was given several years after the incident giving rise to this action. During the intervening period, Zarnow alleges many unconstitutional searches of the same type must have taken place. No evidence of that was offered. There is no testimony that the plain view doctrine was misused in another case. Mere improbable inferences and unsupported speculation are not proper summary judgment evidence. Forsyth v. Barr, 19 F.3d 1527, 1533 (5th Cir.1994). Zarnow asserts that the Chief Coughlin and the City effectively ratified the officers' unconstitutional conduct. Among the arguments is that during this litigation, the City has defended the constitutionality and propriety of the actions taken by its officers, despite the finding of a prior panel of this Court that the officers' actions violated the Fourth Amendment. Such a defense constitutes, so the argument goes, a ratification of the unlawful conduct of its officers. Good faith statements made in defending complaints against municipal employees do not demonstrate ratification. See Peterson v. City of Fort Worth, Tex., 588 F.3d 838, 852 (5th Cir.2009). A policymaker who defends conduct that is later shown to be unlawful does not necessarily incur liability on behalf of the municipality. Id. at 848 (citing Coon v. Ledbetter, 780 F.2d 1158, 1161-62 (5th Cir.1986)). Zarnow also suggests that Chief Coughlin may have incurred liability on behalf of the City by failing to supervise his subordinates during the search. To support a supervisory liability claim, the misconduct of a subordinate must be conclusively linked to the action or inaction of the supervisor. See Doe v. Taylor Indep. Sch. Dist., 15 F.3d 443, 453 (5th Cir. 1994) (en banc). A supervisory official is liable if he demonstrates deliberate indifference to a plaintiff's constitutionally protected rights. Id. at 454. Deliberate indifference is more blameworthy than negligence but less blameworthy than purposeful harm. See Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 835, 114 S.Ct. 1970, 128 L.Ed.2d 811 (1994). The standard is stringent and requires that the supervisory actor disregarded a known consequence of his action. Southard v. Tex. Bd. of Crim. Justice, 114 F.3d 539, 551 (5th Cir.1997). Here, there was no deliberate indifference. Coughlin shared the errant view of the doctrine which caused Zarnow's constitutional deprivation. Negligent misinformation is insufficient to establish supervisory liability. See id. Similarly, there is no evidence that Coughlin's failure to supervise the search rose above the level of negligent inaction. Unintentionally negligent oversight does not satisfy the deliberate indifference standard. Gonzalez v. Ysleta Indep. Sch. Dist., 996 F.2d 745, 756 (5th Cir.1993) (citation omitted).
The court did not consider whether Chief Coughlin committed a single constitutional violation sufficient to confer liability on the City. This was because Zarnow did not allege in the district court that Chief Coughlin personally committed such a violation. Instead, the focus was on theories of ratification and supervisory liability. For the first time on appeal, Zarnow argues that a single incident of unconstitutional conduct by a policymaker may impute liability to the City. The only citation to this rule in her appellate briefing appears in the argument that Chief Coughlin failed to supervise his employees. The brief does not assert that Coughlin was personally involved with the violation itself. Under questioning at oral argument, Counsel nevertheless extended this argument, claiming for the first time that Coughlin personally seized prohibited items from the house. This argument was not made to the district court. We will not consider it, as it is made for the first time on appeal and is therefore waived. LeMaire v. Louisiana Dep't of Transp. & Dev., 480 F.3d 383, 387 (5th Cir.2007).
As a separate theory of municipal liability, Zarnow contends that the City had a policy of inadequate training of its police officers. A municipality's failure to train its police officers can without question give rise to § 1983 liability. World Wide Street Preachers Fellowship v. Town of Columbia, 591 F.3d 747, 756 (5th Cir.2009) (citations omitted). To prevail on a failure to train theory a plaintiff must demonstrate: (1) that the municipality's training procedures were inadequate, (2) that the municipality was deliberately indifferent in adopting its training policy, and (3) that the inadequate training policy directly caused the violations in question. Id. Zarnow's initial brief does not reference any evidence concerning the procedures used to train the officers, the officers' qualifications, or direct references to the particular inadequacies of their Fourth Amendment training. Zarnow's only evidence that the training procedures were deficient is that the officers expressed an unlawful interpretation of the plain view doctrine. In order for liability to attach based on an `inadequate training' claim, a plaintiff must allege with specificity how a particular training program is defective. Roberts v. City of Shreveport, 397 F.3d 287, 293 (5th Cir.2005). Further, this Court has previously rejected attempts by plaintiffs to present evidence of isolated violations and ascribe those violations to a failure to train. See generally Goodman v. Harris Cnty., 571 F.3d 388 (5th Cir.2009). Here, the only training-related evidence in the record demonstrated that the City's training procedures complied with state law. We consider compliance with state requirements as a factor counseling against a failure to train finding. See Conner v. Travis Cnty., 209 F.3d 794, 798 (5th Cir.2000). Zarnow has not established that the City's training practices are inadequate. Because Zarnow cannot establish the first element of the failure to train test, we will not address the remaining ones.