Opinion ID: 2677422
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Officers’ Second Encounter

Text: Although the district court determined the officers’ actions were reasonable and did not expressly consider whether the officers’ conduct during the second confrontation entitled them to qualified immunity, we “may affirm on any grounds supported by the record.” Moyle v. Anderson, 571 F.3d 814, 817 (8th Cir. 2009). As with the first encounter with Officer Devick alone, we choose to begin with the clearly established prong of the qualified-immunity analysis. The officers emphasize the fact that each officer’s actions must be evaluated separately. “‘Liability for damages for a federal constitutional tort is personal, so each defendant’s conduct must be independently assessed.’ Section 1983 does not sanction tort by association.” Heartland Acad. Cmty. Church v. Waddle, 595 F.3d 798, 805-06 (8th Cir. 2010) (quoting Wilson v. Northcutt, 441 F.3d 586, 591 (8th Cir. 2006)). “An officer may be held liable only for his or her own use of excessive force.” Smith v. Kan. City, Mo. Police Dep’t, 586 F.3d 576, 581 (8th Cir. 2009). On appeal, Ms. Smith differentiates the actions of the individual officers. For example, she states, “Defendants Brandt and McCarthy tased [Smith] eight times for -8- 40 seconds or more.”6 “Devick applied six knee strikes to Smith’s right side. He also attempted to apply a neck restraint to the left side of Smith’s neck, laying across the top of his body and forcing his arm under Smith’s chin.” “Defendant Humphrey smashed the butt of his rifle into the center of Smith’s back. He also punched Smith on the right side of his face two to three times.” “In addition to tasing Smith at least three times, apparently with no effect, McCarthy hit [Smith] three times in the right side of his head while he was lying across Smith’s body.” “While Defendant Escobar did not hit or tase Smith he assisted in keeping Smith under the load of the Defendants’ bodies.” As with the first part of the encounter with Officer Devick alone, Ms. Smith does not cite case law clearly establishing that any of the officers’ actions were unconstitutional as of December 2008. The officers claim, correctly it seems, “Appellant’s analysis of the officers’ qualified immunity argument utterly misses the crucial issue: there is no case law which informs these officers that they were on notice that the punches, kicks, knee strikes and tasers they used on Smith were unconstitutional.”7 6 The officers dispute whether all the attempted tases made contact with Smith. For the purposes of this motion, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to Ms. Smith. 7 The officers cite several cases in their brief, including district court opinions in the Eighth Circuit, where similar or more severe actions by other officers were not found to be unconstitutional. See, e.g., Parks v. Pomeroy, 387 F.3d 949, 957-58 (8th Cir. 2004) (“[T]he physical struggle between [arrestee and first officer] was hostile and intense, the circumstances were extremely volatile and potentially deadly, and the events were evolving rapidly. Therefore, notwithstanding plaintiff’s citation of arguably contrary Fourth Amendment cases, we hold, upon de novo review, that—given the state of the law at the time and the particular facts of this case—[second officer] did not violate a clearly established constitutional right” when he fatally shot arrestee.); Neal-Lomax v. Las Vegas Metro. Police Dep’t, 574 F. Supp. 2d 1170, 1187 (D. Nev. 2008) (“Plaintiffs point to no clearly established law that -9- Ms. Smith’s counsel conceded at oral argument that the case law regarding tasers, a relatively new technology, is “evolving.” We suspect, even without specific case law outlining a definitive number of constitutionally validated taser probes administered, an “obvious” case of excessive force could still be established under the clearly established prong. See Brosseau, 543 U.S. at 199. But this case is not such an obvious case. Ms. Smith has not cited any case, much less any case that could cast the “constitutional question beyond debate,” Al-Kidd, 563 U.S. at ___, 131 S. Ct. at 2083, such that any of the five officers would be on notice that his actions during the second part of the arrest violated Smith’s constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizure.8 Because we find none, and these case facts do not show an obvious constitutional violation, each officer is entitled to qualified immunity for his actions during the second encounter with Smith. The alleged conduct, even if unconstitutional, was not clearly established as such when it occurred.