Opinion ID: 443256
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 21

Heading: Exhs 78-80).

Text: 23 This Court extends its appreciation to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, for their amici briefs in support of plaintiffs, and to the National Institute of Municipal Law Officers, for its amicus brief in support of defendants 24 In order for the rule in Hammes to bar any res judicata effect of the 1960 action, it is only necessary to establish fraud or concealment, not a racially-motivated conspiracy under the civil rights laws. We approve the district court's finding of concealment and reserve discussion of the conspiracy claims infra 25 Because defendants' fraudulent concealment bars the application of res judicata, it is unnecessary to decide whether a Section 1983 and conspiracy claim could or should have been raised by Dolphus Bell in the first action, notwithstanding the unlikelihood of success 26 Although our holding on the statute of limitations issue is based on Wisconsin law, we note that the instant case is distinguishable from Sandutch v. Muroski, 684 F.2d 252 (3d Cir.1982), cited by defendants, where the court held that a Pennsylvania statute of limitations applied to bar plaintiff's civil rights action against public officials arising from the use of a fraudulent statement in the prosecution of plaintiff. There the prosecution had introduced the statement of an alleged co-conspirator that directly linked plaintiff to certain crimes. The co-conspirator recanted his prior statement before trial, but the prosecution offered the prior statement as evidence and the trial court excluded the subsequent recantation. The Third Circuit held that plaintiff, who waited four years after his conviction to file the civil rights claim, was time-barred by the state one- and two-year statutes respectively applicable to the torts of false arrest and false imprisonment since he had actual knowledge of the facts constituting the fraud (although not necessarily all the facts necessary to establish a civil rights violation) and thus failed to exercise due diligence. Sandutch v. Muroski, 684 F.2d at 254. In contrast, Daniel Bell, who occupied a factual position analogous to the plaintiff in Sandutch, was killed by virtue of the unlawful act. The Bell family was not in a similar position to learn the facts, which were elaborately concealed and distorted by the defendants and others. Sandutch is clearly inapplicable 27 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981 provides: All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishments, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other. 28 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 provides: Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia. 29 Section 1983 does not itself grant any substantive rights, Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Organization, 441 U.S. 600, 617-618, 99 S.Ct. 1905, 1915-1916, 60 L.Ed.2d 508, but rather provides a remedy for the deprivation of constitutional and federal rights. The rights at issue in the Section 1983 claims in this case are the due process rights of Daniel Bell and his family under the Fourteenth Amendment (and, with respect to the issue of excessive force in the attempted arrest, Daniel Bell's Fourth Amendment rights); therefore we refer throughout to Section 1983 as securing constitutional rights, implicitly recognizing that Section 1983 secures other federal rights as well 30 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985 provides: Sec. 1985. Conspiracy to interfere with civil rights