Opinion ID: 75710
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Role of Special Jury Interrogatories in Connection With a Qualified Immunity Defense

Text: 41 Because of the purpose served by the doctrine of qualified immunity, a valid defense based upon it must be recognized as soon as possible, preferably at the motion to dismiss or summary judgment stage of the litigation. See Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 2155-56, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001) (Where the defendant seeks qualified immunity, a ruling on that issue should be made early in the proceedings so that the costs and expenses of trial are avoided where the defense is dispositive.); Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U.S. 224, 227, 112 S.Ct. 534, 536, 116 L.Ed.2d 589 (1991) (per curiam) ([W]e repeatedly have stressed the importance of resolving immunity questions at the earliest possible stage in litigation.); Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 2815, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985) (stating that qualified immunity is an entitlement not to stand trial or face the other burdens of litigation). 42 Where it is not evident from the allegations of the complaint alone that the defendants are entitled to qualified immunity, the case will proceed to the summary judgment stage, the most typical juncture at which defendants entitled to qualified immunity are released from the threat of liability and the burden of further litigation. See generally Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 116 S.Ct. 834, 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996) (recognizing right to interlocutory appeal seriatim denial of motion to dismiss and denial of summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds). Even at the summary judgment stage, not all defendants entitled to the protection of the qualified immunity defense will get it. The ones who should be given that protection at the summary judgment stage are those who establish that there is no genuine issue of material fact preventing them from being entitled to qualified immunity. And that will include defendants in a case where there is some dispute about the facts, but even viewing the evidence most favorably to the plaintiff the law applicable to that set of facts was not already clearly enough settled to make the defendants' conduct clearly unlawful. But if the evidence at the summary judgment stage, viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, shows there are facts that are inconsistent with qualified immunity being granted, the case and the qualified immunity issue along with it will proceed to trial. 43 Defendants who are not successful with their qualified immunity defense before trial can re-assert it at the end of the plaintiff's case in a Rule 50(a) motion. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(a); Cottrell v. Caldwell, 85 F.3d 1480, 1488 (11th Cir.1996). That type of motion will sometimes be denied because the same evidence that led to the denial of the summary judgment motion usually will be included in the evidence presented during the plaintiff's case, although sometimes evidence that is considered at the summary judgment stage may turn out not to be admissible at trial. See generally Wright v. Southland Corp., 187 F.3d 1287, 1304 n. 21 (11th Cir.1999); McMillian v. Johnson, 88 F.3d 1554 (11th Cir.1996). Where there is no change in the evidence, the same evidentiary dispute that got the plaintiff past a summary judgment motion asserting the qualified immunity defense will usually get that plaintiff past a Rule 50(a) motion asserting the defense, although the district court is free to change its mind. See Abel v. Dubberly, 210 F.3d 1334 (11th Cir.2000)(collecting cases). 44 It is important to recognize, however, that a defendant is entitled to have any evidentiary disputes upon which the qualified immunity defense turns decided by the jury so that the court can apply the jury's factual determinations to the law and enter a post-trial decision on the defense. When the case goes to trial, the jury itself decides the issues of historical fact that are determinative of the qualified immunity defense, but the jury does not apply the law relating to qualified immunity to those historical facts it finds; that is the court's duty. Stone v. Peacock, 968 F.2d 1163, 1166 (11th Cir.1992) (The law is now clear, however, that the defense of qualified immunity should be decided by the court, and should not be submitted for decision by the jury.); Ansley v. Heinrich, 925 F.2d 1339, 1348 (11th Cir.1991) ([O]nce the defense of qualified immunity has been denied pretrial due to disputed issues of material facts, the jury should determine the factual issues without any mention of qualified immunity.). 45 A tool used to apportion the jury and court functions relating to qualified immunity issues in cases that go to trial is special interrogatories to the jury. Qualified immunity is a legal issue to be decided by the court, and the jury interrogatories should not even mention the term. Instead, the jury interrogatories should be restricted to the who-what-when-where-why type of historical fact issues. Cottrell, 85 F.3d at 1488 (internal citations omitted). In a proper case, the use of special jury interrogatories going to the qualified immunity defense is not discretionary with the court. As we said in Cottrell, [b]ecause a public official who is put to trial is entitled to have the true facts underlying his qualified immunity defense decided, a timely request for jury interrogatories directed toward such factual issues should be granted. Id. at 1487. In the same opinion, we explained: Denial of such a request would be error, because it would deprive the defendant who is forced to trial of his right to have the factual issues underlying his defense decided by the jury. Id. at 1487-88; see also See Willingham v. Loughnan, 261 F.3d 1178, 1184 n. 9 (11th Cir.2001)([W]hen the question of qualified immunity turns on specific questions of fact, the use of special interrogatories can be very helpful to a judge in determining the legal question of whether qualified immunity applies.) But the failure to give requested jury interrogatories may not be error, or if error may be harmless, where the jury verdict itself, viewed in the light of the jury instructions, and any interrogatories that were answered by the jury, indicate without doubt what the answers to the refused interrogatories would have been, or make the answers to the refused interrogatories irrelevant to the qualified immunity defense. That is the conclusion we reach in this case. 46 To explain our conclusion, we begin by setting out the interrogatories that the court actually gave the jury, and the jury's answers to them. Next we will discuss the applicable law and set out the special interrogatories that the defendants requested and the court refused to submit to the jury. And then we will explain why the failure to submit those interrogatories in this particular case did not matter.