Opinion ID: 1038320
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Heading: Hazle’s Motion for a New Trial

Text: We first address Hazle’s motion for a new trial based on the jury’s failure to award him damages for his loss of liberty. We hold, as a matter of law, that Hazle was entitled to compensatory damages from the state defendants for his unlawful term of imprisonment. We therefore reverse the denial of a new trial, and remand on the issue of damages.
As an initial matter, we hold that the district judge erred in concluding that Hazle waived his challenge to the jury’s verdict awarding him zero damages by failing to object at the time the jury was discharged. The state defendants argue, citing our decision in Philippine Nat’l Oil Co. v. Garrett Corp., that a party must object to a jury’s zero-damages verdict “when the verdict [is] read,” or else waive any objection to the verdict. 724 F.2d 803, 806 (9th Cir. 1984). Our decision in Kode v. Carlson, however, clarified that the rule in Philippine National applies only in those circumstances in which the verdict is “internally inconsistent”—as when, for example, the jury decides both the issues of liability and damages, and does so inconsistently. 596 F.3d 608, 611 (9th Cir. 2010). As we held in Kode, when a jury addresses solely the issue of damages, there is no duty to object that the verdict is inconsistent with a finding of liability before the jury is discharged. The jury’s verdict in such a case is not inconsistent with another of its conclusions. Id. It is, at most, inconsistent with an extrinsic legal conclusion made by 16 HAZLE V. CROFOOT another (here, the district judge). Id. The state defendants offer no reason why Kode should not govern this case, and we accordingly reverse the district judge’s determination that Hazle waived his objection to the jury’s zero-damages verdict.5
We now turn to the question raised by Hazle’s new-trial motion: whether Hazle is entitled to compensatory damages from the state defendants.6 We hold that he is. The district 5 The state defendants also urge that Hazle waived his challenge to the jury’s zero-damages verdict when he stipulated that “the parties have not agreed to or stipulated to either the existence or the extent of any emotional distress related injuries suffered by Mr. Hazle” and that the issue was a question of fact for the jury. This contention is frivolous. The stipulation says nothing about Hazle’s entitlement to damages arising from his loss of liberty, which are distinct from emotional distress damages, and which are the only type of compensatory damages that he contends the jury was required to award as a matter of law. 6 Contrary to the state defendants’ contentions, it should have been obvious that Hazle was entitled to at least an award of nominal damages as a result of the district judge’s finding that the state defendants violated his constitutional rights. The Supreme Court has explicitly held that when a defendant is found to have violated an individual’s right to procedural due process, the plaintiff is “entitled to recover nominal damages,” even “without proof of actual injury.” Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 266–67 (1978). Our circuit’s case law makes clear that “neither the judge nor the jury has any discretion in this matter,” and that the rule entitling a plaintiff to nominal damages applies with equal force to violations of substantive constitutional rights. Floyd v. Laws, 929 F.2d 1390, 1402 (9th Cir. 1991); see also Schneider v. Cnty. of San Diego, 285 F.3d 784, 794–95 (9th Cir. 2002). Nominal damages must be awarded in cases in which the plaintiff is not entitled to compensatory damages, such as cases in which no actual injury is incurred or can be proven. Here, however, there was actual HAZLE V. CROFOOT 17 judge’s finding of liability establishes that Hazle suffered actual injury when he was unconstitutionally incarcerated. Given this undisputed finding that Hazle’s constitutional rights were violated, and applying the rule that the award of compensatory damages is mandatory when the existence of actual injury is beyond dispute, we hold that the district judge erred in refusing to hold that Hazle was, as a matter of law, entitled to compensatory damages. We therefore reverse the district judge’s denial of Hazle’s motion for a new trial. The Supreme Court has held that entitlement to compensatory damages in a civil rights action is not a matter of discretion: “Compensatory damages . . . are mandatory; once liability is found, the jury is required to award compensatory damages in an amount appropriate to compensate the plaintiff for his loss.” Smith v. Wade, 461 U.S. 30, 52 (1983) (emphasis added). Consistent with Smith, when a plaintiff has indisputably suffered an actual injury in a case such as this, an award of compensatory damages is mandatory. The state defendants suggest that we are bound to affirm the district judge’s decision under cases such as Philippine National, in which we addressed the conflict between a jury’s simultaneous finding of liability and its decision to award no damages, and held that the “failure to award damages does not by itself render a verdict invalid.” See 724 F.2d at 806; see also, e.g., Guy v. City of San Diego, 608 F.3d 582, 588 (9th Cir. 2010) (affirming an award of only nominal damages). In the cases in which we have upheld zero-damages verdicts, however, we have explicitly noted that the facts of those cases lent themselves to the conclusion that no actual injury had been suffered by the plaintiff. See injury and thus Hazle was entitled to compensatory damages. See discussion section II.B, infra. 18 HAZLE V. CROFOOT Guy, 608 F.3d at 588 (noting that the jury could have discredited the plaintiff’s testimony of injury, given that it had discredited some of his other testimony); Wilks v. Reyes, 5 F.3d 412, 415 (9th Cir. 1993) (reasoning that the jury reasonably “did not believe Wilks suffered injury”); Philippine Nat’l, 724 F.2d at 806 (“[T]he evidence about the damages that PNOC sustained from [defendant’s] misrepresentations was in conflict. The jury could have found that PNOC sustained no damage from any misrepresentations.”). We are aware of no cases in which we have affirmed a zero-damages verdict when, as here, the existence of actual injury was indisputable. In this case, the fact that state defendants’ unconstitutional conduct caused Hazle to suffer actual injury—namely, being imprisoned in violation of his First Amendment rights—was established as a matter of law. The district judge found that the state defendants were liable for the constitutional violations in his grant of partial summary judgment. As the district judge explained to the jury, “I decided in a pretrial ruling that each defendant violated plaintiff’s First Amendment Establishment Clause right by . . . arresting and incarcerating plaintiff because of [his] failure to participate in the program” (emphasis added). Further, the parties stipulated, in facts read to the jury, that Hazle’s period of reincarceration lasted from April 2007 until July 2007. Thus, it is not the failure to award damages, “by itself,” that renders the jury’s verdict invalid. Philippine Nat’l, 724 F.2d at 806. What renders the jury’s decision invalid is its decision to award zero damages in light of proof of actual injury: Hazle’s unlawful imprisonment because of his exercise of his First Amendment rights. HAZLE V. CROFOOT 19 We are not alone in so concluding. As the Second Circuit has held, “where the jury has found a constitutional violation and there is no genuine dispute that the violation resulted in some [actual] injury to plaintiff, the plaintiff is entitled to an award of compensatory damages as a matter of law.” Kerman v. City of New York, 374 F.3d 93, 124 (2d Cir. 2004). Kerman involved a plaintiff whose Fourth Amendment rights were violated when he was handcuffed and detained for psychiatric evaluation. The Second Circuit held that its rule regarding compensatory damages applied with particular force to claims for loss of liberty, noting that “where the plaintiff was indisputably deprived of his liberty” and the underlying conduct is unlawful, the plaintiff is entitled to “compensatory, not merely nominal, damages.” Id. The court stated that such treatment was consistent with the traditional common-law principles governing entitlement to damages for the tort of false imprisonment. Id. at 125. The Second Circuit’s holding is consistent with decisions by other circuits rejecting awards of merely nominal damages for unlawful conduct resulting in the loss of liberty. The Eleventh Circuit, for example, rejected an award of merely nominal damages to a juvenile who was unlawfully placed in solitary confinement, and held that the plaintiff was entitled to compensatory damages. H.C. ex rel. Hewett v. Jarrard, 786 F.2d 1080, 1087–88 (11th Cir. 1986). The Eighth Circuit held that a $1 award was “patently insufficient to compensate [a plaintiff] for the injury he suffered by being placed in segregation in retaliation for exercising a constitutional right.” Trobaugh v. Hall, 176 F.3d 1087, 1088–89 (8th Cir. 1999). The court instead remanded for an award of damages for each day that the plaintiff spent in administrative segregation. Id. at 1089. Here, Hazle is entitled to an award of compensatory damages for each day that he spent in prison 20 HAZLE V. CROFOOT as a result of the violation of his constitutional rights by the state defendants. The jury’s verdict, which awarded Hazle no compensatory damages at all for his loss of liberty, cannot be upheld. Given the indisputable fact of actual injury resulting from Hazle’s unconstitutional imprisonment, and the district judge’s finding that the state defendants were liable for that injury, an award of compensatory damages was mandatory. The jury simply was not entitled to refuse to award any damages for Hazle’s undisputable—and undisputed—loss of liberty, and its verdict to the contrary must be rejected.
The jury’s verdict is no less invalid simply because there were additional persons who were potentially liable for Hazle’s injuries, but who were not before the court. The state defendants suggest that the jury’s verdict may be explained as reflecting its allocation of liability to potential defendants not named in the complaint. In denying Hazle’s motion for a new trial, the district judge rationalized the jury’s zero- damages verdict in this manner, noting that the jury “likely concluded that no defendant was a cause of any injury Hazle received or suffered as a result of his Establishment Clause claim.” The district judge went on to identify at least one absent party that he presumably concluded had caused Hazle’s injuries, noting, “it is undisputed that the Board of Prison Hearings ordered Hazle to participate in the Empire program.” We reject this contention by the state defendants, as well as the judge’s speculation. To the extent that the jury’s verdict attempted to apportion all liability for Hazle’s injuries HAZLE V. CROFOOT 21 to absent parties, it acted contrary to the district judge’s order finding the state defendants liable. A finding of liability in a civil rights action—such as the one the district judge entered against the state defendants—requires, as a matter of law, that the defendant be the “proximate cause of the section 1983 injury.” Van Ort v. Estate of Stanewich, 92 F.3d 831, 837 (9th Cir. 1996). Thus, the district judge’s finding of liability—which he left undisturbed and is not challenged on appeal—establishes as a matter of law that the state defendants in the trial caused Hazle’s constitutional injury when they incarcerated him for exercising his First Amendment rights. Indeed, the district judge stated as much—that the actions of the state defendants had caused Hazle’s imprisonment—when, in his order granting Hazle’s motion for partial summary judgment, he concluded that they were “liable for violating [Hazle’s] Establishment Clause rights by . . . ‘arresting and incarcerating him based on his resistance’” to participation “in a ‘12-step’ program that contained religious components.” This finding of liability is based on ample support in the record.7 To the extent that any of the state defendants wished to contest whether they were the “proximate cause” of Hazle’s alleged injuries, they had ample opportunity to raise that contention in response to his motion for summary judgment. They did not do so then and do not do so now. As a result, the district judge’s finding is now the law of the case. See United States v. Alexander, 7 Crofoot, Hazle’s parole officer, along with his supervisor, Wilding, made the decision to report Hazle for a parole violation when he refused to participate in the religion-based treatment program, and decided to have him returned to prison. Jallins ratified their recommendation to return Hazle to prison for the violation of his parole by actually issuing the order to do so. 22 HAZLE V. CROFOOT 106 F.3d 874, 876 (9th Cir. 1997).8 The district judge’s liability finding, as well as the resultant instruction, simply left no room for the jury to infer that all of Hazle’s damages had been caused by persons other than the state defendants. In any event, the state defendants’ explanation of the jury’s zero-damages award as allocating all of Hazle’s injury to absent persons reflects the erroneous view that not only could zero damages be awarded to Hazle, but that Hazle’s damages were capable of apportionment. Hazle independently challenges the jury instruction and verdict form that allowed the jury to decide this question, contending that the district judge should have concluded, as a matter of law, that Hazle was entitled to compensatory damages and that defendants were jointly and severally liable for his injuries.9 He is correct. The district judge erred in putting the 8 When, at trial, the state defendants argued that they might move to reconsider the order granting Hazle summary judgment, the district judge expressed surprise that they would wait until after a jury had been empaneled and read an instruction regarding liability. Ultimately, however, the state defendants never moved for reconsideration of the district judge’s ruling and they do not now appeal the district judge’s summary judgment order. The state defendants did raise in response to the motion for summary judgment an entirely separate issue related to causation. Specifically, they argued that Hazle had been removed from parole not because of his refusal to participate in the program, but because he was disruptive. The district judge rejected this contention, and the state defendants neither moved to reconsider the district judge’s grant of summary judgment nor filed an appeal challenging that holding. 9 We reject the state defendants’ numerous contentions of waiver as to this issue. The state defendants err in contending that Hazle was required to object to this instruction or verdict form when the district judge presented a draft of the instructions and verdict form to the parties; Hazle HAZLE V. CROFOOT 23 question of apportionment to the jury in the first place, because the question of whether an injury is capable of apportionment is a legal one to be decided by the judge, not the jury. See United States v. Burlington N. & Santa Fe Ry. Co., 520 F.3d 918, 942 (9th Cir. 2007), rev’d on other grounds, 556 U.S. 599 (2009). Further, Hazle’s injury from his term of unlawful imprisonment—as well as any resultant emotional distress—was clearly indivisible, in that the concurrent actions of all defendants were necessary in order to return Hazle to prison. See Rudelson v. United States, 602 F.2d 1326, 1332 (9th Cir. 1979) (an injury is indivisible when, “[h]ad any one of the defendants exercised due care, none of the injuries would have occurred”); see also The Atlas, 93 U.S. (3 Otto) 302, 306 (1876) (“The common law creates a joint and several liability . . . because by a single and forcible act, which would not have happened except by the concurring negligence of the two parties, an injury has been done to an innocent party.”). Defendants Crofoot and Wilding, two of the three defendants named in this claim, together decided to report Hazle for a parole violation because he failed to participate in the 12-step program, as well as to return him to prison. Defendant Jallins, the third had adequately informed the court of his position numerous times (both in his proposed jury instructions and verdict form and in three pre-trial briefs), and the district judge stated at trial that he was aware of Hazle’s request that the jury be instructed that there was joint and several liability. See Glover v. BIC Corp., 6 F.3d 1318, 1326–27 (9th Cir. 1993) (requiring no “futile formal objection” when written submissions made the trial judge “fully aware” of the party’s objection). Further, we reject the state defendants’ argument that Hazle explicitly waived this issue during a hearing as a misreading of the record. Finally, we reject the state defendants’ argument that Hazle was required to assert the error arising from the jury verdict and instructions in his motion for a new trial. See United States v. Hayashi, 282 F.2d 599, 601 (9th Cir. 1960). 24 HAZLE V. CROFOOT defendant, ratified their decision by issuing the order to return Hazle to prison. Had any one of them not acted, Hazle would not have been incarcerated.10 Thus, the jury verdict cannot be upheld as apportioning liability to individuals not before it because the jury should not have been asked to apportion liability at all. Thus we must reject the jury verdict as simply inconsistent with the district judge’s order holding defendants liable for Hazle’s false imprisonment. We therefore reverse the district judge’s determination that Hazle was not entitled to a new trial for an award of compensatory damages for his loss of liberty.11 10 We also reject the suggestion by the state defendants that the language of the jury instructions permitted the jury to second-guess the district judge’s finding that the state defendants had caused Hazle’s injuries because they asked the jury to identify the amount of damages “caused” by the defendants. The instructions simply limited the damages for which the state defendants were responsible to those that could reasonably be attributed to them individually—a seemingly necessary limitation in every damages instruction, unless there is joint and several liability. 11 Because we reject the jury instruction and verdict form permitting the jury to apportion liability—an error that also affected the jury’s decision to award zero damages on Hazle’s emotional distress claim—we remand for a new trial as to those damages as well. Further, because the jury failed to award compensatory or even nominal damages, it was necessarily unable to award punitive damages. We therefore remand for reconsideration of Hazle’s entitlement to punitive damages. We reiterate that Hazle does not assert that the jury was required, as a matter of law, to award either type of damages on the emotional distress claim, and, as a result, we do not reach that question here. HAZLE V. CROFOOT 25