Opinion ID: 2995268
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Absolute Immunity--sec. 1983 Claims

Text: Against the Deputies The parties are correct that we have jurisdiction, under the collateral order doctrine, to review the district court’s decision to deny the defendants’ motion to dismiss based on absolute immunity. See Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530 (1995); Hammond, 148 F.3d at 695. The ordinary rule is that qualified--and not absolute--immunity is sufficient to protect law enforcement officers in the conduct of their official duties. Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 340-41 (1986); Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 557 (1967). The deputies argue that the ordinary rule does not apply in this case because they were required to execute the judge’s order, and that quasi-judicial immunity, a form of absolute immunity derived from judicial immunity, is appropriate for officers providing courtroom security. We disagree. We begin our analysis with the fundamental principle that judges are entitled to absolute immunity from damages for their judicial conduct. Mireles v. Waco, 502 U.S. 9, 11-12 (1991); Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 225-29 (1988). Judicial immunity was recognized at common law as a device for discouraging collateral attacks and thereby helping to establish appellate procedures as the standard system for correcting judicial error and to protect[ ] judicial independence by insulating judges from vexatious actions prosecuted by disgruntled litigants. Forrester, 484 U.S. at 225; see also Pierson, 386 U.S. at 554; Bradley v. Fisher, 80 U.S. 335, 347 (1872). The absolute immunity afforded to judges has been extended to apply to quasi- judicial conduct of [n]on-judicial officials whose official duties have an integral relationship with the judicial process. Henry v. Farmer City State Bank, 808 F.2d 1228, 1238 (7th Cir. 1986). For example, we have applied absolute immunity to officials engaged in quasi-judicial decision making, such as members of a parole board. See Wilson v. Kelkhoff, 86 F.3d 1438, 1443-44 (7th Cir. 1996); Walrath v. United States, 35 F.3d 277, 281-82 (7th Cir. 1994). For these officers, whose conduct is functionally comparable to those of judges, Antoine v. Byers & Anderson, Inc., 508 U.S. 429, 436 (1993); Wilson, 86 F.3d at 1443, the rationale for applying absolute immunity is much the same as for judges: that officials making quasi-judicial decisions should be free of ’the harassment and intimidation associated with litigation.’ See Kincaid v. Vail, 969 F.2d 594, 600-01 (7th Cir. 1992) (quoting Burns v. Reed, 500 U.S. 478, 494 (1991)). The deputies do not claim that they exercise a comparable form of discretionary decision making./3 The deputies instead rely on a different sort of quasi-judicial immunity, which we have recognized for some officials whose functions are further removed from the core dispute resolution function of judges. [W]hen functions that are more administrative in character have been undertaken pursuant to the explicit direction of a judicial officer, we have held that that officer’s immunity is also available to the subordinate. Kincaid, 969 F.2d at 601. The policy justifying an extension of absolute immunity in these circumstances is to prevent court personnel and other officials from becoming a ’lightning rod for harassing litigation’ aimed at the court. See Ashbrook v. Hoffman, 617 F.2d 474, 476 (7th Cir. 1980) (quoting Kermit Constr. Corp. v. Banco Credito Y Ahorro Ponceno, 547 F.2d 1, 3 (1st Cir. 1976)); see also Kincaid, 969 F.2d at 601; Mays v. Sudderth, 97 F.3d 107, 113 (5th Cir. 1996); Coverdell v. Dept. of Social & Heath Servs., 834 F.2d 758, 765 (9th Cir. 1987). We have not yet had occasion to consider whether law enforcement officers charged with using unreasonable force when seizing a person pursuant to a judge’s order are entitled to quasi-judicial immunity. Two other circuit courts of appeal have addressed this question, with different results. In Martin v. Board of County Commissioners, 909 F.2d 402, 405 (10th Cir. 1990), the Tenth Circuit held that officers charged with employing excessive force to execute a bench warrant were not entitled to absolute immunity. The Tenth Circuit reasoned that, because an order to take someone into custody carries with it an implicit order not to use unreasonable force, the judge’s order would not shield the officers from a claim challenging the manner in which they enforced the order. Id. The court distinguished its earlier holding in Valdez v. City of Denver, 878 F.2d 1285 (10th Cir. 1989), that law enforcement officers enforcing a contempt order were entitled to quasi-judicial immunity for claims of false arrest and imprisonment. In Valdez, the claim was not directed at the manner in which the judge’s order was executed, but instead at conduct expressly prescribed by the order. Because of this difference, the court held that the policies underlying the extension of absolute immunity--not holding officials accountable for conduct they are powerless to avoid--did not apply. Martin, 909 F.2d at 404-05. The Eighth Circuit reached the opposite conclusion in Martin v. Hendren, 127 F.3d 720 (8th Cir. 1997), a case, like this one, in which the plaintiff was restrained in the courtroom by order of the judge. The Eighth Circuit rejected the Tenth Circuit’s reasoning, and held that the alleged impropriety of the officers’ acts (using excessive force to effectuate the seizure) did not strip the acts of their quasi-judicial character. Id. at 721-22. The Eighth Circuit relied on the Supreme Court’s statement in Mireles that ’[i]f judicial immunity means anything, it means that a judge will not be deprived of immunity because the action he took was in error . . . or was in excess of his authority.’ 127 F.3d at 722 (quoting Mireles, 502 U.S. at 12-13). We believe that the Eighth Circuit stretches the reasoning in Mireles too far, and confuses the question suggested by the Tenth Circuit in Martin--whether the challenged conduct was specifically ordered by the judge--with the separate question of whether the conduct was lawful or exceeded the actor’s authority. In Mireles, the plaintiff challenged the judge’s order directly--that is, by suing the judge. Mireles holds that when the challenged conduct is the judge’s own decision making, the applicability of absolute immunity cannot turn on the correctness of the judge’s decision. 502 U.S. at 12-13. By contrast, when the conduct directly challenged is not the judge’s decision making, but the manner in which that decision is enforced, we agree with the Tenth Circuit that the law enforcement officer’s fidelity to the specific orders of the judge marks the boundary for labeling the act quasi- judicial. See Martin, 909 F.2d at 404- 05. More important, as Judge Lay points out in his dissent in Hendren, Mireles directs that the facts of the incident must be evaluated in relation to the general function of the officer. Hendren, 127 F.3d at 723 (Lay, J., dissenting). In making this evaluation, we examine the nature of the functions with which a particular official or class of officials has been lawfully entrusted, and we seek to evaluate the effect that exposure to particular forms of liability would likely have on the appropriate exercise of those functions. Forrester, 484 U.S. at 224. Our quasi-judicial immunity cases demonstrate that the primary function to be protected is judicial or quasi- judicial decision making. This is true of cases challenging discretionary conduct by a quasi-judicial body like a parole board, see Wilson, 86 F.3d at 1443-44, and it is also true when the lawsuit is aimed at persons integral to the judicial process but whose conduct is not functionally comparable to a judge’s. See Antoine, 508 U.S. at 436; Wilson, 86 F.3d at 1443. For example, we have recognized absolute immunity for law enforcement officials when the challenged conduct (the mere act of enforcing a foreclosure judgment) was specifically ordered by the judge. See Henry, 808 F.2d at 1238-39. The source of the plaintiff’s wrong in Henry was the judge’s order itself, and we reasoned that a suit against the officers was not the appropriate vehicle for challenging the validity of that order. See id. Under those circumstances, extension of absolute immunity is not primarily to protect the enforcement function performed by the deputies, but rather to protect the judicial decision-making function by discouraging collateral attacks and encouraging appeals. See id. at 1239. It further avoids the untenable result of requiring sheriffs and other court officers who enforce properly entered judgments pursuant to facially valid court orders to act as appellate courts, reviewing the validity of both the enforcement orders and the underlying judgments before proceeding to collect on them. Id.; see also Mays, 97 F.3d at 113; Valdez, 878 F.2d at 1289. Similarly, for court personnel and adjuncts who do not exercise a discretionary function comparable to a judge’s, the justification for extending absolute immunity is most compelling when the lawsuit challenges conduct specifically directed by the judge, and not simply the manner in which the judge’s directive was carried out. See Kincaid, 969 F.2d at 601 (clerk who refused to accept filing of complaint at the direction of the judge was entitled to quasi-judicial immunity); Dellenbach v. Letsinger, 889 F.2d 755, 763 (7th Cir. 1989) (court reporter and clerks who told plaintiff to pay for unnecessary transcript at the request of the judge were entitled to quasi-judicial immunity); Eades v. Sterlinske, 810 F.2d 723, 726 (7th Cir. 1987) (clerk and court reporter who prepared and filed a false certificate summarizing an instruction conference at the direction of the judge were entitled to quasi-judicial immunity); cf. Lowe v. Letsigner, 772 F.2d 308, 313 (7th Cir. 1985) (court clerk who allegedly concealed entry of order was not entitled to absolute immunity for his ministerial act of failing to type and send notice after entry of judgment)./4 By contrast, the Supreme Court has held that a court reporter was not entitled to absolute immunity for her own misconduct (losing her trial notes and failing to provide a transcript of the trial), reasoning that court reporters do not exercise the kind of judgment that is protected by the doctrine of judicial immunity. See Antoine, 508 U.S. at 437. The policies articulated in our quasi- judicial immunity cases have less force when, as in this case, the challenged conduct is the manner in which the judge’s order is carried out, and not conduct specifically directed by a judge. Reading Richman’s complaint in the light most favorable to her, the claim is not that the judge ordered the deputies to use unreasonable force, but that the deputies exceeded the judge’s order by the manner in which they executed it. The claim for damages in this case is not therefore a collateral attack on the judge’s order (an order that Richman concedes was valid), and an appeal of the judge’s order would provide no remedy. Similarly, the deputies are not being called upon to answer for wrongdoing directed by the judge, but instead for their own conduct. And that conduct--the manner in which they enforced the judge’s order--implicates an executive, not judicial, function. Moreover, we believe that the policies articulated by the Eighth Circuit in Hendren are insufficient to justify the extension of absolute immunity urged here. The Eighth Circuit expressed alarm at the possibility that exposing court security officers to potential liability for acting on a judge’s courtroom orders could breed a dangerous, even fatal, hes itation. See Hendren, 127 F.3d at 722. But without in any way minimizing the vital and often valorous service of those who provide security to judges and other participants in the judicial process, we note that the need for immediate action in the face of potentially fatal consequences is not a situation unique to courtrooms, and yet qualified immunity (which takes into account the particular circumstances faced by the officers) is the rule for law enforcement officers of all kinds, see Malley, 475 U.S. at 340- 41; Pierson, 386 U.S. at 557, including secret service officers charged with guarding the President. See Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U.S. 224, 228 (1991) (per curiam). That the conduct occurs in the courtroom, does not, in our opinion, justify our applying a different rule. In this regard, the Supreme Court has cautioned against our being overly solicitous of claims of immunity involving the judicial function: One can reasonably wonder whether judges, who have been primarily responsible for developing the law of official immunities, are not inevitably more sensitive to the ill effects that vexatious lawsuits can have on the judicial function than they are to similar dangers in other contexts. . . . Although Congress has not undertaken to cut back the judicial immunities recognized by this Court, we should be at least as cautious in extending those immunities as we have been when dealing with officials whose peculiar problems we know less well than our own. Forrester, 484 U.S. at 226 (citation omitted). Finally, the only difference (in terms of liability for damages) between the absolute immunity urged by the deputies here and the qualified immunity that is the ordinary rule for law enforcement officers is that the former shields even knowingly unlawful or plainly incompetent acts. See Malley, 475 U.S. at 341. Absolute immunity provides an additional benefit even for officers whose actions are reasonable because it allows them to avoid altogether the litigation that would be required in order to determine their entitlement to qualified immunity. The tradeoff, however, is that even victims of knowingly unlawful acts go without a remedy, and for that reason absolute immunity is applied with caution and only when it is necessary to protect the function at issue. See Forrester, 484 U.S. at 230; Antoine, 508 U.S. at 432 n.4; Burns v. Reed, 500 U.S. 478, 486-87 (1991). A secure courtroom is necessary to protect the judicial function from interference or intimidation; this function is adequately protected by immunizing a judge’s order to restrain a person, see Mireles, 502 U.S. at 12-13, and by barring lawsuits that challenge a judge’s decision through claims aimed at officers who do nothing more than implement it. See Henry, 808 F.2d at 1238-39. It is not necessary to the judicial function, in our judgment, to also deny a remedy to plaintiffs who were harmed not by the judge’s order, but by unlawful conduct by those who enforce it. We therefore affirm the district court’s denial of the deputies’ motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s sec. 1983 claims./5