Opinion ID: 795446
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 25 Although a district court's denial of qualified immunity on purely legal grounds is immediately appealable, [a] denial of qualified immunity that turns on evidentiary issues is not. Turner v. Scott, 119 F.3d 425, 427 (6th Cir.1997). [A] defendant, entitled to invoke a qualified immunity defense, may not appeal a district court's summary judgment order insofar as that order determines whether or not the pretrial record sets forth a `genuine' issue of fact for trial. Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 319, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). This is because interlocutory appeals are limited to questions that present neat abstract issues of law. Turner, 119 F.3d at 428 (citations and quotation marks omitted). 26 In the present case, the district court denied qualified immunity on the basis of genuine and material evidentiary disputes, holding that a trier of fact could reasonably conclude that the THP troopers effectuated an unreasonable seizure. For the purposes of this interlocutory appeal, the THP troopers have accepted the Smoaks' version of the facts as true and still argue that qualified immunity is warranted. Jurisdiction is proper under such circumstances. See Sample v. Bailey, 409 F.3d 689, 695 (6th Cir.2005) (holding that the issue of whether the facts as alleged by [the plaintiff] demonstrate a violation of a clearly established constitutional right presents a neat abstract issue of law) (citations and quotation marks omitted); Turner, 119 F.3d at 428 (The question of whether the uncontested facts demonstrated a constitutional violation is a pure question of law—and one from which an immediate appeal can be taken where qualified immunity has been denied.) 27 In the present case, the THP troopers argue in both their initial and their reply briefs that summary judgment would still be appropriate even if Mr. Smoak's version of events were taken as true. We therefore have jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal, but will ignore the THP troopers' attempts to argue that the Smoaks' factual allegations lack evidentiary support. See Johnson, 515 U.S. at 319, 115 S.Ct. 2151 (holding that appellate courts may not review whether or not the pretrial record sets forth a `genuine' issue of fact for trial when the denial of qualified immunity is reviewed on interlocutory appeal).