Opinion ID: 266463
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the asserted defense of collateral estoppel

Text: 21 Scalese contends that Basista is estopped from bringing the present action for unlawful arrest and illegal detention because of the prior proceedings in the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace for Allegheny County in which he was found guilty of assault and battery upon police officers Scalese and Smith. No contention of estoppel is based on the proceedings against Basista before the committing magistrate. We cannot agree that there is an estoppel in the case at bar. Putting aside any question as to the mutuality of parties, Bruszewski v. United States, 181 F.2d 419 (3 Cir.), cert. denied, 340 U.S. 865, 71 S.Ct. 87, 95 L.Ed. 632 (1950), and assuming arguendo that the doctrine of collateral estoppel would be available in actions arising under the Civil Rights Act under consideration in the circumstances at bar, we have not been furnished with a sufficient record of the proceedings of the Allegheny County Court of Quarter Sessions before which Basista was convicted of assault and battery upon the police officers. The indictment and the judgment of conviction rendered by the court on the first two counts is included among the documents which have been forwarded to us by the clerk of the court below, but these do not seem to have been admitted into evidence. But there is not contained in the record a transcript of Basista's trial before the Court of Quarter Sessions. 6 It appears from a reading of the transcript of the trial of the case below that no sure record of the proceedings in the Court of Quarter Sessions could be offered, that copies of the transcript offered to plaintiff's attorney differ from a copy which apparently was available to the defendants' attorney though this point is not entirely clear. In any event the transcript of the proceedings of Basista's trial before the Court of Quarter Sessions was not admitted in evidence and therefore there could be no collateral estoppel. Lacking a certified copy of the transcript we are uninformed as to what acts of Basista furnished the foundation for his conviction on the charge of assault and battery. A possible reading of the state judgment is that the court found that Basista had not committed a breach of the peace and, therefore, the arrest was unlawful. This could explain the finding of not guilty on the charge of resisting arrest. Consistent with this view, one could interpret the conviction for assault and battery as a determination by the state court that Basista used more force than was reasonably necessary in resisting an unlawful arrest, or the conviction might stand on an erroneous conclusion that Basista had no right to resist even an unlawful arrest. 7 Perhaps with patient endeavor at the new trial a sufficient and adequate record of the proceedings of the Court of Quarter Sessions may be developed. There is no doubt, however, that, at best, the present Quarter Sessions judgment against Basista is ambiguous and therefore must be treated as insufficient to support collateral estoppel. Russell v. Place, 94 U.S. 606, 608, 24 L.Ed. 214 (1876). See also, Lawlor v. National Screen Serv. Corp., 349 U.S. 322, 326, 75 S.Ct. 865, 99 L.Ed. 1122 (1955). 22 IV. THE GRANTING OF JUDGMENT N. O. V. OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE, THE GRANTING OF SCALESE'S MOTION FOR A DIRECTED VERDICT 23 There being a valid cause of action, and a jury verdict in favor of Basista, was the trial court correct in granting Scalese's motion for a directed verdict, or, in the alternative, ordering a new trial? These questions require a discussion of the bases on which the court below acted. 24 A. As to the Motion for a New Trial. The trial judge in his opinion, 225 F.Supp. 619, 628, stated very candidly, among other things, the following: I am of the opinion that the jury was not adequately instructed and this was error on my part, for which reason, in any event, a new trial should be allowed. However, the court below granted the defendant Scalese's motion for a directed verdict    without prejudice, or, in the alternative, a new trial. 8 25 We conclude that the statement by the court below as to the inadequacy of the instructions to the jury was correct. The court instructed the jury that Article 6 [the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States] provided that in all criminal prosecution, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by impartial jury of the state wherein the crime shall have been committed and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with witnesses against him and to have processes for obtaining witnesses and assistance of counsel for his defense. 26 As was pointed out in an earlier point in this opinion, there was not sufficient evidence to support a finding by the jury that Basista was denied any of the rights guaranteed to him by the Sixth Amendment. At the close of the charge, Scalese, through his counsel, made a sufficient objection to the portion of the charge quoted, stating that the Fourth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution were not applicable under the facts of the case. The objection was in error as to the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, but the objection to that portion of the charge based on the Sixth Amendment was valid. Scalese raised the point in his motion for a new trial, and it has been raised here. The error in the charge was substantial and prejudicial. 27 It should also be noted that the court below charged under items 3, 4, and 5, 9 respectively, as follows, That the defendants failed to permit him to post bond or bail., That the defendants failed to provide him with an attorney   , and That the defendants failed to provide him with a doctor. The court charged in respect to these items that The plaintiff has presented evidence that he was deprived of a bond, an attorney    and a doctor on the July 17th occasion. Under our law, an arrested person is entitled to an attorney, a doctor where needed, and to bond except in certain instances, of which this is not one, but it would appear that if such denial of any of these took place, that it would have been not on the part of the arresting officers, but rather on the part of the desk sergeant, since it appears that the arresting officers' duty towards the prisoner stopped when they turned him over to the sergeant. 28 However, you have heard the evidence and it will be for you to determine whether or not the defendants had violated the civil rights of the plaintiff in rejecting any demand by him for a bond, an attorney or doctor. 29 It is apparent that the court below did not completely withdraw the issues presented by items 3, 4, and 5 from consideration by the jury. His action in this respect was indecisive, and, in our opinion, incomplete. As we have stated at an earlier point in this opinion, there was insufficient evidence to sustain the allegations of any of the three items referred to and the court below should not have submitted them or any of them as issues to the jury. We conclude it was prejudicial error for the trial court to have done so. 30 We cannot, of course, determine in advance what the state of the evidence will be as developed at the new trial on remand, but if upon the new trial evidence should be presented which will justify submission to the jury, justiciable issues as to whether Basista was deprived of civil rights cognizable under the Civil Rights Act because of his arrest or incarceration, as they are presented on the present record, the court should charge that Basista had an undoubted right to resist an unlawful arrest    to a reasonable degree. See United States v. Di Re, 322 U.S. 581, 594, 68 S.Ct. 222, 92 L.Ed. 210 (1948). At the trial as held, since the verdict was in favor of Basista, he took no harm from the failure of the court to charge as indicated. 31 B. As to the Granting of a Motion for Directed Verdict Pursuant to Rule 50(a). The court below in its opinion, 225 F.Supp. 619, 627-628, seems to take the position that the Civil Rights Act upon which Basista's case is bottomed is not available to him unless he first shows a deficiency or disadvantage by which he was handicapped, obstructed, or judicially prejudiced in the state court. The trial judge went on to say: None of these [factors] appear here and this federal court ought not to be used as a vehicle without good cause first being shown that it was a necessary vehicle to the complainants [sic] not used for ulterior purposes or in conflict with the principles upon which good government must rest. It was not proven in the evidence of this case that the state court failed to properly adjudicate the facts. 32 While it is conceivable that the state judicial processes deprived the plaintiff of his federally protected rights, yet to sustain an action under the Civil Rights Act, the state court proceedings must have been a nullity, or with a purpose of depriving a person of his rights. To hold otherwise, would open the door to aggrieved state litigants and set up the federal courts as the arbiter of the correctness of every state decision, citing Bottone v. Lindsley, 170 F.2d 705 (10 Cir. 1948) and Johnson v. Stone, 268 F.2d 803 (7 Cir. 1959). 33 The court below went on to say From all of the evidence presented in this case, I am not convinced that the plaintiff proved anything more than an action based on personal animosity, and not on any violation of federally protected rights. 34 The two cases cited by the trial court are inapposite. In Bottone v. Lindsley, supra, the complaint alleged that by state court proceedings the defendants had conspired to deprive the plaintiff of his property without due process of law and equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. In particular it was alleged that the state court wrongfully assumed jurisdiction of the subject matter, denied the plaintiff a jury trial, and allowed a cross-claim against him. In Johnson v. Stone, supra, the defendant in the federal case charged that counsel for the plaintiffs in a state court proceeding in the course of the trial misappropriated exhibits, introduced perjured, improper, slanderous and irrelevant testimony and made improper, irrelevant, slanderous and untrue statements. In short, both cases were civil actions brought in state courts and if they involved the violation of constitutional rights at all, the alleged violations were such as could have been corrected by further state court proceedings. 35 The court below seems to have approached this aspect of the case at bar from two positions. The first seems to be based on collateral estoppel. We have already dealt with this subject at length in this opinion under heading III, supra, and have concluded that the defense of collateral estoppel was not available to Scalese here. The second ground to which the trial judge would seem to refer is apparently based on the theory that the doctrine of exhaustion of state remedies was available as a defense to Scalese. The principle of exhaustion of state remedies is not applicable here. In McNeese v. Board of Education, 373 U.S. 668, 674, 83 S.Ct. 1433, 1437, 10 L.Ed.2d 622 (1963), a case involving deprivation of rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, Mr. Justice Douglas said: We have, however, in the present case no underlying issue of state law controlling this litigation. The right alleged is as plainly federal in origin and nature as those vindicated in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 [74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873]. Nor is the federal right in any way entangled in a skein of state law that must be untangled before the federal case can proceed. For petitioners assert that respondents have been and are depriving them of rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. It is immaterial whether respondents' conduct is legal or illegal as a matter of state law. Monroe v. Pape,    365 U.S., at 171-187, [81 S.Ct. (473), at 475-484]. Such claims are entitled to be adjudicated in the federal courts. Monroe v. Pape, supra, 365 U.S. at 183, [81 S.Ct. (473) at 481]; Gayle v. Browder, 352 U.S. 903 [77 S.Ct. 145, 1 L.Ed.2d 114], affirming 142 F.Supp. 707; Borders v. Rippy, 5 Cir., 247 F.2d 268, 271. Cf., e. g., Lane v. Wilson, 307 U.S. 268 [59 S.Ct. 872, 83 L.Ed. 1281]; Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 [64 S.Ct. 757, 88 L.Ed. 987]; Schnell v. Davis, 336 U.S. 933 [69 S.Ct. 749, 93 L.Ed. 1093], affirming 81 F.Supp. 872; Turner v. Memphis, 369 U.S. 350 [82 S.Ct. 805, 7 L.Ed.2d 762]. What was said in the McNeese case is apposite here. 36 The main basis, if not the sole ground, for the granting of Scalese's motion for a directed verdict seems to have been the conclusion of the trial judge that no cause of action was stated and proved by Basista under the Civil Rights Act. The trial judge was in error in so concluding and the granting of a directed verdict in Scalese's favor cannot be sustained.